When and How did you get into photography?

unreggd

My story is kinda mad, so if you have any of your own, tell away!

Ive always liked takin pics, as long as I remember, but never did it on a regular basis


Then one day [when i was like 16] I realised I had no photos of me, on my own or with friends/family, for the past 5 years, and i wondered What would happen if I went missing, they wouldnt have a recent photo of me, for the side of a milk carton and whatnot!

And I noticed loads of my friends had a good few photos of themselves and other friends

So i decided to buy my first digicam, a crappy 2MP Packard Bell Fixed focus one from Dixons!

And after no time I was hooked

So got a better compact [Kodak something or other], then an even better one [Minolts Dimage Xt]

then i got my D-SLR

And now im in college studyin photography
[woo!]

run_Forrest_run

I always had a thing for gadgets and cameras fascinated me as a kid. So I got into photography as a result of interest for the hardware as opposed to actually taking pictures.
Anyway, after many years and many [cheapo] cameras I bought a Sigma SA7 about 5 years ago and then bought a D80 over a year ago.
To be honest I am learning more now due to digital photography and understanding the techy details behind a photograph (from trying to learn PS CS2!).

rymus

I won a small, cheap & nasty point & click compact film camera when I was 12/13. End of story.

Calina

I was given an Agfamatic 110 when I was 11 years old.

RoryW

Given a brand new Nikon F301 with 50mm 1.8 by my very generous brother for Christmas (in 1985 :eek:). Then built a darkroom at my parents home (still there with all the equipment gathering dust!) and developed B&W photos. Took a break for a few years (from about 1991) other than using a P&S. Bought a NIkon Coolscan IV to scan some of the old negatives so I could email them to some school friends etc. Bug reignited. Bought a Nikon D80 and a few lens last August and now getting back into it and enjoying it so far.

trishw78

I got a pick Le clic camera when I was about 11 and then it just went from their. I inherited (about the time I went to college) a Practika camera and then a pentax which I traded both in for a Canon EOS 3000 for the grand total of IRL£900 back in the day. I still have the 3000. I have one Fuji P&S which comes most places with me and I recently got a 40D. oh and I have a holga just to play with.

I'd love a hasselblad some day.

Ricky91t

My mum bought me a film cam from Argos when i was 8(dunno why she did but im glad)Used loads of films in it developed 1 i think then it got lost when we movd to ireland.5 years ago we bought a lidl cam but it didnt work so we bought a sipix 1.3 megapixel which after a few days i pratically owned.From there when i was 13 got a 3 megapixel hp cam which was rubbish but kept me happy.Then a fuji finepix s3100 in 2005 and xmas 2006 my first Dslr

Psychobiker

Same as ricky - was given a p&s film at a very young age, then moved onto a Fuji A202 at 15, S5000 16-17 and then recently, after my car was all fixed up, I had cash for a hobby so I reunited with photog

quilmore

My father was an enthusiastic amateur photographer and in my early teens I started to have a look through the lens of his konika TC with 40 1.8 and auto-exposure and 1/250 flash sync
a beauty of a camera for its time

I then went to some classes on photography on my local arts centre where I learnt about all the theory and some practice on framing a picture and to print b&w (on donated expired paper and chemicals, lots of fun to find something decent)

it was about 10 years after when I got my first AF camera (nikon F60)
some 5 years after and several thousand of pictures later I've got a canon S30 and an S50
the big step was in 2002 when I managed to convince myself that I "needed" a nikon D70
last year got a D200 (2 in fact) and now I'm thinking on the D300...

my lenses also have gone very heavy with the years (and my shoulders weaker), not sure if I can keep with the trend

ThOnda

My parents have cameras and they took pictures on family trips and holidays. When I got a little older and started having independent life, I wanted to have pictures from my own trips and great times with my friends.
And a little later, I have realised that point and shoot is not enough, so I entered SLR world of Pentax family. I had joined photoclub and I have learned so much in just two years, that I felt almost exhausted by the different photographic styles and attitudes.
And here I am, waiting for K20D

RCNPhotos

I was in scouts, one of the leaders was doin photography in college, he was great at it, took amazing portraits. And when I was on holiday in spain, a scuba diving instucter there did a lot of underwater work for books etc so it was a combination of those two really. Unregged, where you in college?

Fionn

the earliest recollection of photography for me was being allowed to take a photo of some of the family, it was a Box Brownie which you held waist height to look through the view finder, about a week later the prints revealed an acceptable representation of the photograph I'd made.
that was about 1960/61 - i was fascinated by it, still am. So in the intervening years I’ve been dabbling with it intermittingly ever since.
So to answer how I started - it was being allowed to have a try at it -all those years ago.

elven

In the tiny fishing village at the arse end of nowhere in the higlands that I lived in when i was 7-18, I used to run along to the end of the road I lived on and shoot the sun going down over the sea when it was a nice sunset, with some random 35mm p&s. I hated the wide lens that didn't let me select subjects very well, and by the time I was 21 I convinced my dad to buy me an slr for my birthday Went on to shooting slide film from there, got a fifty and a set of tubes and the macro bug bit. Then after moving to Dublin I finally went digital and, well, I have a few gig left on my hard drive but not much... :rolleyes:

bovril

I came in quite late by all your stories, I was 20ish when I got my first camera which was a canon APS and I used that when i was travelling for a few years. My dad bought a 2nd hand SLR from a photographer from the local newspaper with some lenses and I used to *borrow* that all the time. I bought my first SLR a few years later and the DLSR a year and a half ago now. Only really started to look at photographs from famous photographers etc in the last two years

CraggyIslander

When I was 9/10 whenever we were on holidays my dad used to let me take a couple of pictures with his Pentax SLR and then afterwards give me the print outs of the ones I'd taken.

Got my own Praktika SLR when I was 13, robustest camera I've ever had! Had that for 5-6 years before getting a Eos 1000N which served me for another 5-6 years. Fell out of love with cameras and only been getting back into it since last year with a dslr.