why did you start taking photos?
Discussion
john185k said:
Personally, for me it was to de-stress from my day job.
Same here! Got fed up of things, and decided to get a hobby. On a complete impulse while walking home I stopped into Jessops and came out with a very light wallet and a heavy bag 
.Edited by rasputin on Tuesday 31st May 11:03
I bought a Sony Camcorder (PC-100 I think?) around the turn of the millennium. It could also take 1 megapixel stills. I found myself using the stills more than the video and started shooting records of car shows. I then bought a 2 megapixel still camera which I used for a while but soon became frustrated that it couldn't do everything that I wanted to. The release of the 300D allowed me to jump into the world of DLSRs take up a City and Guilds evening course and really get stuck into photography. So the reason I started was to make a record of cars and events and then share them, which is still true today But like you guys it gives me a creative release i don't really get in the day job.
But like you guys it gives me a creative release i don't really get in the day job. Elderly said:
My father gave me this in the early sixties (I still have it) and so I just started taking photos .......
Similar for me, but in the late 70s.My dad and his brother built a darkroom in our garage (huge fun rolling you own 35mm B&W, developing and printing), then dad gave me a basic fully manual 35mm compact, separate range finder and light metering boxes. Eventually moved onto a Chinon CM3 ....
Got totally out of photography for years, then picked up a Canon IXUS L1 that got me back into composition.
Then gave up for a while due to marriage.
And got back into it (again) a few years back, picked up a Sony A200 .... and did my first wedding last year. Nervous wreck at the end of it, and the bride & groom were deliriously happy with the results.
Got a 35mm praktica (can't remember the model) when I was at high school. We had a darkroom, and I used to love spending time playing around in there, ahh the smell .
Photography was the ONLY subject I enjoyed at school, should have maybe stuck in...
Anyhow, fairly recently began to be able to afford this addiction that I now have. As for macro in particular, it's all Lord V's fault
In fact, this week I will be getting another Praktica (and a couple of lenses) from a friend who no longer has a need for it. Just need a darkroom now
Photography was the ONLY subject I enjoyed at school, should have maybe stuck in...Anyhow, fairly recently began to be able to afford this addiction that I now have. As for macro in particular, it's all Lord V's fault
In fact, this week I will be getting another Praktica (and a couple of lenses) from a friend who no longer has a need for it. Just need a darkroom now
This started me reminiscing.
First bought a second hand 35mm Zenit around 1985. Although I don't think I got more than a couple of decent shots being totally manual, if I remember correctly.
I got the bug because it was a challenge, and wanted to take photos like the Pros.
Very soon after, bought a new Canon AE1-P. Took some very nice photos of the Power Boat Racing at Bristol Docks, experimenting with shutter speeds, tracking the boats.
Totally forgot about photography for many years until digital started.
Bought a very expensive P&S, 1.3 Meg Pix at about £500, then the 300D, but forgot everything I'd learnt from the 35mm days. I thought the camera could do everything for you.
But, the turning point was the 500D, when I decided to learn about photography.
It was all about relaxing and taking my mind off the stress from work.
Now I really have the bug. It's taken alot of time and alot of money to get to the point where I'm just starting to spend money for what I consider are the right reasons.
I have so much stuff on my wish list, and want to take photos of the quality that many of the PHs lot show here.
First bought a second hand 35mm Zenit around 1985. Although I don't think I got more than a couple of decent shots being totally manual, if I remember correctly.
I got the bug because it was a challenge, and wanted to take photos like the Pros.
Very soon after, bought a new Canon AE1-P. Took some very nice photos of the Power Boat Racing at Bristol Docks, experimenting with shutter speeds, tracking the boats.
Totally forgot about photography for many years until digital started.
Bought a very expensive P&S, 1.3 Meg Pix at about £500, then the 300D, but forgot everything I'd learnt from the 35mm days. I thought the camera could do everything for you.
But, the turning point was the 500D, when I decided to learn about photography.
It was all about relaxing and taking my mind off the stress from work.
Now I really have the bug. It's taken alot of time and alot of money to get to the point where I'm just starting to spend money for what I consider are the right reasons.
I have so much stuff on my wish list, and want to take photos of the quality that many of the PHs lot show here.
Edited by Lobster43 on Tuesday 31st May 23:30
My father was a keen amateur, mostly BW and doing his own developing, striving for the perfect landscape, entering competitions, playing with chemical tints etc. I didn't have my own camera until about 18; I used his TLR and SLR. Hence I just grew up in a photographic environment.
I remember suggesting to him once that if colour photography had by chance been discovered before monochrome, then 'black and white' would be seen as a special effect... and today it is...
I remember suggesting to him once that if colour photography had by chance been discovered before monochrome, then 'black and white' would be seen as a special effect... and today it is...
Simpo Two said:
My father was a keen amateur, mostly BW and doing his own developing, striving for the perfect landscape, entering competitions, playing with chemical tints etc. I didn't have my own camera until about 18; I used his TLR and SLR. Hence I just grew up in a photographic environment.
Almost identical to me, my Dad used to shoot road and stage rallies (he was also a very competitive club driver) and was also the chairman of the local camera club for years. I grew up using his Practika SLR, Yashica TLR and a wonderful little Voigtländer Vito (I suspect a IIa, alas the camera is long gone). Many years later I finally got around to buying my on camera.I was bought a Kodak Instamatic as a child in the '70's and progressed through Russian 35mm Zenith SLR's, Olympus OM10, OM2n [have a suitcase full of memories - slides and negs/prints in the loft I'd love to scan] and an XA2 the latter two and zuiko lenses I still have.
Had a flirtation with video.
Got into digital borrowing a company camera at weekends and subsequently bought a Nikon Coolpix 885 and eventually a D50 replaced with a D80, replaced with a D300 that died and replaced with a D300s, D700 and bought my way through Sigma lenses into 'don't tell the wife about how much they cost' Nikon ones.
One suitcase and 1TB of photo's and I'm still learning.
Fantastic hobby!
ETA during a strike in the late 70's at Lucas us apprentices could pick where we worked so I chose the photo lab and spent my time doing studio and developing work for technical presentations. Also had a day out with the photographers shooting the new TR7 at MIRA, North Wales and central London. Besotted by the TR7 and eventually bought one - another money pit!!
Had a flirtation with video.
Got into digital borrowing a company camera at weekends and subsequently bought a Nikon Coolpix 885 and eventually a D50 replaced with a D80, replaced with a D300 that died and replaced with a D300s, D700 and bought my way through Sigma lenses into 'don't tell the wife about how much they cost' Nikon ones.
One suitcase and 1TB of photo's and I'm still learning.
Fantastic hobby!
ETA during a strike in the late 70's at Lucas us apprentices could pick where we worked so I chose the photo lab and spent my time doing studio and developing work for technical presentations. Also had a day out with the photographers shooting the new TR7 at MIRA, North Wales and central London. Besotted by the TR7 and eventually bought one - another money pit!!
Edited by ian in lancs on Wednesday 1st June 07:20
Lobster43 said:
This started me reminiscing.
First bought a second hand 35mm Zenit around 1985.
Very soon after, bought a new Canon AE1-P.
I'd totally forgotten about the Zenit! Had a Zenit TTL (iirc) prior to the Chinon. Cracking camera to get started.First bought a second hand 35mm Zenit around 1985.
Very soon after, bought a new Canon AE1-P.
Dad had an AE-1 and an AV-1, and I remember lusting after the A1, even more so after having had a play with one.
clonmult said:
I'd totally forgotten about the Zenit! Had a Zenit TTL (iirc) prior to the Chinon. Cracking camera to get started.
The Zenit was the (slightly left-wing) Creative Arts student's weapon of choice in the 80s... after all a bourgeois Canon A1 wouldn't go with that ex-East German Army shirt now would it?!I suppose I've 'started' photography three times: first in the early 70's when I got a Zenit E (followed later by a Zenit TTL, Ricoh KR10 and Pentax A1). I then went through fallow period after making the mistake of selling all my kit and getting an APS camera - it was a bit rubbish, so I stopped taking photos for a few years. Second start was around 2003, when I got an Olympus digital (can't remember the model number), which was quickly followed by a D70, then a D200. The third start came after my redundancy two years ago, when I decided that a change was in order, and embarked on a Foundation Degree course in Contemporary Photography. Of the three starts, the last one has had the most profound impact on my photography - I wouldn't have missed these two years for the world.
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