Morca007
Matt
Through I'm a wee bit young for it to be acceptable to reminisce, I figured I would share, as I'd love to hear your photographics history as well.
All of my interest in photography comes from my father. When he was younger, he was an avid amateur photog, but when we moved to the states, it seems his darkroom gear didn't come with us. I was too young (three) at the time to realize what we had left behind.
After that, the only work he did with his camera was to take photographs for use in advertising, or magazines. Working in the extreme sports industry, he was often responsible for putting together ads, and press photos in addition to his actual job. I didn't get to see much of the process, but I can remember looking at the pages and being it just being normal, "Hey, there's a picture my dad took, I helped him choose it..."
Throughout my early childhood, we always had a lot of cameras, but they were mostly 35mm point and shoots, and I never had much to do with them.
My first real experience using a camera for anything other than documenting a birthday came in 2005, while on a family boat trip to Baja, Mexico. I picked up my father's Fuji S1 Pro, and not knowing anything about it other than it was big, and looked expensive, started taking pictures. I didn't know anything about exposure, focal length, or much else, so I shot on Program, or switched between the different programmed settings (The flower for shallow DOF, mountain for wide, etc).
I was so happy with what I got, that when we returned, I kept asking him to use the camera. I would simply go outside, and shoot whatever was around, which were mostly flowers. I progressed, but grew frustrated with the lack of interesting subjects to be found. Eventually, I ventured out of my backyard and surrounding street, and into the world. I started taking the camera down to the water, shooting the kiteboarders, and the seagulls.
Then I found street photography. It was a subtle, but massive change in how I saw photography. My first exposure was through Chris Weeks, on his DevianArt page. I had never considered doing this with a camera, and spent hours poring over his stunning images, wondering how I could achieve something like them.
The next few months were spent learning, probing, finding out what photography was really about, teaching myself to manually expose shots properly, learning what was out there. Through this, I was led towards the world of film cameras, Rangefinders, Vintage cameras... [A note; I live in a small town with only one photography place, a small place, with small developing capacity, and a very limited stock. My only resource for learning has been the internet, gleaning what I can from forums, and enthousiast websites.]
Using what I had learned, I began to take to hanging about in the Art class with the camera during my off hours at school, until the teacher demanded I join the class since I was always there anyway. I would take photographs of my peers working away, but it was not much more than a practice time, since the school has no photography program, or even books.
The next event would be just two months ago, when the S1 simply quit working. I was out to shoot some photos of my father with his new car, to show off to someone, and it simply would not work. I was heartbroken. The camera was sent off to the repair shop in Portland, who then sent it to Fuji, whom no one has heard back from yet.
In the meanwhile, I began to explore using film, rather than just looking at it. I took my fathers other camera, a Nikon N80, to school loaded with some Provia 100f. Of course, I had no idea it was slide film, and was naturally rather surprised when the lab said they had to send it away to be developed. Since then, I have gotten my mother's Nikon FG out of storage, and have been shooting a mix of cheap colour film, and B/W (ordered online, of all places). Also, beginning a bit before the untimely death of the S1, I had been avidly looking for a rangefinder, specifically a Bessa R. I had it in my head that I couldn't achieve any sort of proper street photos without one. Luckily, my nature is to sit on decisions until they become null, and have recently put the idea to rest, deciding the money (which is scarce) will be put to better use on film and processing. I bought the equipment to develop my own negatives, and will hopefully get my father to show me how soon enough. In the meantime, I just picked up the latest addition to the family, a Holga 120N. I received the first developed roll of 120 HP5+ from the lab yesterday, and am in love with it. As soon as I find a place to scan them, I will be set. The giant 6x6 negs are a pleasure to look at, I don't even need to squint! Gordon, the guy who owns the lab, has just lent me an old Kodak Brownie to fool around with, as "there aren't many other young people interested in those old cameras these days, we have to do whatever we can to keep you around!"
Here's to hoping I'm still slicking away years from now.
All of my interest in photography comes from my father. When he was younger, he was an avid amateur photog, but when we moved to the states, it seems his darkroom gear didn't come with us. I was too young (three) at the time to realize what we had left behind.
After that, the only work he did with his camera was to take photographs for use in advertising, or magazines. Working in the extreme sports industry, he was often responsible for putting together ads, and press photos in addition to his actual job. I didn't get to see much of the process, but I can remember looking at the pages and being it just being normal, "Hey, there's a picture my dad took, I helped him choose it..."
Throughout my early childhood, we always had a lot of cameras, but they were mostly 35mm point and shoots, and I never had much to do with them.
My first real experience using a camera for anything other than documenting a birthday came in 2005, while on a family boat trip to Baja, Mexico. I picked up my father's Fuji S1 Pro, and not knowing anything about it other than it was big, and looked expensive, started taking pictures. I didn't know anything about exposure, focal length, or much else, so I shot on Program, or switched between the different programmed settings (The flower for shallow DOF, mountain for wide, etc).
I was so happy with what I got, that when we returned, I kept asking him to use the camera. I would simply go outside, and shoot whatever was around, which were mostly flowers. I progressed, but grew frustrated with the lack of interesting subjects to be found. Eventually, I ventured out of my backyard and surrounding street, and into the world. I started taking the camera down to the water, shooting the kiteboarders, and the seagulls.
Then I found street photography. It was a subtle, but massive change in how I saw photography. My first exposure was through Chris Weeks, on his DevianArt page. I had never considered doing this with a camera, and spent hours poring over his stunning images, wondering how I could achieve something like them.
The next few months were spent learning, probing, finding out what photography was really about, teaching myself to manually expose shots properly, learning what was out there. Through this, I was led towards the world of film cameras, Rangefinders, Vintage cameras... [A note; I live in a small town with only one photography place, a small place, with small developing capacity, and a very limited stock. My only resource for learning has been the internet, gleaning what I can from forums, and enthousiast websites.]
Using what I had learned, I began to take to hanging about in the Art class with the camera during my off hours at school, until the teacher demanded I join the class since I was always there anyway. I would take photographs of my peers working away, but it was not much more than a practice time, since the school has no photography program, or even books.
The next event would be just two months ago, when the S1 simply quit working. I was out to shoot some photos of my father with his new car, to show off to someone, and it simply would not work. I was heartbroken. The camera was sent off to the repair shop in Portland, who then sent it to Fuji, whom no one has heard back from yet.
In the meanwhile, I began to explore using film, rather than just looking at it. I took my fathers other camera, a Nikon N80, to school loaded with some Provia 100f. Of course, I had no idea it was slide film, and was naturally rather surprised when the lab said they had to send it away to be developed. Since then, I have gotten my mother's Nikon FG out of storage, and have been shooting a mix of cheap colour film, and B/W (ordered online, of all places). Also, beginning a bit before the untimely death of the S1, I had been avidly looking for a rangefinder, specifically a Bessa R. I had it in my head that I couldn't achieve any sort of proper street photos without one. Luckily, my nature is to sit on decisions until they become null, and have recently put the idea to rest, deciding the money (which is scarce) will be put to better use on film and processing. I bought the equipment to develop my own negatives, and will hopefully get my father to show me how soon enough. In the meantime, I just picked up the latest addition to the family, a Holga 120N. I received the first developed roll of 120 HP5+ from the lab yesterday, and am in love with it. As soon as I find a place to scan them, I will be set. The giant 6x6 negs are a pleasure to look at, I don't even need to squint! Gordon, the guy who owns the lab, has just lent me an old Kodak Brownie to fool around with, as "there aren't many other young people interested in those old cameras these days, we have to do whatever we can to keep you around!"
Here's to hoping I'm still slicking away years from now.
