How long have you been a photographer/ practicing photography.

15 years for me, but purely as a hobby. I started out with a Canon 400D, moved to a 7D and then jumped to full frame 2 years ago with a switch to Sony A7iii. Only regret is not doing that sooner!

I used to photograph all sorts when I started, whatever took my fancy. With my 7D I focused more on sports, now having moved to Sony and developed more of an interest in travel and hiking, I enjoy photographing landscapes, foreign towns and cities most of all.
 
Just a newbie here - first camera aged 8.

First SLR aged 11/12 (hand me down from dad). Contaflex IV with a synchrocompur shutter - it was so old that they'd rebased the ASA film speeds :cool:

Given mountains of process-paid slide film by a family friend soon after (I mean it took up about ⅓ of the double chest freezer and kept being replenished by him - his work wouldn't allow him to shoot OOD film) - so a lot of learning by trial and error as high as 64 ASA...

First SLR I bought for myself was about 1984/85.(Canon AE-1)

Acquired an EOS 620 in about 1990 - with an EF 50mm f/1.8 (still have the lens, still use it, it's a bit noisy compared to the modern STM lens but still takes a cracking shot)

Went digital in about 2004... Still going.

Mostly landscapes over the last 45 years - but a lot more native British wildlife creeping in now.

Am I any good? Well I know a good picture when I see it, I've taken some that I'm happy with (including some 1.8m square ones on the corridor walls in my local hospital) but there's always a better shot out there..
 
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Adamcski said:
As a relatively new photographer (about a year or so now) I often see images on here that are simply amazing.

I just wondered how long people have been playing the game so to speak.

I think for me, it can be hard as I see something and think that looks fab, I will do it and then my results often leave me underwhelmed (or really annoyed).

Perhaps new togs like me put too much pressure on ourselves to achieve the same sort of images / standards as others. I know photography is often a personal thing and I see it as a journey of learning so to speak (I'm only at the start).

Just wondered how long you folks have been involved with photography and what you found hardest to get to grips with initially?
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I think we can put too much pressure on ourselves, seeing great images on places like this can inspire but also cause frustration when we can't achieve the same results.

It's easy to forget a few things that make a big difference
1. Toggers may have spent a long time finding the gear that suites their needs best
2. They may have found great places where they can go and often get great results
3. They have more experience, so settings and techniques come more naturally, and they can instinctively know what will work.
4. We don't see all the bad ones they delete or see the bad days.

I've always enjoyed togging but never did it seriously until the last few months, it's not easy but I do feel I'm getting better all the time.
 
early 2000 I had a film camera, I remember it being a canon think it was eos 30 or 300 , price of film / processing was too expensive being 16 years old and on £30 a week apprentership having to buy tools and run a moped £30 didn't go far around 2008 I got my first DSLR 300D upgraded several times and and give up about 4 years ago and finally started again this year.
 
My first camera was a Minolta 110 film camera (can't recall which model). The first camera I bought was in 1981 which was a Pentax ME Super.

I didn't do much if any photography in the 90's and returned to it when my son was born in 2001. Shot digital on P&S until I got a 4/3 DSLR then my current EM1 MkII mirrorless m4/3. Also returned to film a couple of years ago.

So started in 1976 and with a ten year break I'm still going,
 
Dabbled 27 years ago. Stepped away for a while. Came back 18 years ago and stuck with it :) Went from serious, self taught hobbyist... to working in the photo industry 15 years ago.
 
I started with a used (and turned out to be faulty) Canonette Junior around 1979. First properly working camera, which I saved up my pocket money for a year to buy, was a Praktica MTL3 in around 1982 which I loved, and taught me all about ISO (in those days ASA/DIN), shutter speeds and aperture settings. Also learnt about film processing/printing in the school darkroom.

Since then moved on to better film cameras, and digital.

Minolta 7000, 9xi, 7D, Canon 40D, 5D mk1, 5D mk3, R5. But also Chroma 5x4, Canon 30v..

The kit doesn't really matter - I've always been interested in photography and get great pleasure out of recording images/memories. Although I love it when everything comes together to generate an image I really love, the best thing is without doubt when you are fortunate enough to capture an image which really means a lot to the person/people in the photo. They might not be the most technically perfect photos, but it's a privilege to be able to give something like this to people (especially when they are not expecting it).
 
Bought my first dedicated camera (Olympus 740uz compact) in 2003 @ the age of 19, bought a EOS 20D in 2004 and have gradually upgraded since, 7D in 2012 and R5 in early 2021.

I am actually quite proud of that fact that in 20 years I've had 3 cameras, 2 in 18 years. It shows that you don't need the latest and greatest equipment (as everyone seems to think...) to take good pictures. Obviously in certain scenarios, it helps, like astro but I'm still using a near 20 year old 70-200 F4L and 300 F4 L IS and they still take great photos that sell!

I think at the heart of the question is "why aren't my images like others". If its any consolation i look back at both the sports images and general images from my 20D and they are nothing compared to the ones I take now. Thats nothing to do with equipment, its all to do with learning and development, practice, youtube, tutorials on website, wanting to learn something, going out researching it, testing and practicing.

I.e if you have a passion for photohraphy and a continuous improvement mindset then it will come with time :)
 
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wegotitugetit said:
early 2000 I had a film camera, I remember it being a canon think it was eos 30 or 300 , price of film / processing was too expensive being 16 years old and on £30 a week apprentership having to buy tools and run a moped £30 didn't go far around 2008 I got my first DSLR 300D upgraded several times and and give up about 4 years ago and finally started again this year.
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Have just revived my EOS 300D. I know it needs an upgrade - can't afford it just now though. It's still a pleasure to use and I'm hoping to get back into photography in a big way now. I've had a few decent film cameras over the years - Canon AE-1, A-1, T90, EOS 5 and EOS 300 before having to sell my kit and spend much less on photography - and made some images I was pleased with, mostly now lost (it's a long story).

So I've been into photography for about 50 years off and on - as seems to be true of several others here, my father first got me interested. My parents bought me a Zenit for my birthday, upgrading to a Practika a few years later. When I had my first job I was able to get the AE-1 on hire purchase, and went forwards (and sometimes massively backwards) from there.

It feels good to be learning photography again.
 
Been shooting off and on since I was 11, now I've turned 57 and perhaps in the last 5 years have made some significant improvement in my photography. Composition is still an issue to me these days that sometimes I just think "forget the rules" and just take the shot.

As Phil V said photography is just a set of skills that you can learn. I remember reading somewhere that the wife of a long time photographer took up the hobby and through watching YouTube etc., learned everything her husband knew in only 6 months. I would say that if you "know" what a good picture looks like then you're 50% of the way there. The other 50% is working out how to do it yourself! Some people are just naturally gifted in how they see the world and don't even think about the technical stuff, I have to work for it :ROFLMAO:

At the end of the day photography is purely subjective and we can easily be our own worst critics. If you're enjoying it then good for you, if not put the camera away and take a break.
 
I have been swatting away at photography for over 30 years and still awful. It’s not always that I don’t know what I should have done - I just don’t give myself enough time. Lately and with a new camera I actually have to slow down and finding I am somewhat happier with the results.

I applied for a part time photography job, taking pictures of cars close to where I live. I was given a template of ten pictures to duplicate and did this well enough to be invited for a chat. I got there and the guy kindly showed me their set up and it turned out to be mass production, full time and really not for me - but one thing they showed me was that half a step one way or the other makes a massive difference. I was genuinely shocked when he showed me.

After those 30 years, I was this old when I realised you have to think about what you are doing and actually look through the lens properly. Probably just slightly less awful now, but that is progress.
 
I was never fussed about film but bought a 1.3MP digital camera late 2001 as I missed my dog while at university and wanted to be able to take more shots that I could keep with me. I used that little camera far more than I had expected and gradually worked my way up to bridge cameras and then DSLRs.

I think it is the same for any field that when you look online and see the results from experts and enthusiasts it can feel disheartening about your own results, I feel almost embarrassed at times looking at what people are achieving here with the same equipment as my results are so far behind. Similarly I have been working on improving my power output on the bike this year as it is pitiful compared to those taken part in a cycling reddit which makes my attempts seem pointless.

However when I take a step back I still get tremendous enjoyment from both and while my photos may not be as good as the ones here, I still have lots of images I am happy with and as time goes on I appreciate them all the more.
 
I've been taking photo's since I was about 8 years old and my parents finally trusted me to use the family camera - you know the thing - every roll of film had a christmas tree on the first and last frames of the roll, and some pictures on a beach in the middle.

Got my own camera when I got serious about hill walking and climbing, but it was all "record shots" if i'm honest. I'd a mate who made a career of it, working first in film and tv, then going over to stills and self employed as a commercial and portrait / wedding photographer. I helped him out where I had time, and learned a bit, but it was slow going.

Always had a camera of some sort, mainly film, then as digital came in, I had a few "compacts" - think the early ixus digitals, for my walking stuff - mainly because of being so compact they'd fit in a shirt pocket and take acceptable "proof of ascent" photos...

Then Christmas 2008 I was hunting for a hobby I could pursue, whilst still being a full time carer to my parents. I struck upon photography for some reason that's still not too well definied in my mind even now. Christmas pressie to myself was a EOS450d and kit lens. 2 weeks later, massively disappointed with my first photos from a new years trip to the lakes, I joined this place.

I Posted photos, I got critique, I learned a bit, but it was a slow process, because I was still thinking of the camera as being something to use when I went walking, and as a 24-7 carer, well - i just didn't get out much.

I first properly began "thinking like a photographer" when I decided to set myself the challenge of taking a photo every day for a year. 2010, I took a photo for every day but one (i spent that day in hospital waiting for my dad to stabilise after a hip operation and was a trifle pre-occupied) and I learned a massive amount just by the simple process of having to force myself to take a single frame of something interesting - in short, I learned that even the mundane can have meaning if portrayed correctly. I also "learned to see photos" in the seemingly "blah".

It was tough, challenging, satisfying and a task i'd never wish to repeat again! But I think after 41 years of taking photo's that year I finally became a photographer.

2011 was the polar opposite - I set myself a single goal - to become competent in a single style of photography - I opted for Still Life (as I was still tied to the house more or less 24-7) and found a style to explore that was full of challenges - Still Life, inspired by 17-18th century Vanitas paintings... Massively steep learning curve, lots of reading, not in the slightest involved with actual photography, but about the underlying art. Also, loads of prop sourcing, making and building. I learned how to take an image in my head and bring it to life on a tabletop, then light it and shoot it and give it an audience.

Since then, I've had a few changes in my life - the loss of my parents, a couple of my own health scares, and photography has taken a real back seat, sad to say.

So, really, I'd say I've taken photo's since 1971 until today, but I think I really was a photographer for 2 years in 2010 and 11.

sad really.
 
I started taking images that were intended (as opposed to just clicking at something) when a family friend gifted me an old press plate camera, round about 1963.

My old press plate camera by John Liddle, on Flickr


Until I acquired the roll film back, it was glass plates only and the cost certainly made you think before you hit the shutter!

I followed this with a Minolta SRT101 which stood me in good stead for many years and then, with a combination of marriage and buying a house, then children, photography went onto the back burner.

Then digital arrived and I bought one of Canon's first small models, the Digital Ixus (Model No. PC1001) with a whopping great 2.1 megapixels!

That led to a Canon 40D and then a 5D3, followed by a 5D4. I expect the next step is likely to be the Canon R5.

Through all of this, I am happy to say I have not concentrated on any one genre of photography - for me the joy of it is seeing and recording something which is pleasing (or provoking) to the eye, whatever the subject might be.
 
I didn't own (or regularly use) a camera until I studied photography at college in 1991.

I only really did the course as I had to take another year-long course and had some free time to fill my days with.

It was an A-level that I studied at college alongside Art and History of Art.

TBH, once that was over, I didn't really progress it till much, much later*. Carrying a camera with only a 50mm lens seemed crazy when you could get an all-in-one compact film camera. Looking back, even the snaps I took with the 35mm are SOOOO much better IQ than anything else.

*In 2012, I asked for a DSLR for my 40th birthday and had to relearn (or even just learn) everything. Most of the stuff I learned at college was about processing and developing film.

I'm better than I was. I'm not as good as I'd like to be.

The hardest thing for me was admitting the second part of the above.

I also fell into the trap of heavily over-processing images. Some of the more important pictures (to me), I kept the RAW files of and have gone back and edited them a little more sympathetically, so as a piece of advice, that's one I would give. If there's a photo you like, keep the RAW and periodically go back and check if you'd edit it in the same way.

I still can't craft images with light (i.e. flash) - that's something I keep threatening to spend some time doing. Good luck with your journey. The main thing is to enjoy it.

The great thing for people taking it up now as opposed to when I first did it, is that it's effectively free to experiment. i.e. you're not paying for every exposure.
 
I started off with my Dad's Petri 7s around 45 years ago.
When he took it back, I bought myself an Olympus Trip.
A neighbour of my parents was in the Merchant Navy and he had a load of Canon gear - , A1, AE1 and a some nice lenses, filters, tripods, bags etc
Got chatting to him about photography and he said that the camera gear was never used now he had retired.
I got the whole lot for £100 in 1983.
Gradually I traded bits and bobs for Canon EOS gear and I think I had almost every Canon body up to the 5D Mk2.
Traded a lot of the Canon gear for Olympus Em1 kit before finally settling for Sony.
Can't see me swapping systems again but if I did it would probably be back to Olympus or OM Systems as they are now called
 
Practising photography? I would have to go back to around 1963 when I had my first camera: a Kodak Box Brownie taking 120 roll film. A teenage Saturday job allowed me to save up for a Zenith B SLR with a 50mm F3.5 Industar lens. I was in heaven!

In 1971 I was living in London and worked for Dollonds Photographic in their Tottenham Court Road branch. I had a Rolleiflex f2.8 Planar then. What magic! Then later, work took me selling cameras with Hanimex, and then over to Minolta cameras in their Regent Street showroom.

A spell of freelance work in 1986 using a couple of Pentax MX cameras. Fast forward to 1996 when I found myself using high-end 4x5 digital cameras in library/archive work. And now? I bought a Pentax MX f1.7 last autumn and am back to shooting film! Life is a circle, but now, photographically even more exciting with so many more new emulsions to choose from.
 
I'm 69 in August and have been a photographer since I was 18, although I did have a camera before that. After all those years practicing, you'd think I'd have it all off pat by now; but then I've been playing chess since I was 16 and I'm still absolutely rubbish at that too. I am adequate at saxophone, my songs are mediocre at best and I'm not remotely handsome.

On the good side, as a [retired] Class 1 driver, I can back an artic into a rabbit hole, I can grow almost anything, dogs love me and I them, I have a lovely garden, I speak well, my health is OK (as far as I know) and my wife is still with me after 35 years. Things could be worse and I'm not complaining (too much); I do wish I were a better photographer though, I just don't have that 'eye'.
 
Photography is largely about getting yourself in the right place at the right time.
The technical stuff is the easy bit.
 
TheBigYin said:
ƒ/8 and be there :)
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True. But. Just being there at the right time is not enough. You must be at the best viewpoint, and with the camera framed and ready to go at the critical moment. That is difficult. That is anticipation at many levels.
 
TheBigYin said:
ƒ/8 and be there :)
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Perhaps that works for landscapes in the daytime, but there are so many forms of photography where it just doesn't work at all. f/1.8 would be more appropriate for several of my recent shoots.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
Background to 'f8 and be there'
en.wikipedia.org

f/8 and be there - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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I'd heard of it many times before, but find it's rarely relevant for my shooting. I don't do much street/journalism, DOF at f/8 is too narrow for some of my shooting indeed several of my lenses can't even go as fast as f8 (I don't just mean pinholes).
Even with the great iso range of digital I need more light for much of the rest of my shooting.

For sports shooters (with AF) today's attitude is probably nearer 'f2.8 and be there', which I suppose is just continuing the sequence from the days of the f64 club. :)
 
I'm 77 and can't remember thing's very well anymore. Remember my older brother got a twin lens Rolli for high school graduation. And I remember being envious if him. First nice camera came in the late 1960's in the service. Voighlander point and shoot and from there it went from a cool hobby to an expensive hobby. All those years and I know about all I really need to know. Only person I have to make happy is me. Not a clue what most the things most good photographer's, say, mean!
 
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TheBigYin said:
ƒ/8 and be there :)
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I tend to do this. My other maxim, that I have impressed on my wife too, is 'take the bloody shot'. How many times in the past have I seen something extraordinary and tried to faff about so I get the best picture only to have it change or disappear altogether. I read the maxim years ago and have endeavoured to adopt it at all times, as better a low quality shot than no shot at all. I do tend to leave my camera on f8 (or f5.6) and auto-iso in case that never-to-be-seen-again picture flashes by and I at least have a chance at it. With modern software one can often resurrect a dodgy picture but all the software in the world can't revive a photograph that was never taken in the first place.

(Of course, one has to take that last sentence with a pinch of salt as, these days, using AI, one can get a picture exactly like that, but that's in another thread).
 
Purely amateur photographer here. 22 years with my own (bought & paid for by me) camera - firstly a small Fuji bridge (602?), soon upgraded to a Nikon D100, although I did have to borrow some of Dad's lenses to start with.

Using Dad's camera - off and on from the age of 8 or 10 I guess. Hated the waiting for prints to come back, I never thought I was so impatient but I guess I am! Also hated the disappointment of finding out the shot hadn't worked and there wasn't a chance to go back and re-do it.
 
I started off in the 80s with a Pentax 110 Super, tiny little thing. I was given a Yashica rangefinder camera, awful thing that I hated and didn't use. Put me off, quite frankly. Returned to photography in 1991, went to college, uni etc, had a hiatus for a few years until around 2006, when I bought a digital compact. Decided to do it 'properly' again in 2012, with a DSLR, and have been shooting regularly since then. My most used camera now is an iPhone.
 
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