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

[sepiareverb]

8?? That young! Wow you impress me, guys.

I feel like I was very lucky (and very cursed) to have found what I wanted to do so young- something happened when I looked through that vf in 1970 that I knew was right for me.

 

[deadsexy]

ok, i'll make up my own story then. Funny though.....

good idea. i guess everybody has to

 

[mpt600]

I was about 11 or 12, which would make it 1979 or 80. Got a Halina (if memory serves) 110, which I thought was great because of its motorized film advance. When I was 13 I got my first slr, a Fujica STX-1, which is where the fun really started. Sold it to a mate who fifteen years later became my Best Man. Wish I still had it though...

 

[MelanieC]

Sounds like dad has had a big influence on a lot of us here.....

The only reason I started "doing photography" was because I picked up my dad's cameras. I started taking photos last year.

 

[dmr]

At the tender age of 8 I was given a Hawkeye Brownie (tale told elsewhere here) and I've been shooting ever since.

I think I was 8, maybe 9 (those years are really one big blur) when they gave me a Brownie Starflash (RED model {blow on fingernails, wipe on blouse}) and I immediately thought I was the Inquiring Photographer or something.

That got me started. I soon learned to think independently and disobey every "rule" of photography that my dad insisted I follow.

 

[Joerg]

Just started High School. I bought a Vivitar SLR, really a Pentax K1000, and started immediately in B&W to be artsy........oh well.

Ciao

joerg

 

[St.Ephen]

When my Dad passed away I got his Contax RTS and fell in love with photography. That was about 18 years ago & I was in my early 40's. I really got serious about 7 years ago.

I started taking photography seriously around 11 or 12. My folks got me a Cosina C1 or CS1 or something. I'd been using a Kodak Instamatic before that. They soon realised i was better than my old man, so i had his Canon T70, then an AE1, before getting an RTS. That had a beautiful piece of glass, 50mm f1.4. Wished i'd never traded it for a Nikon F3.

 

[nikon_sam]

In 1975 I was 15 and took a Summer school Photo class...started with Kodak Instamatic 126 cameras and then moved up to Minolta 101 or 102's (School's cameras not mine).
May of 1976 my dad bought me a Vivitar 400 SL camera kit...I still have that camera.

 

[colyn]

My granddad gave me a Leica IIIa when I was 6 and I'm still shooting 47 years later. Had my first darkroom within a year of getting that camera.

 

[dostacos]

60s I started shooting, and got an enlarger for my birthday.

my best friend and I spent many a long evening in my bathroom printing B&W we NEVER saved chemicals, we used 'em all up

 

[pvdhaar]

Started when I was 15. Spent the money from a summertime job on a Zenit-E..

 

[landsknechte]

I can't remember off-hand if it was my first or second quarter in college (which would make me 18 or 19 at the time). I had started school as a graphic design major, and fell in love with photography when I took my first class as an elective.

 

[payasam]

I was lucky to have good people teach me, first darkroom work and then the taking of pictures, when I was still under 10. By age 12 I had exclusive possession of the family Rolleicord, and soon a Canonet had been acquired.

 

[Bike Tourist]

At age 22.

The army transported me by rolling and pitching troop ship to Bremerhaven. After getting off the ship, and while going by train to Augsburg, some PFC in personnel asked me if I'd like to be in the Public Information Office. I said "yes" since it would not be the infantry.

When I arrived in Augsburg the sergeant said he was due to go back to the US in three days and had only limited time to teach me all he knew about photography.

It proved to be too much time. I ended up learning from Modern and Pop Photography.

 

[ddunn]

Got a Brownie Hawkeye when I was 8, then a Spartus Press when about 12. Got serious when I joined the yearbook photography staff at 14. 3 1/4 X 4 1/4 Speed Graphic using Press 5 and Press 40 flashbulbs and Super XX film. For personal work, was given a Kodak Pony 135 and bought a Yashica 2 1/4. Then a Canon II with a Nikkor 50 mm f 3.5. Then traded the Canon II body for a Leica 111a body (+$25), then...

 

[Steve Bellayr]

10 years old with a kodak instamatic.

 

[Xmas]

13 plastic lens Kodak 127 Brownie kit present, saved for user Periflex gold star at 15, user Nikon F black for 21st present, no one told me the early blacks were like hens teeth.

Noel

 

[Ken Ford]

At either age 7 or 8, when I found a ratty Speed Graphic and extra film holders at a garage sale for $2. The guys at the local camera store took pity on me and developed my film and reloaded the holders with expired stock for however much I had in my pocket at the time. They did get me moved over to a rollfilm back pretty quickly, though.

I still have blurry 4x5 negs of trains around here somewhere - I was a source of constant amusement to the crews. The Graphic was almost as big as I was!

 

[Sisyphus]

I was 12 when I started to photograph. My mom was a young, single parent, we were on welfare, while she was going to school and working fulltime. She some how received a scholarship for me to go to a private school during the summer. Needless to say, I did not want to go. The counselor stated they had a photography class, and I said I did not have a camera, so that would be pointless. My mom then promissed me that if I went to summer school for her, she would buy me a camera so I can take the photography class. It was the only promise she ever kept, and this was the one thing that kept me out of trouble all throughout my youth.

The camera was an olympus OM-1 with a 50mm lens. I eventually sold it, along with the oter lenses I acquired for RF.

Those were the days . . .

 

[thefsb]

the poll doesn't have a button for my response: i haven't started yet.