What got you into photography?

[Kev]

Mines a simple story.

My dad has cameras and decided to take it up as a hobby.

He has brain damage so he cart remember how to use his camera which can be very amusing!

(Trust me when you have lived with someone who is disabled you will know that they have a very good sense of humor)


Anyway he said to me one day,"Would you like one of my cameras son?"

So i said yes and that was that.Although ive only just started to use it.

I have shown him the web site and he was so happy that i got picture of the day.


Hes got some good skills himself when he remember how to use it

[Ian]

This topic comes up from time to time

My grandfather had a Kodak Vest Pocket camera - which is one of those cameras about the size and dimensions of a VHS video cassette, which opens up to reveal a bellows camera. They used 120 roll film and his had a waist level viewfinder. I was always fascinated by this and when I was around 10 I was given a plastic 'toy' 120 roll film camera. Unfortunately, this suffered heat damage (part of the plastic melted) when it was left on the rear parcel shelf of the car on a hot sunny day! Soon after I got hold of a booklet all about blacak and white developing and printing. My pleading for a home dark room and all the bits was ignored by my parents so I had to wait until I was in senior school where there was a thriving photographic club and a school dark room and a supply of ancient cameras (like Agfa Silettes) to use. I later took my turn to run the club and eventually worked summers at a camera store which also sold a lot of developing gear. At one point I had a thriving colour transparency processing business at school I have been hooked on photography ever since!

Ian

[Pol]

I'd had Instamatic type cameras as far back as I can remember and was usually give a film every Xmas and told "photos are expensive every picture has to count"

I ended up married to a 'kit man' and we had 3 sons, two of which are also camera nuts.

After our sons had left home I decided I wanted to progress from snapshots on a compact to learning to use an SLR. To cut a long story short - David presented me with a Pentax dSLR, which I just knew he really wanted for himself and assumed I wouldn't want and that I'd give it back to him.

He was wrong. I wanted it so I kept it and he eventually had to get another one for himself. He still has to get himself a duplicate of whatever I buy so he also has an *istD, K10D, K20D along with his Nikon d70, KM 5D and heck knows what else.

AND ... I'm still the only one amongst them who takes pics regularly and has them printed. I'm still the person who stores prints in albums.

So David, our eldest and our youngest are still the kit men and me and our youngest are the snappers.

We'll probably end up having an argument this end now - about clutter mess, who owns what, who did what and who swiped what from whom.

Our eldest son is the best photographer in the family, I'm next, our youngest does the most interesting pics and David's just a waster envious of our kit and our many talents.

Pol

[patmoore]

I think I got my first Brownie camera around 1954. In college in 1964 I bought a Polaroid Swinger. In the mid sixties I started taking a lot of color slides with an Argus C3 rangefinder camera before switching to my first SLR, a Canon AE1 in the late seventies. I was an early adopter of digital buying an Olympus 640 x 480 model almost a dozen years ago. Most of my early shots involved sky diving, a sport that pretty much dominated my life for 14 years. Slowly, I'm scanning all those old slides but it's a time consuming process.

Nowadays my photography efforts are devoted to winter sports and travel. I'm also fond of abstract subjects. Happily, my wife shares my enthusiasm for the hobby. One of her shots from Kauia will be on display at a local museum in October.

[Caz]

I used to love to play with my gran's Box Brownie from an early age, and was given my first camera - probably an instamatic type, around the age of 11 and don't think I've been without one since.


I got my first 35mm in the mid 70s and my first SLR in the mid 80s, then got fed up with carrying it all around and went back to the long-range zoom compacts in the 90s.

Then the digital bug bit in 2004, although I remember causing somewhat of a stir when DPNow had a meet in Oxford as I was the only one with a compact.

First DSLR in 2008, frighteningly now on my third...

[John Perriment]

I became interested in photography at 17, when I wanted to take pictures of the beautiful scenery we visited on family holidays to Scotland and the Lake District. Dad gave me his old Zeiss Ikonta, a 35mm viewfinder camera with fixed lens and fully manual controls. I even had to cock the shutter in addition to winding on before a picture could be taken. Exposure was measured with a seperate hand held meter and the shutter speed and aperture set on the camera accordingly. It seem light years away from today's technology but that simple old camera gave me an invaluable grounding in basic photographic technique, including a full understanding of the relationship between shutter speed and aperture and the effect of each upon the image, in addition to just obtaining the "right" exposure.

[buddha01]

Actually, my father. As long as i can remember he was making photos and developing them. Repairing cameras himself ( he used to be a mechanic of fine craft materials at Philips). My first camera was an Agfa Mini with detachable electronic flash. Got that one when I was 8 or 9 yrs. When I was around 12 yrs old I got my fathers old Kodak Retinette l (type-030) 35mm (Made in Germay) 1958-59. It came with a light meter. By that time, my father got his hands on a Praktica MTL-5 with interchangeable lenses. A 35mm, a50mm, a 135mm tele lens and a 2x converter. By 1988, I started to "hi-jack" my fathers Praktica for aviation photography. I took it to the 75th anniversary of the RNLAF at Deelen AB. By 1990 I was able to buy my first own SLR; a Ricoh KR-5. I bought it second hand and a colleague of mine sold me cheaply his old Pentax lens set which consisted of a 14-28mm and a 80-200mm and also a electronic flashgun and shoulderbag. Soon after I bought a second KR-5 as a backup. Around 1995 I bought a Ricoh XR-X3PF and I traded my 80-200mm for a Sigma 75-300mm DL zoom. Around 2005 I bought a Chinon 500mm F/8-F/16 Mirror Tele lens. By that time I bought my first digital P&S camera of which I can't remember the make.
In 2008 or 2009 I entered a competition of a TV series and won the main prize, a Olympus E-420 with a 14-42mm. I bought a 40-150mm the same month. Just in time for the annual airforce open days. Since then I expanded my kit with a 70-300mm and my latest addition a Samyang/Opteka/Delamax 650-1300mm F/8-F/16 Manual Tele lens. Besides that I bought in India a flashgun. Also bought an m42-4/3 adapter so I could use my trusted 500mm mirror lens again. Planning to buy a couple of Pentax k-banjonet to 4/3 adapters so I can use my Sigma and wide angle lens also. Why not use them if you still have them and don't have money to buy lenses? (nor can afford new lenses at this time.)

[throt]

I was probably 4 or 5 when got my hands onto my mothers camera. I think it was FED-3


Then accompanying her in dark room and looking how images appear onto plain paper - it was magical later collecting hot pics from dryer was interesting for a small boy also.

Over a decade later got myself a digital point and shoot camera but inside felt that would love to have something more. I just couldnt justify myself the investment into dSLR until my son was born 3 years ago. Then got an Olympus E-520 cause got a good deal for it. Cause had to travel a lot due to work, the 520 staid home with wife and kid I wanted something to play wit also. As it was twin lens kit and near by one dude was selling his E-1 body I just couldn't resist getting it. Unfortunately havent had much time to go out shooting lately but soon the autumn arrives - hopefully then will make the time and go somewhere.