Tell us your story

[robert blu]

This is an excellent thread with many interesting stories about some of us and our common passion, thanks madNbad for starting it and thanks to all RFF friends who shared their stories. Now it's time for my contribution.

Photography has already been around in my family.

My Dad was a passionate amateur photographer. When I was 6, it was the time of the first year of school this is why I know the year (1954) we lived in Genova and I remember sometimes we drove our small Fiat car to Milan, around 150 km to a shop where my father could buy the chemicals necessary to develop and print photos in our bathroom, which was temporarily set up as dark room. Including the need for all the family to synchronize physiological needs with developing and fixing times LOL.

As a child it was for me something magical when my Dad showed me the process, and to see the print appearing in the bath. I know it is still a magical experience for many around here.

In that way I got the bug... not many years later Santa brought me my first camera, a Ferrania Eura a metal and plastic 120 camera with only two apertures (sunny and cloudy) and a shutter speed around 1/30 sec. In that time my father was shooting a Rolleiflex (I now use it sometimes) and in this way it was possible to develop both film together I think.

But I was too much interested in photography and a few year later, I guess I was 12 or 13 for my birthday I received a Zeiss Ikon 6x6 . Unfortunately both cameras have been lost in the various relocations, but because I'm nostalgic a few years ago I found a similar camera and bought it, honestly my wife knew I wanted it and it was her present for my birthday, again many decades later! With this camera I learned to use aperture, shutter speed and evaluate distances .

This was the beginning...there is much more I could tell but I don't want to bother you too much... perhaps next time!

 

[JeffS7444]

My dad had his own ulterior motives for encouraging me to take up photography as more than casual and occasional snapshots. Meanwhile, by my early 20s, I discovered that I wasn't too bad at the Buy/Trade/Sell game and could acquire pretty much whatever photo equipment I wanted.

By my 30s, I was also spending a lot of long nights in the darkroom. While I gained a certain proficiency at making black and white fiber prints, I began to feel that in order to really master black-and-white fiber print making would be a full-time occupation all by itself. And frankly, I didn't want to spend all my spare time in the darkroom.

I had been dabbling with digital imaging since the 1980s, but in 2005, I got ahold of a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1, and digital quickly became my primary medium.

But who knew I'd be shooting some film again in 2021! But my attitude is more relaxed versus the old days: Grainier films and cheaper cameras are okay, because what's the fun in simply duplicating my digital efforts? 2021's film cameras of choice are more Zorki than Zeiss, more Lomo than Leica. I'm doing a little bit of film processing again, won't rule out trying cyanotype, digital contact prints or some other alternative process. But for me, the fun isn't in returning to the old ways so much as seeing what film has to offer me in the 21st century.

 

[Archiver]

My grandfather was quite an avid photographer, owning a Pentax Spotmatic that he took with him most places. Many times in the 80s at family gatherings, we would suddenly see a new album of photos, fresh from a one hour photo shop, taken of all of us the day before. My grandfather bought all of his children a camera, and each of them have one child who is into photography - from Dad, that child was me.

Granddad bought my father a Minolta Hi-Matic 7SII, and later, a Minolta SR-T Super, the latter of which I now own. Dad taught me the basics of photography when I was about 10, showing me how to hold a camera, adjust focus until the image in the viewfinder lined up, how to be still while the shutter fired. I was given a couple of 110 cassette film cameras, and later a Kodak disc camera, but apart from a few sets of images, I have barely any photographic record of my teens and early adulthood, which I deeply regret.

In my late 20s, Dad gave me a Canon S45 digital camera, and the world changed. Suddenly, I was able to take photos of things and not have to bother with development, I could experiment with angles and shutter speeds, and document my life like never before. Since then, I've amassed numerous cameras, and eventually photography and video became my work.

A few years ago, I found one of my old 110 cassette cameras and found an undeveloped cassette still inside. When developed, they showed grainy photos of our old house in the 80s and my best friend from that time. I barely remember taking those photos. And in the 2000s, I began using Dad's Minolta and Pentax cameras, and right now am using those lovely old Rokkors on my new Panasonic S5.

 

[Canyongazer]

A nice story well told.
Thanks, Archiver.

 

[seany65]

My "Story", as dull as it is and not necassarliy correctly remembered, is basically this:

For some unknown reason, in the early mid 70's an uncle gave us about 3 or four cameras. I'm fairly sure one was a Diana and aonther one wa a big (to me) folder which I was more interested in when it was folded flat and on its back as it reminded me of a world war one tank. I don't remember the others. I think they quickly ended up in the bin after we got bored.

I then got a polaroid Land camera that could only take mono film. I used one film in that as I could never get the next tab to come out after removing the pic I'd just taken, so I had to keep opening up and feeding the next tab through the slot.

I then got a kodak instamatic 177x, partly 'cos we were allowed to choose £25 worth of stuff from a mail-order catalogue, and I also wanted a digital watch and for some reason a digital alrm clock, so that limited the camera I could have, and partly there were other cameras which I couldn't understand how they could be aimed (I had no concept of an slr). If only I'd only wanted a camera and had some idea of what I wanted perhaps I would've used the camera for more than a bout 3 films.

Some years later I got a little telescope and on looking through it, I decided I wanted to do more than look-I wnated to take photos. I started to look at what was available in the catalogues but I could never afford any of the slrs so that plan never went anywhere.

I then satarted to develop an interest in "normal" photography, and went through the entire gamut of the different types of slrs that I wanted. Starting off with avoiding cameras with names I didn't like! lol. Then it was Multi-mode "is where it's at", then shutter priority, then manual. I don't think I ever particularly wanted an aperture priority camera.

Over the years I've had dozens of cameras, among which have been: 3 zorki 4ks, 2 fed 2's, 2 fed 4's, 2 yashicamat 124g's, 2 nikon fm2's, 2 nikon f301's, a mamiya m645 something, a bronica etrsi, various ensign selfixes, a couple of weltas, 2 minolta 110 slr mk II's and others.

So far, I have produced almost nothing of interest apart from a couple of "if these bits were different, and that bit was like this, and this bit was like that, this pic could be not quite as bad as it is".

 

[DC1030]

My father usede to hunt me with his Rollei 35 and tried to teach me photography from the scratch.. everything at once .. depth of field, shutter speeds, f-stops. Aged 14 I found it too much to learn and had no interest. That arose on a family vacation when I - 16 years old - was bored to death and asked my dad for a camera, automatic, no further explanation please. He gave me the most automatic one he had, a Canon EF and I started, after that I learned taking photos, developing and enlarging simultaneously. For half a year I could not say what went wrong: exposing, developing or enlarging. After a steep learning curve I got the first accepable results - one factor was the recommendment of a local press photographer to takte Tri x and develop in HC 110 and forget about all other ****. Now I am still doing this combination with my different the older the better cameras.

 

[skucera]

Both my parents enjoyed photography, but for different reasons. My dad worked in a camera store when I was little, so he had quite a few cameras when I was a baby and he had a darkroom in the basement too. My mom had a Kodak Instamatic that took 126 film, and I always thought that she got better pictures than my dad because the exposures were larger than Dad's 35mm slides, and the automatic exposure system worked better than my dad with his hand-held light meter and manual control.

As a teenager, I used to borrow my mom's camera, and she realized that I might enjoy my own camera. I started with a hand-me-down 110 camera of some sort, and when she asked me if I'd like a nicer camera, we went to the local camera store to see if there were any inexpensive cameras that she could afford to get me. I learned that I am a serious gadget fiend... I fell for the Pentax Auto 110, a tiny SLR that could fit in my pocket. It was on sale too, so I ended up with that for Christmas. That was more than 40 years ago.

I am still a gadget fiend, and I have a varied collection of gadgety cameras now, too many to use them all to their potential. 😀

Scott

 

[Richard G]

I moved countries when I was 5 in 1965 and the photographs of the life we left behind made me really notice the power of family photographs at that time. At 12 I was allowed to use my mother's Zeiss Ikon Contina. This has a 45mm Prontor shutter f3.5 lens. It now needs a service. The EV value was read from a match needle built-in meter and the aperture and shutter speed settings locked together on the lens barrel like with a Hasselblad lens.

At 17 my father offered to get me a Leica. I went to the shop and I could have a CL with a 40 and 90 or an M2 and Summilux 50. I was never going to pass up the classic M and I still have it.

A trip to Italy without a camera in 1986 was the first big step up in my photography. (My new M4 and Summilux had been stolen). I lasted two days without a camera and in Florence I bought an M4-2 and 50 Summicron. I was seeing photographs before raising the camera to my eye in a way that I had never done before. I think it was the light and the architecture and the people.

In 2008 I bought a roll of Velvia to put in my M6 on the family holiday. Broken ribs had me sleepless and up early for my morning walk by the ocean and the pain improved my concentration. I did not want to get 36 utterly indifferent slides from that expensive roll of film. So I just tried so much harder with framing and composition and not shooting what would not make a worthwhile photograph. I got three or four keepers from that walk.

And within a year I looked across from pnet to RFF. Amongst so much learnt here there was a thread on taking a camera with you every day. I took to that. Another step up.

And then I joined a most marvellous photographic group, the opposite of a camera club. We've had some exhibitions. I've even sold one or two photographs.

There's more but I've covered the nub of it.

 

[steveyork]

My grandmother travelled the world in the 50-70's with a DS M3 and 50mm Summicron. My brother inherited it and sold it (big dummy!) to fund an SLR outfit. I got into photography in the 1980's with a Minolta X700. Then I travelled with an AF Nikon SLR and big zooms -- they cost a lot back then. In the late-90's I wanted to simplify, so I purchased, brand new, straight from one of the big NY stores, a Contax G and it arrived on my doorstep, completely and utterly, dead. Dead as dead could be. Sparked my desire to get away from electronics, and remembering my grandmother's M3, I got an M6. For the most part I was happy with the decision, but it was a start of a big journey in trying a bunch of stuff -- different M's, mechanical SLR's, Nikon/Zeiss rangefinders, MF -- you name, I tried it. I even got away from rangefinders for 5-6 years, but through experience, and getting more skilled, I settled on a couple M2's and the 35mm focal length. Never went digital. Still have some SLR's floating around the house for rainy days and backups, and pre-war Zeiss for a change pace, but an M2 and 35mm lens is pretty much all I need. Long journey, frustrating at times, but I guess we all take take that type of journey.

 

[robert blu]

...

A trip to Italy without a camera in 1986 was the first big step up in my photography. (My new M4 and Summilux had been stolen). I lasted two days without a camera and in Florence I bought an M4-2 and 50 Summicron. I was seeing photographs before raising the camera to my eye in a way that I had never done before. I think it was the light and the architecture and the people...

Nice to know the country where I live helped your journey into photography 🙂