Why are we doing all this?

[ErnestoJL]

I was thinking why some people do something, and some time later, find other people with same interests.

As a first thought, I can imagine people of more or less the same age as mine and with some other things in common.
The question is: Are there other things in common between Us, other than loving cameras and related issues?

For example:
I´m 52 y.o, working currently in electronics, love photography and old mechanical cameras (since I was 12), I do my own camera repairs (when needed), I do my own printing, I love music, and enjoy seeing/photagraphing trains, planes, ships, and many other things that bring me pleasure. Most important: I do not make my living out of photography.

My interest is to know which is the motivation behind Us, it is which are our reasons to collect cameras, repair them, use them, and why that special kind of cameras. I´m not a psychologist, just curious!!

Best regards to all!!!

 

[back alley]

ernesto,

i'm 54, so age is close.
i love music, soft & loud sometimes, classical to some of the 'newer' stuff, mostly singer-songwriter.
i write poetry and have been published locally and have the odd reading at a coffee house.
i find writing very hard and it's like work.
i also love photography and just walking around with a camera. i enjoy this forum because it is normally a haven for me, a place where others are also interested in old cameras without meters and old lenses that just feel so good in the hand.
the past few days here have left me a bit tired and disillusioned, but just a bit.
i find photography easy because i don't give it much thought, i just do it.
if i do it well or not is open for discussion, i would imagine.
for work, i deal with people who have had a rough go of it. for the past 5 years i have specialized working with women who have left abusive relationships. it is starting to take it's toll.
i love playing with my canons, i even like taking digital pics of them.
if i could do only one thing in life, at this point in time, i would wander aimlessly with a bag full of gear and make photographs.
thanks for asking.
joe

 

[eric]

My interest is to know which is the motivation behind Us, it is which are our reasons to collect cameras, repair them, use them, and why that special kind of cameras. I´m not a psychologist, just curious!!

Best regards to all!!!

It keeps me out of trouble. It keeps me from buying bicycle parts.

 

[tetrisattack]

You folks make me feel very young and naive. 🙂

I'm 22. I've been shooting for 2-3 years. About to quit my "career" doing IT for a big school district and head back to school to finish my final 2 years, and get on with my life.

Even with all the work I've done around computers and technology, I've never found a subject deeper, more interesting, or more loaded with esoterica than b&w photography. I've been pursuing it like a maniac, so now I develop and wet-print in my tiny metro apartment. It kills me that I'm just getting into this during what's probably the tail-end of an era, something many of you folks have been enjoying your entire lives.

I've been amazed at my own progress over the past couple of years. I've shown talent in other areas, especially creative writing, but I've never been able to crank out so much energy so consistently as I have with photography. I picked up a camera and kind of misplaced my pen. So I think I've found my subject for now.

I guess, really, all I want to do is change the world. 😉

 

[Honu-Hugger]

Mostly because my Dad took a lot of time and patience teaching me what he knew while I was young...because he was generous in allowing me to use his cameras and darkroom, and while going through adolescence when it was so easy to disagree we always found common ground with photography. He has defected to the "other side" now (digital) and I'm glad for him because I think it is healthy for other people to keep an open mind to new ideas 🙂D) while I remain stubbornly mired in the "golden age."

Through my Dad I learned to appreciate the subtle differences in cameras and lenses...for me it is both a blessing and a curse. I spent quite a few years with modern cameras and lenses -- I really tried to warm up to the latest Leica R, Contax, and Nikon cameras and lenses but in the end I just could not stand the plastic and the cheap feel -- I went back to what I like. I especially like to use cameras that were handbuilt and in very low numbers...just one of my eccentricities but I feel a connection to the builder when I do, perhaps I have a greater respect for the tool. Same thing with cameras that Henry Scherer refurbishes; I feel as though a little of Henry is with me when I shoot.

 

[JohnM]

I'm 35 - I work in a fairly high-stress field and when I'm not at work, I'm working on two sports magazines/websites that we started as a hobby, but that progressed into a business with 10-12 freelance writers and several photographers, etc - that's ten deadlines a year and that adds a ton of stress.

A long time ago, I bought a digital camera with the thought of using it for the websites. I had a lot of fun taking it on vacation, family functions, etc. and I decided I wanted to get a little more serious about it - I bought a Canon SLR.

Again, I really enjoyed that camera, but I had the idea that I wanted to get a completely manual camera so I bought a Vivitar 450 and a bunch of old M42 lenses at a flea market near Yale. I think that started the ball rolling - I had fun and I found it very relaxing and very different from the normal stresses.

About that time, a friend of mine gave me a Konica C35 that had belonged to his father. I took it on a trip to Washington DC and that hooked me on rangefinders. Since then, I've bought and sold any number of them trying to find what fit me best - it turns out that an M3 and a couple of collapsible lenses were the thing.

These days, I still have a Sony 828 that I love for a lot of reasons, but the rangefinder is the savoir. There's nothing better than taking the M3 with a pair of lenses to FDR or Vanderbilt or any of the historical sites on the Hudson. It's relaxing and unhurried and I don't think you can beat it for getting away from hectic day to day - I look forward to it and the camera is perfect for it.

Of course, even though it is perfect...there is always another camera out there to try out and I think that just adds to the fun ;-)

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I've loved photography ever since I was little and had a cheapo point and shoot to carry around with me. I went from film to digital and back to film again because I couldn't afford the digitals I really wanted and I'll never look back.

I'm only 22. I've recently thought about going to culinary school due to my love of cooking as a primary occupation since photography is never going to pay all my bills (especially if I give in to the GAS for a Leica). I am encouraged in this decision by almost everyone I know who has tasted my food. Of course, this brings on a whole other type of GAS: cooking supplies. New All-Clad pans, Wusthof knives, my Calvin Klein dishes, organic spices, etc. The knives are coming first, of course.

I also loved, at one time, to do web design/development and I did it for 3 years, self taught. Not as a job, but as a fun activity. I don't do it much anymore due to the fact that, for some reason, I no longer have any inspiration, but I do still occasionally dabble in it a bit. I'm an accomplished Photoshop user.

I also used to write a lot, most of the time every day. When I was 12 I started a story about a boy who steps through a kind of interdimensional rip and ends up stuck there, trying to find a way back. It was going to be something to send into magazines and such...until my mother decided to throw it away accidently when she was cleaning the clutter out of my desk. I think that I didn't talk to her for a week and I never did rewrite that story. I'm pondering perhaps doing so now and trying to sell it as a children's book, though I highly doubt it would actually work out.

I can sing. I try to sing a bit every day so that my voice doesn't wear out, but I haven't actually done anything for a number of years, probably since I dropped out of high school. I love singing bluesy-type R&B or rock songs. I admit to having an Evanescence fetish.

My brain belongs to the dark side. My body, however, recently discovered how great the other side can be. Family board and all that.

So I sing, cook, photograph, design, and develop among other things. I also read. A lot. It's how the majority of my education came about.

 

[Pherdinand]

Why? I wish I could answer that question for myself!

 

[Skinny McGee]

Its better for you than opium

 

[jaapv]

Interesting; clearly two grooups, the young(ish) with an interest in things mechanical that are less fleeting than the offerings of modern technology and the old folks like me who learnt the value of photography the traditional way. I'm 59, dentist and took my first photo with a Brownie type box-camera when I was seven years old. Since then I have used just about every camera imaginable through Agfa Silette, the first SLR Exa, Olympus OM1,and after that Leica M and R systems. I did some excursions into MF, even taking a Mamiya 645 and 500 mm lens on safari (the shots were great, but I had trouble fitting the combo into light aircraft 😀 ) to Canon DSLR. Guess what? I'm back to Leica M, my latest addition is a M3 from 1954 and I love it. But then I'm a bit of a nostalgic, I like old cars and other mechanical things, and love to be at the cutting edge of technology at the same time. I find for instance that scanning and photoshopping my slides/negatives has given me back my darkroom (the real one is in boxes in the basement). And yes, I like music on vinyl, tube amplifiers and Thorens turntables.
Nice to see how these thing tend to cluster with RFF members.
It might well be that if you'd poll "what car do you drive" the results would be similarly different from the general population.

 

[satbunny]

I have taken pictures for years and always wanted the newer, the jazzier camera, but could only afford a string of Zeniths and Prakticas. I eventually got an EOS300 and was happy, and then digital came along. By now I could afford a reasonable amount and bought a EOS300D in Hong Kong, and all was well.

But... I still remembered my grandfather's Leica. I think it was an M3 or M4, but it may have been a III of some kind. I remember being allowed a week with it at his cottage and how much I love it. When I turned 40 my wife reminded again by buying me an M4.

After all those years of fun but essentially snappy people shooting I realised that this was my 'mid life crisis' hobby.. and so I am here, and very happy.

 

[wierdcollector]

I'm 46 and spend half my life working shift work at a pulp and paper mill. Hotter than Hades most days and little or no room for errors. I find shooting nature shots/cars/boats/planes or historic buildings relaxing. I've had (and still do have) most every sort of camera but the solid feel, heft and simplicity of the old RF's has always drawn me like a magnet. Don't necessarily need to have interchangeable lenses to be neat, but there's just something unspeakably cool about wind/rewind knobs, real chrome or satin finish metal not faux metal plastic, and real or simulated leather grips not pressed plastic or rubber. If it goes buzz after each shot, needs LEDs or LCDs or a multitude of lights to judge exposure or has an electonic shutter (don't get me started on my latest Minolta SLR's) I'd prefer to use it sparingly as a tool rather than a source of enjoyment. The last time I was in Vegas I bought a plastic fantastic Minolta auto everything just so I could shoot a few pics without worrying about anyone stealing it or forgetting it behind in the mad rush from one line up to the next. Still have it but I've only used it twice since. Just something about lifting an old camera to your eye, focussing, checking exposure, checking focus and composition again then presto the moment of truth as you depress that shutter and hear that satisfying click not zzzzzz. Also something to do on a cold winter's day if you like to rip apart an oldie, clean and take notes, then reassemble to hopefully the satisfaction of a workable camera from a pile of parts. Feels pretty good unless you reassemble only to have three extra screws, a spring and that doh! expression on your face.

 

[wlewisiii]

Where to start? I'm 42 and, these days, a stay at home dad. I used to work in IT - I was the IT department for a small state government agency for 10 years till I was laid off 2 years ago last March. I do a little bit of freelance to keep my hand in and earn toy money, but I don't really miss it.

I got started with my mom's instamatics and the like, only getting serious for awhile while I was in the army and had access to a dark room on post. After I got out, I picked up a Canon Rebel with a 35-85 zoom and used it as a glorified point and shoot for 10 years. This is not to say I couldn't get good pictures (one of my all time favorites of my son was taken with that camera.) but towards the end of that time I started using it in manual mode more and more and began reading about different cameras and formats on the web. While digitials are interesting and have their pluses, as well as minuses, there remained something nearly magical about film to me that I couldn't feel with a digicam. Instead, about 2 years ago I bought a Yashicamat 124G on ebay and found a very different world. I liked the square, I liked putzing with the 120 rolls, and it was all downhill from there.

Now I get the greatest pleasure from my "antiques" as my wife gently refers to them. I keep myself weeded out to the ones I'll use regularly. I can barely go onto my backporch without grabbing one of my cameras. I keep one in each of our cars, just in case, as well. If I haven't put a roll through a camera in three months, with only a very few exceptions, I sell it.

I can't say I get lots of great pictures, but I get enough good ones to have fun and that is what keeps me plugging away.

William

 

[nomade]

I'm 21, i have been shooting with my dad's camera, my current fed 2 when i was 10 years old, but i had nothing to do with the settings, they set it for me and i shoot...
Later on something occured, and we stopped using the fed 2, so we got ourselves some yashica, and i started shooting again, i used to shoot more than 3 rolls/day and of course i didn't have enough budget to do that frequently...So i reduced that number...

I don't know what happened to the yashica, i don't remember, cause my brother also used it...Then 4 years ago i bought a canon sure shot(automatic with quality) but the pictures didn't satisfy me, it was very fast and easy to use but i wanted more quality, more depth, and more control...

last summer, i started fetching for our old camera, and see if it works...I gave it to a guy to fix it for me, and went to canada, while iw as in canada, still with the cannon, i shot many many rolls, mostly portraits of my nephew, a beautifull kid of 6 months (back then)...My photos has been always something to talk about, and that's how i found some encouragement, other than being just a foolish thought of mine, i'm also looking to buy a scanner to share with u more photos...A scanner with some better quality...

This year i finally found someone to fix it forme, he took a big sum of money and did fix nothing practically, he just gave a screw a frew more turns, i found out that later when i cleaned the camera...Now i've had quite good shots, at least the way i felt they should be...Some results weren't as satisfactory, but i'm pretty enthusiastic..Ilove the depth that cna be found in a photo, i love to do things with depth...

I'm studying nuclear engineering, i'm fond of physics, and i'm fond of the physical aspect of a camera also. I love music, i'm learning guitar, i love classical music and rock mainly, but i don't mind listening to anything, except for the new crap...

I love reading, i have some essays as a writer and a poet myself...I'm hooked up to cpomputers i've a personal website and i use flash, and currently learning some java, but all these technology stuff, aren't as interesting and time worthy as walking around with a camera.

Also i'm fond of languages, i speak english, french, i used to speak coptic, but now i cna only read and understand cause this language is no longer used...And learning italian..Ofcourse there's arabic, but i'm npoyl good with the egyptian dialect.

I love collecting stuff, any stuff, and i keep them...Oh and my pets are fishies, i'd have loved a doggy, but i'd never give up having a tank at home..It's very interesting, i've 4 tanks, i inherited them from my father, and i love fishing also...

I'm only writing too many stuff..eh???

 

[kiev4a]

I turned sixty this year. Grew up on as a “Printers Devil” on my parent’s weekly newspaper. Spent almost 30 years in daily newspapers as everything from sports writer, to photographer, to columnist and feature writer, to managing editor. Ten years ago I decided newspapers would kill me before I could retire so I quit. Since then I have been editor at a small publishing house specializing in history of the American West.

My dad taught me to develop black and white film in his basement darkroom when I was ten. Photography was a big sideline for me for many years—even ran a studio on the side, shooting freelance, weddings and portraits. Over the years I owned just about every camera you can name – Exa 1, Canon IV SB, Petriflex, Nikon, Leotax, Pentax, Mamiya (35mm and medium format), Leica. . . .

In the early 1980s my interest turned to personal computers. Then video cameras appeared and I sold virtually all my gear and shot video of our kids’ school activities, etc and didn’t take a still picture for 15 years.

In 2001, a daughter was making plans to get married on Maui and I decided I could save them some money on wedding photos. Bought a Nikon FE and FM and several lenses on Ebay. In the process, I stumbled onto Russian cameras. I was fascinated by their history and enjoyed communicating with the sellers and learning how to do a lot of the repairs myself. I think my early experience with computers helped in camera repair because the computers taught me a lot about logical problem solving and to have patience. Since getting back into still photography I have bounced around trying the later autofocus Nikons before bouncing back to manual focus plus a couple of medium format cameras—while continuing to refine my FSU collection. Also got back into developing black and white film – I find scanning and PhotoShop infinitely more relaxing that holing up in a darkroom for hours. A good share of my shooting now is historical landscape and our two-year-old granddaughter.

It’s interesting that a lot of us who have totally embraced computer technology and the Internet have at the same time kept our love for things totally mechanical. It seems like a contradiction—but in the other hand maybe it makes sense – a refusal to totally cut ourselves loose from our Industrial Age “roots.”

 

[exaktamoment]

I have loved photography for as long as I can remember - I haven't always had the resources available to do it, but I have loved it, nonetheless. Now that I am turning 60, I find I do have the resources - but not the time. Go figure. I do computers (local and wide area networking - and LINUX) for a living and as a hobby. I don't think I'll ever be able to retire, so it's a good thing I like what I do.

I scan everything I shoot these days - darkroom hasn't been possible for me for the last 30 years. That being said, I now have more pictures that I'VE shot on the walls at home than ever before - and I no longer regret not being able to do the darkroom stuff.

I have a small collection of cameras - I shoot everything I own except the Argus C3's I have, which need work that I don't have time to do. But I have some Exkatas and an Exa and a Konica T4 I bought new in 1978. I own a Sony DSC-S70 which pretty much just sits around now (it does nice eBay pics) and I own 3 russians - Zorki 4, Zorki 4k and FED-2. I have a Jupiter 8, and an Industar 61 and an Industar 26m and a 135mm Hektor. I am looking around for a viewfinder for the 135.

But the question was - why? I can honestly say I don't know - except that there's a little part of my soul that seems to be satisfied when I'm shooting one of these old cameras. Maybe it's the heft and feel of the camera in my hands. Maybe it's the sound of the shutter. Maybe it's knowing that there's a good chance that what's in the camera will be good enough to make it to the wall. And maybe it's enjoying the sound in the voice of someone who asks "Did you take that?" and then says "Cool."

Lou

 

[dmr]

I turned sixty this year. Grew up on as a “Printers Devil” on my parent’s weekly newspaper.

I'm shy about revealing my true age. One of my hangups, I guess. People say I don't look my age, and I surely don't feel it, which may be good or bad. 🙂

My first real job other than babysitting and such was as what I called "Assistant Flunkie" in a mom-n-pop nonunion print shop. I know this was an unusual job for a girl my age, but the boss (Mrs. Rosenberger) took the business over from her husband when he didn't have the strength to continue, and she could -- and did occasionally -- every job in the place, and she kinda took me under her wing. I really wasn't a "Devil" per se, as I didn't want to make it a career, but I started out doing odd jobs like answering the phone and go-fer and such, and graduated to watching the presses and alerting somebody when something went wrong, to a year or so later actually being able to run the ATF Chief and the other press which had a very sexist nickname. (If you worked in a print shop, you probably know it, PM me if you're really curious.) 🙂

My only real "wet" photographic experience was developing Kodalith at the shop and "rubbing up" plates after they were exposed under the "Nuarc" with the Kodalith negatives.

I'm sure this job, today, would be taboo for a high school kid, boy or girl, due to OSHA regulations and the like. We never wore gloves when developing or even washing down the presses.

My interest in photography came from my dad and (older) brother. My dad used big 120 and 620 folders and lightbulb-size flashbulbs which would light up Yankee Stadium in the dead of night. I DID NOT LIKE flash then, and I tend to avoid it now! Yes, many childhood photos have me with my eyes closed anticipating the flash which would put a nuclear blast to shame.

They gave me a Brownie Starflash, my first camera, when I was in grade school. I used it off and on until high school when I started getting really interested and bought a Mamiya Super Deluxe -- my first real camera -- yes, a rangefinder. I was thrilled that I could shoot indoors without flash. 🙂

I've told the story many times of how I went to a SLR and recently partly back to rangefinders. I won't repeat that here. 🙂

As to why I do it. I don't know. One of the great mysteries of the Universe. 🙂 I've always liked to photograph things that are in my presence when I have strong feelings, whether joy or sorrow, or things that evoke various feelings. I've always had a fascination for photographing trains, either overland, el, or subway. I do know partly why, in that the train represents going places and doing (fun) things, letting loose of the limitations and restrictions on life.

I also like to do street scenes, night scenes, buildings with reflections for some reason, lakes, waterfronts, fountains, and even some outdoor scenics, although I've never been the outdoorsy type at all.

As to why I prefer rangefinders and film cameras, again, I don't really know, but I've always been kind of the Odd Girl Out who doesn't follow trends. Digital has its place, and if I were say a photojournalist or commercial production type photographer, I would definitely use digital for the efficiency and workflow issues, but if I'm shooting just for myself, I'll shoot what I want to shoot. 🙂

 

[parks5920]

Why? Because it's F U N!

 

[cp_ste.croix]

hmmm...well for as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by photography. It is such a powerful medium to me, going beyond video in its ability to engage the imagination of the viewer.

My first camera was an AE1 and belonged to my father. I used that AE! all through highschool where I learned trad darkroom skills and only shot in B&W. Upon gradutation from highschool, I got a Rebel and proceded to take it arround the world with me shoting only slides. More recently I got a 1Vhs and gave my old rebel to my little sister. I also found that I was only using my camera when travelling, something which bothered me...my solution was to get a FLRF (and one day an interchangeable one). At that point I discovered this site and am fast sliding down that slippery gas slope. I'm now back to B&W instead of only chromes, and enjoying seeing B&W again.

I am turning 28 this year, and am a HS teacher, comtemplating my PhD and the necessary move...darn decisions.

I love photography because I need a creative outlet in my life, just as I need a physical one. This translates into a full sched of weights, rugby (when I'm healthy), and photography.

I also love writing but find myself unable to concentrate on two creative outlets at a time...this means that while I am in photography mode, I can't write and vice versa.

I like the outdoors, hiking, cooking, and all sorts of other things too...

 

[siverta]

I am 24 years old, and a self taught documentaryfilm maker. I am about to finish my bachelor degree in Movie studies (or filmstudies, don't know the correct Oxford English term for it).

I have been interested in photography my entire life, but started to take pictures when I was 14. B/W-addiction started when I was about 18 or 19 =)
The RFF addiction started when I discovered a Bessa L with a 15mm where I work (Fotoland was/is the only chain who is allowed to import Voigtlander products in Norway).
After that discovery I bought the whole Bessa series =)

Sivert.