What's your story!?

[CG415]

I have been taking pictures for a long as I can remember. No artistic thought put into it just snapping a way.

I remember my very first camera was a little 110 that I took on all of our vacations. I was probably about 13 or 14 when I realized that I didn't have it any more.

I didn't get my next camera until I was about 23 or 24 when my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I went and purchased our Fuji S5100. That is when I really started getting in to photography.

I started looking at things much differnently then. For some reason I didn't just want to take pictures anymore I wanted them to be something more. I wanted others to feel what I felt at the time I took that photo. I have been using that s5100 since and still do when I'm not using my Nikon D80.

After getting my D80 I was playing around on the internet trying to learn as much as I could. One day I stumbled across this great website, Outdoor Photographer.com, and met a lot of great people that have a world of knowledge that grows everyday. Since I joined this this community I have learned so much. I find myself checking the site several times a day just to see what new information at been shared.

I want to thank each and everyone of you who make this site as wonderful as it is. And because of all of you sharing what you have learned over the years my photography skills are improving each and everyday.

So you may be wondering what the purpose of this post is. I would like you all to use the poll and tell us how long you have been "Shooting" and what got you started in photography.

Thanks again to every who is here for helping out all of us newbies.

Chris

[Bonish Photo]

I think Photography has been in my family for multiple generations and I just followed in the same path without even realizing it.

My Great Grandfather owned a big studio in Detroit called Bonish Photo. Back then the studios would take the school photos, almost all the weddings in the area and many of big occasions. My Grand Father also followed in his footsteps running the studio till his elder years.

My father was one of the first to not follow in that path and actually hates photography because he said he had it shoved down his throat his entire life.

His brother, my uncle, actually owns and runs a very successful photography studio in Fowlerville Michigan with his family today.

That's just the background on my photography. I think I've owned or had accesss to some sort of camera since I was a small child. My mothers side of the family was just as much into photography as my fathers side with her father actually shooting for the Royal Air Force in Canada. So there were plenty of cameras around the house to play with.

My first real camera was a Canon Rebel that I saved up for a few years to buy. I can remember at the age of 17, everyone thought I was crazy that my filled camera bag was more expensive than my car was

Once I met Cindy, we both got into photography pretty seriously. After too many arguments about who got to use the camera while out hiking, we saved up enough to buy another Rebel Body which would also allow us to carry Color Film in one and Black & White film in the other.

We were living in Florida at the time and is where we had met each other. I would stay enrolled at Palm Beach Community College for many years because as long as you were enrolled, you had use of their dark room. I never attended any classes, but the instructor knew me and knew what I was doing and OK'ed it.

When we moved back to Michigan, we went to visit Cindy's grandmother who lived only a few blocks from where my families studio had been all those years in Detroit. By this point my Grandfather was in a nursing home and the studio had burned to the ground after Detroit took a dive into slumville.

My father, Uncle and I still kick ourselves for not cleaning out the place and getting all his Large Format gear out before it burned down.

While at Cindys Grandmothers, we sat talking about our lives up to this point. Due to a nasty divorce between her parents, she hadnt seen her grandmother since she was a child and had moved away from Michigan.

When I told the grandmother my last name. She asked why it sounded so familiar. I told her that my grandparnets used to own Bonish Studio. She got up from her chair, walked over to a cabinet and pulled down some photos of Cindys Fathers baby pictures, her parents wedding and multiple other family photos that all had the Bonish Studio logo on the photos.

At that point, we knew our relationship was fate, and have been taking photos together ever since.

Thank goodness for Digital, as it has saved us thousands of dollars on the wasteing of film and the storage is sooooooo much easier. One of my tasks this summer is to scan the images from the hundreds of family photo albums we have at my parents house.

Its amazing that she has book cases filled with photo albums, and I have a few terabytes worth on hard drives. Her collection takes up an entire room, mine can be carried with me in my palm.

Thats our story. I'd love to hear some others.

[gldiana]

Chris,
that's a great question, I'm surprised nobody has thought of it before.

Pat,
that was a wonderful story, I enjoyed reading it. Didn't know photography ran so deep in your family.

I had my first camera as a Christmas gift when I was 6 and I enjoyed shooting since. I had thought about turning pro, but the price of film and equipment kept me away. But probably the biggest obstacle was that I was never encouraged by anyone to do it and I didn't know anyone who did it. Back home the only photographers you'd run into were wedding photographers and it didn't appeal to me.

For many years I drooled over one of the Minolta xi series cameras and finally, in 1992, after saving for 9 months I bought the 9Xi and paid cash. Back then it cost me about $3500 with flash and 28-105 lens. Still the fastest camera around with a 1/12000 sec shutter speed. I always loved airplanes and used it to shoot airshows around Europe. It's still a great camera but to me, at this point, it doesn't make sense to shoot film because of its high cost and low versatility. The body is made of titanium and, let me tell you, it is sturdy.

A few years ago I fell in love with the Canon 20D, I couldn't quite afford it but managed to save a bit and when Canon released the 30D I jumped on it and decided to try at making it into photography. Things are progressing slow, but they're progressing.

Last year, I spent some time at Canon's workshops in Yellowstone, and the instructors told me I should be teaching courses, so that's what I plan to do: organize half and full day courses in the Tetons and take people around, show them the places and help them get better.
Since, in the past, I have taught Photoshop courses, than I'm also thinking, once I get the space, to do that again.

[CG415]

Luca,

I totally understand where you are coming from on not having any body to turn to in order ask questions and learn from. That is why I rely so heavily on this website and everyone's wisdom.

Pat,

As Luca said great story! It's amazning how things work out and we find the person we are supposed to spend the rest of our lives with. My wife and I met on the internet through a chat room. We emailed back and forth for about 3 months and when I finally asked her on a date. The rest is history. We have been together now for 8 years, and have been married for 3 and a half of those, we have one son and another baby on the way.

I alway enjoy learning about other people, and hearing there stories.

Thanks for sharing!

Chris

[hw771230]

This is a good topic Chris. Thanks for sharing the interesting stories Pat and Luca.

I have had some sort of cheap film camera or another since I can remember. I even made my own pinhole camera when I was about 8. I think I got through 1 roll of 110 film and never saw the thing again.

When I was about 16 I was given an old Pentax K1000 and a couple of lenses that my dad used in the '70s while he was in the Airforce. That camera taught me a lot about exposure, DOF and most other photography basics. I still remember all the darkroom equipment and chemicals in the laundry room, but I don't remember them actually being used. I used that k1000 until 2004 (about 8 years) when it stopped working.

By that time I lived in Alaska and was shooting more photos than ever before, and decided to get into digital. I got a Fuji s3100 (or something like that), which I used for a year before switching to my current Nikon D70.

I have been collecting glass and other stuff ever since. I've now got about 14,000 digital images on my hard drives, and plan to add a lot more. I also still shoot some film with a used Nikon F65 I picked up a couple years ago for almost nothing.

I look forward to more stories,

Caleb

[gldiana]

Thank you, guys.

I forgot an important part of the story. My parents were given a Zenith (russian camera) for their wedding, they never quite understood how to use it (it's entirely manual, no autofocus, metering, etc.) so I cut my teeth on that and it helped me understand about the mechanics of a camera and how focus and DoF, exposure work.

[Tom B.]

Interesting question...and even better stories....So, I will add my little history....I started with a Kodak film camera with the square bulb flash! Then, I got a Kodak 110 film with the bulb strip....I finally got a Canon P/S (for the day, it was a nice non-SLR film camera - good for a beginner just learning the art of 35MM)...I used that until I bought a Canon AE-1 my senior year in high school (which, I still have and use on occasion). I used that through college (and my two photography classes)...After my wife and I got married and bought our first house, I then bought a Super 8 MM movie camera to try my hand at that venue. I moved up to a video camera when I had my daughter, and used that as a primary source of memory making until about three years ago. At that time, I bought a digital Fuji 3800 P/S and used that for about three years, before I bought my XTI. I missed a lot of picture taking opportunities by moving into the video world for that 10 year period, but at least I captured the memories on video. The interesting thing is that during the course of the 10 year "still" hiatus, I mis-placed all of that working knowledge on the basics of still photography. I am having to relearn the basics as well as the new technology of digital and the accessories! This old dog can still learn - apparently (at least I am trying)...

Now, as I look back, my grandfather loved photography, and that love was carried on by my Dad. My Dad is currently in the scanning process of turning all of the slides his Dad took into permanent records! Then, when he is done with that, he will do the same for the slide pictures he took for a lot of years prior to his getting into the digital age (thousands of pictures, I might add...) Looking at what they both had/have done with photography in their lifetimes, I am appreciative of the fact that my Dad encouaged me to follow suit. I bet I still have most of the pictures I took as a little kid. ( I still have pictures of an Indiana Pacer game I took with that Kodak 110! George McGinnis was the big star at that time, and I have several of him taken during warm-ups! Most younger forum users are asking 'who is he?')

Like most people who do not earn a living doing what they consider a 'hobby' (photography in this case), I only wish that work would not get in the way...

Thanks for asking a great question! It is nice to take a moment and look back on what got us here!

Tom B.

[bob_r]

Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories.

My dad enjoyed photography when I was young, so we normally had a least a cheap camera around. When I was 19, I had just gotten out of Air Force basic training, so I went to NYC to visit my brother. While there, I had to go visit the camera shops and bought my first 35mm.

I used that camera all the time I was in the service and shot a ton of pics. I learned to develop and print all my black and white images, but shot a lot more color slides than anything. This was back in the early 60's and slides were the big thing then and the nice thing is they could be mailed home for very little money - which is exactly what I had.

That camera lasted for quite a while and when polaroids came out, I bought one of those. That didn't last very long since it didn't take long for the novelty to wear off and for me to miss the quality of 35mm images.

I then bought an SLR and used to shoot a lot of film and slides while my kids were young. As the kids got older, my job seemed to require a lot more time and finally I just didn't have time for photography. I did shoot with that old camera a few months ago while my 30D was in the shop, but while it did have TTL metering, the manual focus was just too much trouble for an old timer. All the shots turned out, but I sure missed digital.

There's a gentleman on our local forum that collects and uses old film cameras, so I gave mine to him. I had a 50mm and a 200mm lens, closeup attachments, a 2X teleconverter, flash and some other goodies, but it had sat on a shelf for 30 years. I'm sure it will at least get some use now.

Before I got back into photography, my son bought a Canon 20D and got into digital photography. He set up a web site and I started looking at all the things he was doing with digital. He brought his camera and some lenses over for one of our holiday get-togethers and got me hooked.

I bought a 30D shortly afterwards and fell in love with photography all over again. I love the digital age. The equipment available today is amazing - not to even mention the things that some can accomplish with Photoshop (unfortunately, I'm not one of those people). I don't imagine I'll be giving up photography again, at least not while I'm physically able to get around. Since I retired, I've gotten to the point with this hobby that the wife, grandkids and the dog all run when they see me with a camera.

I'm looking forward to reading other stories.

Bob R

[stephaniekscott]

I've been fascinated with photography since I was old enough to hold a camera. Exceptionally poor, my parents could never justify giving a "child" a camera, so I never had one during my formative years. However, when I graduated high school, they took me to the local pawn shop, known for their above average camera collection. As a graduation gift, they let me pick out an SLR to take with me to college (where I was going on a journalism scholarship.) I picked a Minolta XD-11 and did what I could to teach myself how to shoot.

I took my camera with me everywhere; thanks to Costco and their ridiculously cheap film ($2 a roll) and developing at the time, I was able to afford to shoot more than usual.
My Minolta saw me through college where I switched majors from journalism to political science, however I did abandon it for one year, a fatal mistake. I had earned a scholarship to study abroad in Heidelberg, Germany my sophomore year, but I was afraid it would be stolen or that it would be too heavy to carry in a backpack all over Europe. So, I bought a cheap $100 Pentax p&s and left my Minolta in the states. This is my only real regret from my entire college experience. While I have some nice pictures of my trip to Europe, the entire time I was there, I was wishing I had my "real" camera with me.

Self-taught, I shot as much as I could afford, oftentimes trying to duplicate ideas or shots I saw in magazines or on postcards, using those as a guide to teach myself. I had no grasp of "the math" (as I called using the f-stop and aperture, both seemed far to daunting to understand,) but I knew how to use the light meter and I could frame a shot pretty well and for several years, I faked my way through.

It's been 10 years since my parents bought me that Minolta. I still have it, but I've had a few more cameras in the interim. I bought a Canon Elan 7 after I graduated and shot with that for a few years, when my husband bought me a digital Rebel...the Rebel was my camera of choice until two months ago when I sold it to help pay for the purchase of a refurbished 30D.

I've also learned a bit more about photography, although what I still don't know or have have yet to learn is staggering.

The birth of my daughter last summer gave me a new desire to document everything and of course having a captive subject every single day helps one to practice.

And so now I'm trying to become as good as possible so that hopefully one day, I can do it at least part time, shooting portraits perhaps, so that I can stay home with my daughter instead of leaving her at daycare while I teach other people's kids (I'm a middle school history teacher..which I love, but not right now while I have a baby.) And also, so I can afford to continue pursuing my real love of outdoor photography. But we'll see.

[Allie]

What a great question -- we'll know each other better with this one...

Guess I'm late here, but here's my story:
My first "brush" with photography was in high school. I liked art and anything creative, so took every class I could find that would let me create something. We were painfully poor, so my mother let me use her old 1930s -1940s box camera (you know, the one with the square viewfinder that flipped up on top). I think she said she bought it for
$1.00.

Photography class was wonderful (in high school). The class put on a "Shutterbug Day" for the school where everyone dressed up in some crazy costume for the day and we'd go around taking lots of pictures. We'd take them to the darkroom and learn to develop our own.

After high school it seems like I had very few cameras -- one was a Poleroid, the other 2 were 110s. Since I didn't have a camera, I learned to oil paint. That went on for a very long time -- even took classes trying to get better at it.

My husband was the one that bought our first SLR camera. It was film -- he bought it so he'd have a camera to use in a class he was taking at the community college. When he was done with it, I took it over (actually we both used it ).When I saw the D-SLRs I had to have one and saved some money and got a Nikon D80. Since then I've never looked back. It was like coming home.

Still -- I have a lot to learn. Hopefully some day I'll be as good as most of you. I love coming here and looking at your pictures and getting ideas for more creativity.

Thanks for the great question

[kombizz]

I do take photos since I was 15 years old.
I was born and brought up in Iran, a beautiful country full of history. I started taking photos at an early age of my life with a Lubitel, a Russian twin lenses camera. Most of my photos in those days were black and white. It was a very nice camera that my parents gave me when I was 15 years old.

I always loved to see images. I remember that I would spend time in the library for hours and hours looking at the different photos in Life Magazine, National Geographic and other photographic journals and books. Also I always loved nature, and the different patterns made in it. I remember because of my Entomology studies, I would spend hours in the laboratory looking into microscopes at those beautiful and perfect structures that God created in those different tiny flowers, plants, tiny nematods, animals and insects. Then after I finished university in Iran, I left to do on my M.Sc. in California, the Golden State. There I was witness to even more of the beauties that nature held in each different moments of time. I remember I was always walking and trying to absorb all the scenes in my mind and memory as well as recording them on film. I forgot to say that I received another precious gift from my parents. That was a Canon camera with a fixed lense (G-III QL17). Then after I finished my studies, I returned to Iran for work. I consider myself an artist photographer.

At present I have a lovely Minolta Dynax 7, Mamiya 7II with few lenses. I still love and adore nature and all aspects of it. As a result I love macro photography, landscape, architecture (old and new), and many other categories like artistic abstracts, travel, people, fashion, and photo journalism.

I have a vast numbers of printed photos, slides and thousands of negatives which all are archived in many folders.

I love to share my observations through my photos with those people who love and appreciate.

[NWGA_dispatcher]

I started playing with cameras at a young age. I remember my grand parents gave me my 1st camera a hand me down 110 when I was 5 and moved from Cali to Georgia so I could send them pictures of my new home. I played with that thing for several years as often as I could con my parents into buying film. The camera lasted me several years but eventually I managed to break the door off it, I don't remember how. My grand parents surprised me for my 9th birthday with my 1st SLR it was a cannon, but thats all I remember. I thought I was in the big time cause I had a camera that the lens came off! That was fancy lol Unfortunately that camera didn't even last me threw the summer. They came out to visit for 2 weeks when school got out and took me to the Atlanta Zoo. I got so excited to be taking pictures of the cool animals I was running every where. Well you know what happens when kids run and don't pay attention.... I face planted in front of the elephants and the camera was underneath me. Kinda reminded me of Humpty Dumpty. I got my 3rd camera for Christmas from my Grand Parents when I was about 12 or 13. It was a nice little auto/zoom type p/s. It actually survived me graduating from high school and several trips into the woods trying to pretend like I knew what I was doing. It met an Untimely end when I tripped and knocked it and my computer off my desk at 19. The computer survived, but the camera joined the other 2 in camera heaven. ( Anyone noticing a pattern here?) I did with out a camera and gave up on photography for several years. ( I didn't want any more cameras to suffer )

I finaly broke down and bought my 1st digital camera my trusty Fuji s5000 in 2003. It's a nice lil camera for a p/s. Since then I've been using it and teaching myself all I can to do good photos. I spent many a day at air shows, parks, or at the lake taking pictures. Never very good but good enough for memories. Then last fall I was sitting in the service station getting the oil changed in my truck and saw a copy of Outdoor Photographer on the table. I managed to read about 1/2 the magazine in that 1 sitting. It was the issue with the big section on shutter speeds and doing blur effects with water, animals and sports. I was hooked then. The owner came out and told me I could take the magazine home if I wanted cause his wife had finished it and I was the only person he'd seen reading it. I went strait home and subscribed. About a week later I found this forum. I'm still in awe of the things I see here, but between here and the magazine I'm learning more than I ever had. I even managed to talk my wife into us saving up money and getting my 1st DSLR this fall, but that is now gonna have to wait. We've found out we're expecting our 1st child. So as I'm sure you all are familiar I'm now doing 18-life in the poor house. ( Good thing my wife don't read forums or she'd kill me) Our next purchase has now been delayed at least till the new year, and most likely instead of my coveted DSLR we'll be getting a HD video camera. My poor lil Fuji don't get to retire yet. I hope it survives. As long as it does I'll still be lurking here reading all the tips and tricks ya'll can post, and popping up when ever I get a miracle shot I want to show off.

[Photography~girl~]

I got a point and shoot camera two years ago for my birthday. A year later, I thought I'd just take some picutres of the flowers out in my yard. Heh, kinda like wild fire from there. xD I started taking photos of almost anything nature like. Though I must admit I really don't have much skill. It wasn't till this past fall that I really was interested in capturing the true beauty of the wolrd around me. [I have always been one to be out side in God's glorious nature, or Art as i call it]
I still have my point and shoot camera, though it does take pretty good photos, but I am planning on getting a more manual camera. With that I hope to learn how to truely capture God's Art Work.

[Mr.F]

I have always enjoyed snapping pictures scince I can remember . Some years ago after losing some people close to me suddenly it became very clear to me just how important photos can be . When all you have left are memories & photos the photos take on a deeper meaning .
After I was introduced to digital photography I really jumped into it . Being able to see my shots right away & adjust , able to take 100's of shots to get get just the right one , editing them myself was very exciting & little by little I see improvment . It has been a great creative outlet for me .

[IvanI]

Hello everyone!

My story starts aroudn 2003 (18yrs old at the time) when I got my current camera Olympus C-5050z, a real "mean" machine back then (and still is today...).
However I wasn't into any sort of "photography" for the sake of enjoying it, I was using it to "shoot", no editing, no deleting, no brains behind it, always using the "auto" on almost every setting there is. It was just about capturing the moment, occasion, whatever...

I started to learn about photography, both the technical background and the artistic know-how about 3 months ago. I bought a good deal of material, surfed the web and now I'm like a sponge. I've learned a lot and my photography really improved and it became my #1 hobby.