How did you learn photography?

My Grandmother gave me a cheap plastic 127 camera when I was a wee lad in the early '70's, and I toyed around with 110 cameras after that. I good friend loaned me a Pentax K-1000 one summer while I was in college, and taught me the basics of the Sunny 16 rule.

From there I ended up studying photography in school. I learned a lot there, but ended up learning even more through books, magazines and experimentation. I still have a lot to learn, though.
 
While my father was a professional photographer at Wallinger Studio in Chicago for many years, sadly, I can't say that I learned anything about photography from him, his gear was home often, while he was home rarely. I didn't even own a camera until I picked up a Yashica TL-Electro X at a garage sale in 1993, at the age of 33. I learned how to use it mostly by trial and error and by reading a couple of books, and discovered that I had somewhat of a knack for taking nice candid photos, and soon became the semi-official photographer for family gatherings on my wife's side.

I used the Yashica until 2000, when the light seals became so gummed up that the camera became unusable, so I put it away in the closet, bought a series of digital cameras, which were all eventually stolen in a series of home burglaries, so out of frustration I gave up photography altogether.

Fast forward to April of this year. With the big "5-Oh" on the rapidly approaching horizon, I was becoming restless and bored, and longing for new frontiers to conquer. As luck would have it, the Mrs. and I went "garage sailing" one nice spring morning, where I came upon a nice looking black Yashica FX-D for sale for $2.00. Having such fond memories of my other old Yashica, I bought it, brought it home, logged onto the internet, and started doing some research on vintage cameras and photography. I managed to resurrect the old Electro-X, I have posted a couple of the first photos I have taken with it since its rebirth in the "Evil SLR" subforum of this board.

Inspired by the wealth of information available on this and several other forums and websites, I feel inspired to start seeing the world through the lens again, and this time, doing it right. I want to take more chances, teach myself to see the beauty in things that most others consider mundane or even ugly, and use the camera lens to bring that simple beauty to light.

Most unexpectedly, I have discovered that this journey has awakened a desire in myself to understand better the late father that I never really knew well while he was alive, and the most exciting news since the onset of my current, rampaging GAS attack is that I will soon be belatedly inheriting (24 years after his death) one of his cameras, a vintage Agfa Isolette II. Now if my little brother would just part with Dad's Nikon F that I'm sure he has moldering in a drawer somewhere ... and who has the Rolleiflex?
 
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I first started in photography in HS with a course. The photo teacher went to the different classes and did a little presentation of the photos the students were printing. Those photos looked really cool and got my interest. I then took a course in college (mostly for the lab access). I now learn mostly through the internet...so much to read and obsess about, its great!

I find that I enjoy the "theroy" and mechanics of photography rather than the actual "picture taking". I.E. - I like loading, winding film, clicking the shutter, selecting aperatures, developing film, enlarging and printing film, even mounting the photos. I am not so good at actually choosing an interesting subject, or taking good/interesting photos, but I have enough fun with the rest of the process =P
 
I was taught by my Uncle George who had a photo studio in Cupar, Fife, Scotland.
this was in the 50's I used Adox R17 film developed in Rodinal in my Purma Plus 127 camera, which I got as a reward for passing my 11+ exams to enter senior school.
I still use Rodinal. Boots the chainstore chemists were the distributors for Adox film.
I also used Woolworths Standard brand film, when pocket money was short.
I still have the camera 50+ years later.
Purma3.jpg
 
I got a camera as a HS graduation present. Took a photo class in college and was very lucky in assisting two excellent photographers. And, I read (and still do) anything I could find on photography and art, that was of interest. p.
 
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Roger Hicks said:
800 feet of outdated FP2 and a Pentax SV, starting when I was 16.

My father bought me the camera and an enlarger because his father had been a keen amateur photographer, killed on HMS Gloucester off Crete during WW2.

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...
Roger; A bit OT here, but being a yank, I know Gloucester from "King Lear"; who was the ship named for?
p.
 
I picked up a camera and started shooting. Plus, I looked at loads of pictures online and learned a few things about composition in art class.
The thing about this question is that when you ask how we learned photography, you're sort of implying that the learning process is in the past. I'm speaking for myself here, but I think in fifty years of shooting a couple miles of film every year, I'll still be learning. I assume many of you feel the same way.
 
Growing up I always had a camera. I still have the kodak X-15F I got around 10 years old. I took TONS of pics as a child. I remember my mother and grandmother telling me to "put that camera away!"

I got some long forgotten scale focus 35mm and had a pile of assorted P+Ss in 110 and 35. Eventually, around 1982ish I got my first "real" camera; an Olympus OM1n which I still have. I then tried to learn how to really take pictures by taking pictures, reading and learing how to see. Years have passed with a trip into digital then a trip back to film. Now I am both film and digital and honestly; I have no clue what I am doing or why I am doing it. I get a kick out of taking pictures. Every roll is a learning experience and I see it going on for a long time.

I read a lot on line and in books but the biggest learing tool for me has been to read, think, do, review, modify, repete.
 
I formed a sudden and inexplicable interest in photography at around age 12, in the early 70's (I was always an artistic kid). I shot all the cameras around the house, and started begging/saving for an SLR. Meanwhile I read every book I could get from the Library (I think I read the whole Time/Life Photography series), and I bugged every adult I met that had a "good" camera with questions, etc.

I finally got an SLR (a Miranda Sensorex) with money I'd saved, and some kick-in from the family, Christmas of my 8th grade year.

Photography has been an on and off habit/hobby since then.
 
Working for a Construction firm building a sewerage treatment works near London in the 1990's I was stuck in a place called Slough for 5 years.... rather than sit at the bar all night every night I decided to do nigh classes in the local college but had no idea what I wanted to do. Got the course prospectus, flicked the pages with my eyes shut and dabbed my finger in. it came up "City and Guilds photography part 1" so thats what I did.

Being poor by anyones standards I could not afford the sort s of camera the other course delegates had, some had amazing medium format Pentax, blad and mamiya kit... I went out and bought a Lubitel 166U and a box brownie. I was ridiculed somewhat but managed to get by ok, and to be honest the brownie 6 x 9 landscape shots were nice (if I do say so myself) and the 166U shots were pretty sharp (but vignetting at anything bigger than F8).

For 35mm I was using a really beat up old Pentax ME super as well as a FED4. My peers were using the latest Nikon, Pentax and Olympus gear, more ridicule came my way but I got through it ok.

Most of my shots were using illford XP2 or whatever 120 film I could scrounge. I developed some at college and some using an old soviet developer I found ina car boot sale.

I did 3 years in college doing photography using the sewerage treatment works and area surrounding Slough as my photo shoot area. I have very few of these pics left due to unforseen circumstanses.

Since then I managed to get my hands on a digi SLR setup, a cheap but useable Pentax K100D bgut as its auto everything I have become rather manual rusty so to speak.

I have not been doing a lot of film photography for a few years now, but with an up and comming house move I am looking forward to renewing my interest.

Currently putting film through a Cosmic Symbol (kodak 400 asa colour) and Zenit 12XP (Illford XP2) cameras and looking forward to the results. particularly as the film in both cases is about 4 years out of date.
 
I learned photography by reading along with trial and error. No one other than my aunt is photographically minded in my family. Without that sort of help , books magazines, a good bit of info I've read here and shooting meterless has taught me what works.
Rogers website has also been particularly helpful.
I started shooting in my late teens with an hp 3mp camera, which eventually died and got replaced by a Fuji D p&s, then a canon rebel xt followed by a 20D , then came rangefinders a whole slew of them. I learned the most shooting with my RF's and have come to feel they are the tool for me, I don't really like using SLR's nearly as much ( not that they are worse or better, I'm just no longer comfortable with them)

I don't think I've learned photography and I am still learning , no one should stop learning as I feel there will always be some sort of challenge that requires an inquisitive mind.
 
my grandfather and his Voiglaender Vito taught me the basics of photography when I was VERY young. Funnily enough Rob, his first lesson was 'before you do anything else, always put the camera strap around your neck and don't drop the camera' - v.useful advice through the years. He painstakingly took me through shutter speeds/f. stops, estimating distance, dof, or as he would say 'Tiefenshaerfe', exposure, composition, basic film chemistry & c. When I think back on it it seems like an entire photo course, which looks alarming for a kid: but I used to spend my whole 6 weeks school vacations on holiday with my grand parents in Germany, so this was all spread out in the form of conversations on photo walks in the Alps. When I think back on it is amazing how much of this stuff fascinated me and stuck. Moral? Get the kids interested early... that is if you want the 'sprogs' to cherish and use your kit when you're gone, rather than selling your old 'tut' off to the first bidder...
 
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I learned the basics in the Press Club in college but after I graduated I enlisted in the USMC and they sent me to Naval Photo School in Norfolk.
 
My Grandfather who I lived with gave me his beloved little Konica C35 at the age of 13, I found there was an after school photography club at my newly joined local school and within a week I was enjoying the sheer magic of life inside the darkroom and watching pictures appear on paper before my very eyes. An experience that has never left me, what magic!

Within 18 months I had converted my bedroom to a part time darkroom and saved 18 months worth of bus fare by walking to school and back and thus being able to buy my first ever SLR, a wonderful Canon EF which was a backup body a Pro friend of the family was selling.

That was over 30 years ago now - though learning carries on forever, anybody who thinks otherwise is just kidding themselves. :)
 
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I first learnt the technicalities in film school, where we did a few subjects in black and white photography. Whereas i got a handle on exposure, DOF etc and even majored in cinematography, the art of photography really escaped me at the time when i looked back on it. After getting tired of lugging around a SLR on holidays with several lenses and girlfriends who resented the lack of attention, my old camera gathered dust.

10 years later, after working in fairly technical roles in film post production, suddenly the creative urge has arisen and the passion for photography has ignited in a major way. I still don't feel im very good, definitely still learning, but i feel this time around i've got a much improved attitude, patience and maturity to make a good go at it. No ambitions to do it professionally at this stage, I already know all too well how work can suck the passion out of you if you don't have the creative control to 'own' your work.. just for my personal enjoyment is enough for me right now.

Now if only i had a little more time to actually shoot...
 
The Road Goes on Forever

The Road Goes on Forever

My father was a photographer, we always had a darkroom at home. My first experience at 8 years was with the old man's home made enlarger which was a Speed Graphic 2 1/4 X 3 1/4 mated to hand ground condenser lenses. This later became my first real camera after time with a Brownie.

I became the photographer for the HS school newspaper and annual. My old man kept me abreast with the latest tricks, and I studied photography as part of an art major under Jim Sahlstrand in college. I bought Leica #1 then which I still own.

Ended up teaching photography at a JC, got real arty and quit the JC and have been arty ever since. Got hooked on computers, Photoshop 2, and scanners from the get as well as the very first Apple digital cameras. I've left dark rooms behind, Praise God!!!!

I still have digital cameras, but I'm reborn with the old and I am only interested in older gear now. I shoot film 3 to 1 over digital. It's no contest. Film scanned is still best for me for the arty work I do.
 
How I started to learn about photography? Well I took one class that lasted 6 weeks and then just started to read as much on photography as I could and as often as I could. After that it’s just a whole lot of experimenting. I still have a long way to go but I have been improving little by little.
 
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