Let’s see some of the earliest photos you’ve made —

Daytona Beach Florida , Boot Hill Saloon, I think 1973. I sold everything photographic including a good darkroom in the mid-80's after determining that first 12 years of serious photography had developed good technical skills but almost no meaning photographs. I also threw away 12 years of negatives, contact sheets, and prints. I do not regret that decision.

This singular remaining record of my early photo history is this scan of a print that was hanging on my sister's wall.

Boot-Hill-Saloon Bike Week 1973.jpg
 
So in 1998, my Praktica BMS gave up the ghost and my parents agreed that my involvement with not just a passing phase. They agreed to fund my next camera - the Canon EOS-5 - which i bought it a few days before going on holidays to Santorini. These are the pictures from the first slide i run through the camera. July 1998.

fira-church.jpg

karekles-Fira.jpg

8olos-Fira.jpg
 
57 Chevy 150.jpg
OK, you want old?
How's this for you. My old '57 Chevy 150 in front of the house I grew up in. I might have made this photo with a Kodac Retina, but I honestly don't remember. This was probably taken prior to 1972 when I bought my '68 BMW 1600 shortly before going to school in San Diego.
 
p.giannakis said:
So in 1998, my Praktica BMS gave up the ghost and my parents agreed that my involvement with not just a passing phase. They agreed to fund my next camera - the Canon EOS-5 - which i bought it a few days before going on holidays to Santorini. These are the pictures from the first slide i run through the camera. July 1998.

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Beautiful images.

There are some really fine images being posted.
 
GMOG said:
From an aged copy of my high school's newspaper published October 24th, 1988, during my senior year. "Being able to cruise isn't all there is to it; You've also got to look sharp.", LOL! :cool:

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- Greg -
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I shot for my high school paper too, the West Wind and then shot for the University of Tn Daily Beacon. We were a 5 day a weep paper and generally 10 pages but on occasion ran over 24. I wound up as chief photographer and had a staff of 7 photographers. We were all students but almost every one of us wound up doing it as a profession. Too all of us that did it as a profession were very successful.
 
AlwaysOnAuto said:
View attachment 4820953
OK, you want old?
How's this for you. My old '57 Chevy 150 in front of the house I grew up in. I might have made this photo with a Kodac Retina, but I honestly don't remember. This was probably taken prior to 1972 when I bought my '68 BMW 1600 shortly before going to school in San Diego.
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My dad bought a new Chevy in 1955. Great car and I used to ride to school with my neighbor who had a 57. I think the 57 is the sharpest looking of the classic Chevys, no question.
 
x-ray said:
I shot for my high school paper too, the West Wind and then shot for the University of Tn Daily Beacon. We were a 5 day a weep paper and generally 10 pages but on occasion ran over 24. I wound up as chief photographer and had a staff of 7 photographers. We were all students but almost every one of us wound up doing it as a profession. Too all of us that did it as a profession were very successful.
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Wow! That was quite the college school paper you shot for. In both high school and college I was the only photographer on staff. In college there was another guy on campus who did some work but he wasn't on staff, at least not until I stopped shooting for the paper.

Here are a couple from college days (I have all of those negatives):

Tethered Capture-174.jpg Tethered Capture-197.jpg

- Greg -
 
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GMOG said:
Wow! That was quite the college school paper you shot for. In both high school and college I was the only photographer on staff. In college there was another guy on campus who did some work but he wasn't on staff, at least not until I stopped shooting for the paper.

Here are a couple from college days (I have all of those negatives):

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- Greg -
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Nice images and smart to keep your negs. I kept a lot of mine as well and glad I did. We were paid $5 per image published which mounted up pretty quick. It doesn’t sound like much but in 1968 it was pretty good money. That’s just over $43 per image in todays dollars.

Here’s a photo I shot after our homecoming game. Alcohol wasn’t allowed on campus, sure it wasn’t, and the dean of students accused me of fabricating the photo to embarrass the university and they were going to expel me. The governor had seen the photo and was upset about what image it would portray of the university.

After ever home game the university hauled off a large dump truck full of beer cans and whiskey bottles. It wasn’t hard to prove and I won the battle.

Nothing like Inverhoyse and cracker jacks 🤪
 

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x-ray said:
I shot for my high school paper too, the West Wind and then shot for the University of Tn Daily Beacon. We were a 5 day a weep paper and generally 10 pages but on occasion ran over 24. I wound up as chief photographer and had a staff of 7 photographers. We were all students but almost every one of us wound up doing it as a profession. Too all of us that did it as a profession were very successful.
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Nice! Sounds like we had parallel paths. I worked as a photographer for the LSU Gumbo, our college yearbook, eventually becoming head photographer and photographic editor. I believe Steven Soderbergh, the acclaimed film director, was at our school's newspaper at about the same time or shortly thereafter, but I didn't know him. It was a terrific way to spend time documenting campus life and activities -- on the sidelines taking photos at every football game and other sporting event, free tickets for two to every concert with backstage access.

They paid us the same amount you got, $5, per photo used. But our school used to send everyone's film out to a local commercial lab for b&w contact sheets and prints. I got our faculty advisor to pay me to do my own. 'Was making more money then than at my first real photo job after graduation.

I'd encourage it for every young aspiring photographer.
 
A few more early pictures

Kids still respected cops in 1975 (Kodachrome 25, Zeiss Icarex 35S, CZ 50mmk f1.8 Ultron)


busted by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr

Same camera, Kodak EIR around 1978


curve by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr

Same camera. May be the Vivitar 135mm lens. Students practicing a performance, San Marcos High (not my HS, but I took my dad's photo course here), summer !976

drama by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr
 
How did I get interested in chemical engineering? Maybe the chemical plant across the street influenced me. It did some weird stuff to the vegetation (or maybe it was the Kodak EIR?).


Chemical Plant by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr

framing junk...


junk and utility by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr


I started working at a one-hour photo, so more C-41

Wild Horses by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr
 
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