At what age did you start taking pictures on a regular basis?

At what age did you start taking pictures on a regular basis?

  • 0-4

    Votes: 4 0.8%
  • 5-9

    Votes: 40 8.3%
  • 10-14

    Votes: 134 27.9%
  • 15-19

    Votes: 123 25.6%
  • 20-24

    Votes: 80 16.6%
  • 25-29

    Votes: 45 9.4%
  • 30-34

    Votes: 21 4.4%
  • 35039

    Votes: 12 2.5%
  • 40-44

    Votes: 10 2.1%
  • 45-49

    Votes: 8 1.7%
  • 50-54

    Votes: 3 0.6%
  • 55+

    Votes: 1 0.2%

  • Total voters
    481
I started taking pictures regularly when I was 16.
As a Christmas gift, my parents gave me a brand new Fujica STX1 with 50mm and a Flashlight;during my summer holidays in Hastings (East Sussex, UK) I started burning 3M colour picture film and Kodak 64 ASA/Agfa 50 ASA slide films.
It was a wonderful camera, but unfortunately died few years ago.
The slides are still great with fascinating colour after 25 years!
 
35 :( with the fed3b I bought here.
You guys who are documenting your youth with excellent pictures, keep shooting, you will treasure it. There are maybe 5 pictures of me in my teens and 20's.
 
I started at about 17 with various digital POS cameras, then bought the Nikon FE. Three or so years ago I bought a Canonet that changed my life.
 
Wow, I'm surprised the poll is showing a younger start than I'd expect. I was 22, and in the Air Force stationed in Turkey. My mother had told me firmly that I was to get a camera and take picutures to send home. I did, but it was only months later that a photo hobbyist in the same building got me interested in learning more about it, and that was the start of my hobby interest.

I set aside the Brownie Super 27 I'd gotten on my mother's urging, and got a "good" 35mm, a scale-focus King/Regula. And that took me out on foot expeditions around the countryside and made the whole experience richer.
 
I used to pick up my Dad's OM 1 when he had it out on Holidays or Family events as a child. He got me a Minolta (something) when I was sixteen and I loved it though he didn't. I understand why now.
When he died a couple of years later and I picked up the OM 1, I used just it for 10 years or so until I could afford lenses, other cameras, a darkroom etc. The minolta is in box somewhere with dodgy electrics. Seems I was exposed from about 5, if you'll pardon the pun

I think Dad's have a lot to do with this alright
 
My dad certainly got me started. I was given a Yashica RF for my 10th birthday. I still treasure that camera.
 
my first camera was a compact camera..i think it was a konica, it was near 14 i think.., but i don't use it so much...
Then at 17 I has another compact, a olympus, I used so much for take some shots to some landscapes and graffitis.
At 18 i took my father's Yashica Fx3 with two lens..an start my photographic journey!!
later i Have:
EOS 300
EOS 5
Zorki s
Bronica zenza
rolleicord

And a few months ago..a friend, Branki(rff member), talk me about rangfinder cameras..I bought a Bessa R! It was the discovery of a new world!!I always dreamed about take photos with a light camera in low light situations...EUREKA!!
the rangefinder cameras fight against my other hobbies...
And now is coming a Leitz CL!
 
I got an Agfamtic 50 (126 cartridge) on my 6th birthday.. parents were both professional photographers..lucky me.
At 11 got permission to use a Yashica 124 Mat-G (120 film) just for myself, at 14 got the Nikon F passion and starded on the weeding familly business and on the studio with the Hassy's... Then revolution came and was all about street photography... until today!
 
I was about 7 when I managed to pursuade my parents to buy some 120 film for an old box camera that my aunt gave me. At 11 I went to senior school and we had a darkroom, so I no longer had to spend all my pocket money on D&P - also got an Agfa Sillette for my birthday. It has all been downhill from there :D
 
I started shooting an old fixed lens, 120-film camera around 8 or 9. I remember being very excited going to the drug store to pick up the B&W prints. I was never very satisfied then with the resukts, and still dislike it when anyone processes and prints my film to this day. That's one reason I really like Digital - it's so much easier to do it all yourself. On the other hand, I still love to shoot film but only have it developed and scanned these days. All the rest I do myself.

There was a long hiatus of off and on years after 9 when I shot sometimes more, sometimes less. Since my late '30s, I would say I have been a regular shooter. These days ( 60 years old now) I shoot every day and consider the day a loss if I don't get some shots in. I always carry a camera, and I don't mean my cell phone!

/T
 
I started to take photos around the time I turned 20, after I got my first digital camera, a Fuji MX-1200 point and shoot. Within a few months after that, I moved from the SF Bay Area to Europe, which was a positive shock. Since the environment was so new, I documented everything and everyone for my folks back home. My friends liked my candids and soon got used to me taking photos. It turned out to be great practice, and the rest is history :D
 
I was 17 (back in 2003) when I bought a used Nikon Coolpix 4500 (digital). Fortunately I wasn't very pleased with the results I got - speaking of highlights, strange auto-focussing and functionality - everything just seemed unnatural for me. Then I found an old Praktica L2 in our cellar, I simply liked how everything was adjustable and for the first time I got a feeling for exposure-guessing, dof, composition and everything :) ... Afterwards I bought a used Nikon EM and some darkroom gear - which in fact was my first introduction in b&w photography.

Then I went pro (haha :p) and bought a used Nikon FA. Followed by the first rangefinder impressions with a Yashica GSN. My latest acquisitions are a Bessa R3A and a Olympus XA, which I just got today.

Unfortunately I wasn't very lucky with the used gear I bought, except for the Bessa R3A, which was in perfect condition. Both the Yashica GSN and the Nikon FA had some metering issues and there was also a problem with the AF of the Nikon Coolpix 4500. The XA seems fine, but I have to wait until I have some time to shot and the develop the first rolls :)

I will forever love my old Praktica L2 for teaching me how to photograph, although it had a real dirty finder without a split-image rangefinder. Without this camera I'd probably just take pictures with a fancy digital P&S today.
 
Last edited:
pesphoto said:
ok, DeadSexy gets the avatar award.......whats the story...
haha thanks, but unfortunately the story behind it is that I typed "m" into the google image search in a moment of pure boredom and THIS appeared on the first page. sorry :/
 
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