How did you guys get started...

[Roger Hicks]

My paternal grandfather was a keen amateur photographer. He was killed in the Mediterranean during WW2 when HMS Gloucester was sunk off Crete, long before I was born.

In 1966 in Bermuda, when I needed a camera for a VIth form biology project (which I never completed) my father bought me a second-hand (two year old) Pentax SV and outfitted a darkroom for me 'because if you're serious, you have to develop and print your own pictures'. He remembered his own father.

I first worked professionally (as an assistant in an advertising studio) in 1974 or so. My first book on photography was published in the early-to-mid 80s. My A History of the 35mm Still Camera (Focal Press) and Motorcycle Touring in Europe (Collins) both date from 1984/85.

Cheers,

R.

 

[tbarker13]

1984. Bought a Pentax K1000 and joined the yearbook class in high school.
Started working in the darkroom there and fell in love.
That love carried me to rangefinders about 5 years later when I was interning at a daily newspaper. One of the staff photogs came in one day with an M4-P around his neck. I'd never seen anything like it.
By the end of that summer, I had my first M3.

 

[VictorM.]

How about the milkman? 😉

My father was the milkman!

 

[jmg1911]

Life Magazine. In 1947 or so (at age 13) I took over the family Kodak folder and started out to be a Life photographer. I even managed a Rube Goldberg flash sync for it. All my paper route money went for a CiroFlex - Rollei was out of the question. Then Life faded before I graduated college and I lost focus. Too bad, too. I coulda been a contender!

 

[Chris101]

I had been playing with cameras and negatives since I was a smaller child, but on my 12th birthday, my parents gave me a new Instamatic 104 camera. I was hooked as soon as I saw the first set of Kodachrome slides I got back.

 

[Livesteamer]

In 1966 I was ten years old and my brothers had put together a simple darkroom in the basement. When I saw a print develop in the tray I was hooked. I did several rolls a day thru college for yearbook and others, have shot color for years after and now look to build a darkroom again. Wet darkrooms are magic. Joe

 

[aparat]

My uncle bought me a Smena 8M when I was seven years old. Another uncle of mine (a coal miner) had a basic BW developing and printing kit that he would set up in his bathroom. I used to go spend a few weeks with him in the summer, just to be able to play in his darkroom. In the 1970s in Poland, BW photography was growing in popularity as a hobby, though it was prohibitively expensive and made very difficult by the scarcity of basic ingredients and equipment on the market. I was only able to buy my first SLR when I was in college and working part-time. It was a Kiev with a Nikon mount (can't remember the model) and a 50mm lens. By the way, I recently bought a brand-new Smena 8M, which came with packaging and instructions in Polish! It must have been aimed at the Polish market, but never made it - I bought it from a seller in Russia. I added a Blik rangefinder to it and enjoy using it tremendously. Just like in the old days.

 

[Vics]

I bought a book when I was 21 by Roddy MacDowell (the actor) called Double Exposure, in which he had one celebrity write something about another, which he had photographed. I was instantly hooked on black & white environmental portraiture! My Dad was a good amateur photog and helped me get started. My own family were my first subjects, and at 64 I'm still just as hooked. My Kids bought me my M3 for my sixtieth and now I'm really hooked.
VS

 

[jky]

...seems like a common theme of parents or loved ones that had either a camera or a darkroom....
Oh and a milkman 😉

Stories like these have always interested me as I'm assuming that photography is a passion for most, if not all, the people here.
And for a few here it seems there's some sentimental attachment to either the process or the equipment used....
...I would never sell my F3...
I don't know if I would ever love photography the way I do if it weren't for my father giving me that camera.

 

[sienarot]

My intro into photography was a bit of an odd route: a combination between a telescope and lightning.

I've always had an interest in astronomy and finally got one, circa 2003. I saw some really amazing things and had to show people at work, and stuck my old 3.4 megapixel point and shoot on the eyepiece and fired. It wasn't the best way to get some of the photos, but I was fortunate that the camera had some manual controls (more than many current P&S now even) so I got to figure out how to get better results by thumbing through different shutter speeds, apertures, and ISO.

That same year, we were having a long string of lightning storms and I wanted to photograph some of them. The tough thing about photographing lightning with that camera during the day wasn't so much the fast shutter speeds I needed (to avoid overexposure), but the lousy buffering. I had just gotten hired for an internship position, so I decided to reward myself by getting a new camera. I was going to get the latest 8mp Nikon Coolpix 8700 but after some research, the buffering wasn't that much better than my old Nikon Coolpix 880.

... but for $100 more, I could get the Canon Digital Rebel... Hmm... Well, why not? I'll never need anymore more than the kit lens...

Famous last words.

Funny thing is, since getting that Digital Rebel, I've yet to do very much astrophotography or lightning!

 

[FallisPhoto]

... in photography... and more specifically in the genre that you enjoy the most.
Just wondering. ...

I was taking fine art classes (drawing) and one of the models let me photograph her. I found out how endlessly frustrating it was to photograph nudes, took it as a challenge and tried again, and again, and again. I finally got pretty good at it. Meanwhile I discovered the traditional darkroom (there was no such thing as photoshop then) and I worked like a dog to learn what all I could do in there. The rest is history.

 

[bucks11]

Can't really say I'm as experienced as most here, but I remember always playing with a K1000 when I was smaller...I really didn't know anything about it, probably wasted more film than was usable, but that's where it started for me...

 

[john_s]

I wanted pictures of my girlfriend. Borrowed Dad's Praktika (35mm with WLF) and f2.8/50mm Tessar. My first roll (Agfa 50ASA slide film) without a meter is as good as I've ever done (I own 12 cameras and 6 meters now).

 

[Pompiere]

When I was nine, my step-dad had a Retina and a bag full of gadgets, so I saved up my allowence to buy an Instamatic from Sears. When I was about 14, my real dad gave me a Vito II that he never really figured out. When I graduated from high school, my mom got me a Minolta SRT 200. I didn't buy anything else until just a few years ago, when I discovered old rangefinders.

 

[Spider67]

All the cheap P&S I got were broke or miraculously produced no results at all. When a Beirette (from GDR) decided to give me just 5 pix of a three weeks stay in the UK that was the ultimate frustration. Luckily my brother lent me his Zenith EM and some month later I got a Nikon FG. When this camera sabotaged a tour in Venice I bought an FM with my first self earned money.
My father generously supported my habit when I became curious of FSU's and other old cameras with bellows
Then I lost interest as I was doing radio work and stand up comedy....until a Friend o mine forced a Retina I upon me and when I tested it and started all over again to shoot away

 

[tritiated]

Great question!

My answer is a bit more boring than everyone elses I feel.

I took a few pictures for art A level, but was way more into painting and drawing, the photos were mainly for reference. I took a load of pictures of my friends jumping off our school buildings (early parcourt I like to think, looking back!), aswell as a load of JMW Turner inspired pictures of isolated figures in interesting weather conditions.

Then after six years of ignoring photography, my brother bought me a Lomo Fisheye. That led me on to cameras again, and a consuming interest in taking pictures. Voila!

 

[rbsinto]

Bought a "real" camera (Nikon FE with 50 1.8) in 1977 right after the birth of our first child so i could take family snapshots. Basically shot print film on Aperture Priority for a short while, until a professional photographer I met at work took an hour and explained all the camera controls. I was hooked, read a ton of books and magazines, took courses and asked every pro I met a million questions. Spent the last thirty-odd years trying to get better.

 

[sepiareverb]

My grandfather gave me a Brownie when we moved out west with the Army when I was in 2nd grade. I have fond memories of dropping my 620 Tri-X off at the PX for processing.

I was in college and studying illustration when I really caught the bug- too many photos made as notes/reference for illustrations, figured I'd just eliminate that step. Turns out getting a job as a photographer's assistant after college was much easier than finding a job as an illustrator's assistant.

 

[Al Patterson]

I got an Instamatic 104 in the '60s, and also used my dad's Argus C3 when I was a kid. In 1981 or so, I upgraded to a Canon AE-1. About 10 years ago I started doing the eBay thing, and I upgraded to A-1s, and started acquiring rangefinders.

Mostly I shoot old steam railroads, but I want to add some travel stuff. I'd like to travel what's left of Route 66, for example.

 

[mooge]

I have an infinite curiosity and a fascination with mechanical devices... I wanted to borrow a mechanical camera, so I could understand the whole process, or something. so I did, and a good friend of ours had a bunch of stuff he said he could lend me. so I got a big bag 'o goodies- Canon F-1, 50, 28, 24, and 100mm lenses, polarizer, tripod... even some film. and he said he doesn't use it anymore...
a year later, I'm still using that stuff. and I got some more 'stuff' too- pretty much everything for developing B&W, I needed to get some developer only.
so I'm pretty lucky compared to you guys, I guess, but this stuff is 'archaic' now. the guy who lent me his film stuff even encouraged me to go digital... never! (okay, maybe.)

cheers.