Tell us your story

[madNbad]

Fifty years ago, I borrowed my brothers Canon FTb with a 55 1.2 lens and spent a week running around like a seventeen year old photojournalist pretending I had just stepped out of "Blow Up!" My father, unbeknownst to me at the time, had spent time as an actual photographer, with amongst other cameras, a Burke and James 2 1/4x3 1/4. At this time he was into amature radio but retained enough knowledge to look at his youngest son and call him an idiot. Basically, he said if you want to be an actual photographer, you need t know how to do the work. The Canon when back to my brother and I was handed a Brownie Hawkeye with a roll of 620 Plus-X. My father said my job was to bring back twelve different pictures. Duplicates of the same subject were not allowed. I did this every week for the next six weeks and learned a lot in that time. When I entered high school, I found my way on to the yearbook as a student photographer. Needing a camera that was my own, I went to work at a local gas station after school and on weekends. Eventually, I had enough for a Minolta SRt 101 with a 55 1.7 Rokkor lens. This served me well until after watching the pros with their Nikons, I got the itch for one of those. Fifty years later, I'm sitting here with the M4 I wanted since I was a teenager and a perfectly fine Sony A7II that works great but has no sex appeal. I'm curious about the many other stories out there, we all have them.

 

[johnf04]

When I was a kid, I used my mother's Kodak Duaflex, and then later I bought an Agfa Isomat Rapid. I acquired chemicals and a developing tank, and started processing my own films from the Agfa - I used to buy 36 exposure rolls of monochrome, and reload rapid cassettes - 3 for each roll. A few years later I gave my girlfriend the Agfa, and bought a Zenit 3m. This was later traded for a Praktica LLC, which was my only camera for 25 years...then the camera collecting bug bit, and now I have a cupboard full of 35mm cameras, tempting me to burn some film. I use digital for colour.

 

[lynnb]

My father let me use the Box Brownie 620 which was our family camera until he eventually bought a Yashica Lynx 1000. After exposing a roll of Verichrome Pan he gave me brief instructions on how to load a developing reel, put me into the wardrobe amongst the hanging clothes and closed the door. I had to stay in there until I'd successfully loaded the reel and put it into the tank. It took quite a few attempts and quite some time before I got out of that wardrobe.

The Brownies were great learner cameras. It took me another 40yrs to get my first Leica, a user IIIc.

 

[Doug]

I joined the US Air Force in 1962, and after some schooling had a job in weather that involved working rotating shifts. My first post was to an airbase near Izmir Turkey, so before leaving, my mother insisted I get a camera and use it. I got a Brownie Super 27 but it took me a while to use it. I made a friend in the same building who enjoyed photography and he encouraged me to move on, and soon I had a 35mm German leaf-shutter RF camera.

The shift work qualified me to have a 24/7 Pass to come and go off base. On days off I'd often take the AF bus into town and walk around snapping this and that. Occasionally I'd walk the 18 miles and take the bus back, or vice versa, getting off the main routes. I moved on to a Petriflex V SLR and continued, shooting some B&W as my friend showed me we could use the base photo lab after hours. We'd use the chemicals in the trays at whatever temperature and develop by inspection. Dirt, scratches, but it worked.

On the way back stateside I took an extra day in Istanbul, and guided by a hotel bellhop, toured the sights. I also took 10 days leave in Paris, using the Petri every day.

Back in the USA, my new home was Ellsworth AFB Rapid City South Dakota, a nice community where I got a part-time off-duty job at the only camera shop. There I had the opportunity to try a lot of different gear, very educational, and moved to using a Pentax H3v. As I moved back to Seattle in 1966 I also got a Beseler 23C enlarger and set it up in a closet in my studio apartment on Capitol Hill.

I had an itch for a Leica and bought a used M2 from a shop downtown for $150 and a new 8-element Summicron 35mm for $164.50, a kit I still have.

A few years later I dived into medium format with a Pentax 6x7 non-MLU kit from a pro exiting the business, this joined by another later 6x7 kit from a guy who had planned a career in African Safari photography but landed a wife and house and kid instead! Ah, dreams...

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

^ Doug, how you condensed such a great story into so few words is a mystery to me. Well done on the writing and well done on a great life worth living.

All the best,
Mike

 

[Larry Cloetta]

Charming stories, closet darkrooms, Box Brownies and Petris and Isomat Rapids and leaf shutter rangefinders and Pentax 6x7’s and Barnacks. Enlargers in studio apartments, jobs in camera stores.
Here’s Randi’s story (Randi was born 2000 A.D.) “My first camera was a hand me down iphone 5. Later, I got an iphone 7. We used to take pictures of ourselves and our food and instagram them, as many as we could. Later, I got a real camera, a Sony A7 iii, then a Sony 6300, then a Nex 5N, then a Fuji something. Maybe I had the Fuji first, I don’t remember as they were all kind if the same though the grips were a little different. None of them had wifi though, so most of the time now I just use my iphone 12S. It has 3 lenses.”

I know I am always old man yells at clouds, and this is a bit that, but seriously, what’s Randi going to have to fondly recall? Burst mode? And by the way, “What’s a camera store?”

 

[madNbad]

Larry, we all know that sometimes those clouds need to be chagrined.

 

[jsrockit]

In 1990, I graduated high school and was going to go to college for Art. I was only ok at drawing and even worse at painting and had no other experience in art than that. I was a horrible student academically, but I knew I needed to go to college to get a job that I wanted to do (non manual labor). Art was the only thing I liked in high school, so... Anyway, for graduation I used my graduation $ to buy a K1000 and zoom. Why? because my friend had a Minolta X700 and I thought the camera was so damn cool as an object. Note I didn't say I wanted to make photos hahaha. So, I got my K1000 and started photographing.... and I realized I knew how to make ok photos right away. This led to me going to Art school with photography as my focus and it gave me something in the arts that worked for me. From there, I've owned hundreds of cameras, made tons of photos and the journey continues... and I love it more now than ever. By the way, I sold that zoom and bought a 50mm very quickly after learning about film speed, aperture and shutter speeds.

 

[neal3k]

In 1960, with newspaper route money, I bought a Sears Tower 57A rangefinder 35 and started my photography passion including home developing. In 1967, I was gifted an Exakta VX from my father-in-law who didn’t use it anymore. In Vietnam, 1969, it was time to purchase a modern SLR, a Miranda Sensorex and then, before a trip to Egypt in 1979, I bought an Olympus OM-1 for my wife. I liked it so much it became my prime camera until the digital age. During my digital years, I shot my new antique store 4X5 Graphic a bit in 2007 and got back into shooting film somewhat regularly about 2014 with first a 4X5 pinhole and then 35mm and 120 pinhole cameras but with digital for the rest. My Fuji X100s oddly led me to my Fuji G690 in 2017 and then my G617. I started enjoying film so much, I started using my Olympus again and then quickly started full-time film camera shooting with Nikon S3, Canon Demi half-frame, and then more and more until 2020 when I went wild collecting and trying different cameras and films. I’m continuing today and am settling down to mostly Barnack Leicas and their imitations.

 

[charjohncarter]

I bought a IIIf in 1964 which I used exclusively from '64 to '69 then I got a Pentax Spotmatic. So just occasional use of the IIIf after that. I still have both cameras and now use them along with the MF cameras I've obtained over the years.

When I bought the IIIf I found someplace a Leica Meter 3 (shoe mount that worked great, but died) I still have it, if a collector wants it they can have it.

 

[Miles.]

I purchased a Canon SL1 (DSLR) ahead of a 6-month trip to South America in 2013, using almost exclusively a Sigma 30mm prime. It was a fine tool but I hated it's size and ergonomics. Sold it almost immediately after coming home.

Went camera-less until 2017 when I purchased a Canon QL17 GIII as my first film camera (I'm on the younger end here on RFF). Didn't understand at the time of purchase what a rangefinder was but found focusing much more instinctual. After listening to a Garry Winogrand lecture on RF vs. SLR it all clicked and I knew then I could never go back.

Shot the QL17 almost daily for a year, traveled to the American south, Mexico, and Cuba with it, and then ponied up and bought a DS M3 with a DR Summicron that solidified the obsession forever.

Have learned to develop and scan in the ensuing years and expect to keep shooting digital and film, in concert, for as long as they sell it.

 

[Dogman]

It was in the early 1970s and I was visiting a friend and former college roommate. He had borrowed a Pentax Spotmatic to do photos for sketching. He showed me the sketches he made and the B&W drugstore prints he had used. I thought the sketches were good but the photos blew me away. I fell in love with B&W photography that day. Prior to this I had only seen B&W photos done with cheap box cameras. Within a few weeks I had purchased a Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL 35mm camera with a 50/2 lens. I used that for a while and then sold it and bought a used Nikon FTn with a 50/1.4 lens. I bought a couple of extra lenses and then I found a second Nikon F (plain prism) for $75 and couldn't pass it up. Soon thereafter, I bought tanks and reels, an enlarger, timer, trays and siphon and I set up a bathroom darkroom. I played at and worked at it for a couple of years, quit my day job, got hired by a weekly newspaper to shoot pictures and write stories (and starve doing it) and finally was hired by a city daily newspaper as a general assignments photographer. I did that for a little over 15 years but realized there was no future for newspapers so I quit to take a job in public service having nothing to do with photography. This gave me the time to actually do the types of photography I enjoy. Now I'm retired and I spend almost all my time involved in photography.

How's that for condensing almost a half-century into one paragraph? Good times/bad times, rough times/sweet times. It's been a great ride and a long, strange trip.

 

[Greg Maslak]

For me, it was my mum who got me going as an amateur photographer with a Pentax Spotmatic. I've shared some of the photos I digitally restored that she made with a Brownie as a teenager on a trip to NYC.
Growing up in London, Ontario during the heyday of the ELC, I longed for one of the Leicas sold at Lyndon's Camera, a premier Leica dealer back in those days but happily set down my saving on a Nikkormat Ft2. That camera was lost at sea, somewhere over the side of an Aegean party boat by my silly brother. Now, the cameras I use most of the time are a Pentax SV, a Nikkormat Ftn and a Leica M4-2. Call me sentimental (and a bit of Leica heretic}.

 

[zuiko85]

Always liked lenses, like grandma’s hand magnifier. I would hold it up and see how it made a image on something when held just right. From there at maybe 10 begged mom to get me a Kodak Brownie Bullet. Would use my whole allowance to buy a roll of B&W and then need to save to get the film developed and printed.
My first good camera was a Minolta HiMatic 9 purchased at Marshall Field & Co. December of 1969, I was 20 then and had a regular job.

Edit; Got this far and realized how boring it all was.

 

[Doug]

Fun stories, all! Let's see some more...

^ Doug, how you condensed such a great story into so few words is a mystery to me. Well done on the writing and well done on a great life worth living.

All the best,
Mike

Thank you Mike! In between the sparse lines lie adventurous details 🙂
I have thought you would have a story of your own... ?

 

[madNbad]

I want to thank the respondents to this thread. Whether it was someone or something that lead to the desire to delve deeper into the combination of art, science and technology that is photography. It has been the one constant in my life for many years and every day I learn something new.

 

[Pál_K]

My family wasn’t very photography-oriented other than making photos of family members. So there are dozens of photos I have of mostly unknown people in Budapest. My father was more adventurous and, in the US now, he’d make photos of road trips in the southwest and in California.

For some reason, as a very little kid I became interested in television cameras and then ciné cameras - obviously far beyond my reach. So instead I always enjoyed making photos of everything on B&W 127 film with a little Brownie. I did save money for six months to buy an 8mm ciné camera in 1964 and made many Kodachrome II films with it. That is what taught me about shutter speed and aperture. I still have those films today and they still look great!

In my 20’s, thanks to Popular Photography and Modern Photography, I lusted after a 35mm SLR. The Minolta advertisements with the SRT-101 and sexy 58/1.2 Rokkor were the Holy Grail. I couldn’t afford that, so rather than get the less attractive sister SRT-100 which would always remind me of what I couldn’t get, I bought a Pentax SP-500 with 55/2 Super Takumar instead. This single camera-lens combination I used exclusively for the next 15 years. I still have it and use it.

As my income grew (engineering), I bought a few more cameras: Nikon F3/T (thanks to Jason Schneider’s advice), and a Leica M3, to name a few. New autofocus cameras didn’t interest me at all, so I didn’t follow any of the photographic developments that occurred between 1987 and about 1994. In 1994 I became interested in medium format and got my first Hasselblad.

Thanks to digital photography, I was able to buy all sorts of great film cameras and lenses at very low prices. I would go to photo shows and swap meets all the time.

These days I’ve got essentially everything I could ever want (including the SRT-101with 58/1.2), from 8x11 Minox to 4x5”. My only real regret is that I discovered pack film way too late.

 

[raydm6]

My Dad who was a semi-pro wedding/portrait photographer in his younger days bought me a Polaroid 420 camera in the early 70's. Shot with that for awhile then picked up a Kodak Junior Six-16 Series III for $4 at yard sale. Shot 620 film with that for awhile in the 70's. Then purchased a used Miranda Sensorex shortly after that; and that was my start in 35mm photography.

 

[Canyongazer]

Sent to Germany for three years by the Air Force, I felt obligated to get camera.
One Voigtlander Vitorette and a three year subscription to Modern Photography later and I was hooked.
Separated from the Air Force and attended Brooks Institute of Photography.
After a few years doing commercial assignments and getting an M.A. in photography I commenced a 30 year career teaching photography in a college and, later, a university.
Been retired for 15 years now.

REALLY itching to get back to shooting after this &%$#^covid! Heading to southern Utah in October!

 

[Rayt]

I was 10 years old and bought a plastic (Brownie?) camera with a huge silvery round thing on top for flash bulbs and took 127 film. I spent all my money on film and flash bulbs. I found some film processing envelopes in a magazine so I used mail order for that. What’s the name of that mail order lab? It was that big one. I remember the excitement when my photos arrived in the mail. How many pictures can I take of the dog? Hmmm. Lots. Finally I had to budget more and more for comic books, model rocketry and Twinkies. Priorities man.