So how did you get started?

tonester

tonester

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Tony
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I know that everyone gets into Photography for various reason, so how did you get into it I would love to know.

I got started very young more by chance than anything. I remember waking up one morning at the age of 11 or 12 to a very plush camera bag sitting in my living room. My father used to own a restaurant in Glasgow and always came home after we were all in bed so it wasn't unusual to find stuff like this.

I had a look through it and found 3 cameras and a multitude of lenses and speedlights. I was too scared to touch in case I broke them but they all looked amazing. I waited until my father surfaced in the morning and asked if I could have a proper look, he allowed me and I proper went to town on that bag. The first one I pulled out was a Canon AE-1 with a 50mm 1.8fd attached I instantly fell in love with the feel and the sound it made when you pulled the winder back and fired the shutter.(the sound of the shutter firing still gives me a buzz to this day). I honestly cant remember what the others were apart from the brands. Yashica and Nikon both quite similar to the Canon. I never let that camera leave my hand for days and was hounding both my parents to get some film for it. They eventually gave in and my journey began. I shot everything I could and took in as much knowledge as I could from the magazines of the time. I asked any pro that happened to pass through the family restaurant for tips and took the opportunity to show of my work which I kept in a vary small and crude PF on the premises.I then took a very long break for too many years (I found the demon drink and girls) all more important than any Camera, oh how I regret that decision now. I eventually purchased my first DSLR a few years back and it all came flooding back and I haven't looked back!!!

So please do tell me how you got into it was it by chance? Did you know it was what you wanted to do? or is it simply a hobby?

Thanks folks,

Tony
 
I got into photography because a friend of facebook kept on posting stunning images, and I wanted to take aviation photo, I saved up and got my 450D and a couple of lens, and I've hardly shot an aviation photo :bang: but I've loved every second of camera ownership and being out taking photo's honestly I cannot get enough of it, though I'm never had a bank balance since....photography can be and expensive *****
 
For me it started out with just wanting a good camera for photos of me and my friends at the skatepark. It evolved from there but I reached a point where I just wasn't using my kit and I needed cash, so I sold it all a few years ago.

The return has pretty much gone the same way in the sense I was sick of crappy point and shoot photos of the kids. So bought another dslr and yet again have the bug.....thankfully this time I have some more money.
 
Dad was a pro back in the '50s and '60s so there were always cameras around and a constant whiff of the darkroom and as soon as I was able to tell which way to point the camera, I was allowed to take a photo, although I'm sure very few came out! (At that age, I doubt whether I could focus the things let alone set shutter speeds and apertures even if I could read the meter!) When 110 appeared back in the early '70s, I got my first easy to use camera, not so much auto everything as pre set everything, from focus to exposure - rarely the correct exposure but by then I was at least able to switch the focus switch from the mountains to the face! Any inaccuracy of the exposure was taken care of by the latitude of negative film. Didn't get used very often - even back then I had to buy and P&P my own films, so I soon learned the value of getting it as right as possible.
 
My Dad gave me one of these when I was a wee nipper... and I was fascinated. He then bought me on of these when I was 14, and never looked back.
 
My dad had been a professional architectural and commercial photographer in the 60s and 70s and had retained an interest in photography so I grew up around it.

When I was about 10 or 11 my dad bought me a Practika, the only thing he could find with a meter but no automatic modes, so I would learn properly.

When I was 16 I needed to arrange some work experience through school but was out of the country when everyone else did their coffee making and photocopying so arranged a week with one of my dad's old mates. He was a top class commercial photographer specialising in beer and champagne. I had the strangest week, a whirlwind of craziness, photographing champagne, scooping dead badgers off the road to take to a friendly taxidermist who would stuff them in funny poses to use as props, trying not to fall for the trick of having your head in the softbox when the big studio head is fired, that kind of thing. Later on I found out my dad had asked the photographer to put me off going into photography!

I kept on taking photos but didn't have the patience for film. I once had to demonstrate the very first digital SLRs from Kodak to the MoD, that meant taking them home (at the time about £20k worth) and learning them, that was fun but prohibitively expensive.

I had a succession of digital P&Ss until a few years back I decided a digital SLR would be a good idea, one of my friends owns a large camera shop aimed at professionals so I asked him for advice, later that afternoon he was passing my office and dropped a 450D in for me to try. I was hooked once more.

As I got back into photography I found I really enjoyed taking landscapes, now, five bodies on I am a landscape photographer.
 
People always ask me this and I have the most stupid reason ever...

So firstly, I like gadgets! Anything that is technologically challenging, I have to have. New phones, computers, pens that do things like doubling up as a screwdriver lol.

One day I was leaving an ex girlfriends house and I had always wanted a "big" camera. For no other reason that I would enjoy pushing the buttons and stuff.

I never enjoyed Photography or looking at amazing photos...

I went into Jessops, spent £600 on a D5000 kit and that was the day my cool factor started to go downhill as my nerd factor went up lol.

I'll always love the technology side of Photography (of course since this was the only reason I originally got into it!) but now I enjoy making and sharing good images which did not take long once I had bought my camera.

Now I'm never without a camera and you can't take me anywhere without me scoping out new potential images...sad really lol.
 
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There was always cameras in our house when growing up. My parents have boxes of old prints, they would take film cameras everywhere. When they were left lying about, I would beg for a fresh roll of film to go out in the garden and shoot away. The excitement of waiting on that roll to return from the printers was like waiting for Christmas to me!

We weren't well off, so they were crappy p&s agfa jobbies, but I still had loads of fun shooting little creatures and my friends and family with them. I only wish I had been as good with my prints as my parents, I have very few left in a box somewhere gathering dust.

I didn't get a digital until I got one free with a pc, when I was in my early 20's, it was a VGA, less than 1mb, with no lcd, just shoot as if it were a film cam and then hook it up to the pc to view the images. From there on I bought dozens of compacts, I just always love to have some kind of camera on me all that time. Obviously I've progressed up through the tech a bit
 
Err.. The words "I was Given" keep reccurring as I compose this!
Age 7..."I was Given" a 110 instamatic.... as a birthday present, with three rolls of film. The pictures I took of my 7th birthday party though were 'spoiled' when I finished the roll, and then tried unthreading the film from the cassette to see the pictures! Well SOME-ONE had told me they were on the film! didn't tell me it had to be developed first! DID THEY!
Age 10.. I was about to become a transatlantic child. My Canadian father moved to Alberta & they were blocking out my shedule and organising 'accompanied' airplane tickets!...."I was Given"... an Olympus XA2 compact, to record my adventures. It recorded many, and that camera was a constant companion for twenty years, though it was mostly holiday snap-shots... just rather a lot of them.
Age 19.... I started Uni, and "I was Given" ... an Olympus OM10 SLR and a couple of lenses by my Dad... his old ones. He'd treated himself to something new and I don't think they offered him a good enough trade-in... so he gave it to me, as a suitable hobby for a Student... I suspect he hoped I would waste my money on film rather than pharmaceuticals!
Looking at my cameras, "I was Given"... actually MOST of them!
I am actually struggling to remember a single camera I have actually bought! At least one that uses film!
So basically... I got 'in' to photography, because, "I was Given" a camera... and did stuff I wanted to take pictures of!
 
Always had cameras in the house, originally an old Box Brownie but got my 1st SLR when I was a teenager ... Zenith or Asahi Pentax, can't remember which but interest progressed after joining a work camera club and having access to a dark room.
Eventually went with Nikon but work commitments took over until recent years when I discovered the Nikon DSLR.
 
Like others who have posted above, the blame lies with my father. He gave me a Canon rangefinder when I was in my early twenties and from that moment photography has been a constant in my life to a greater or lesser extent.

How different things might have been if he'd given me a Nikon :LOL:
 
I was given a Canon 350d for my good GCSE results, though I can't remember whether I asked for it, simply expressed an interest in photography or what! I messed around with it for a bit but didn't really pick it up again for another year or so, when I decided I wanted to study photography at University. Now I'm in my final year studying Photography & Video :)
 
When I was about 10 my best friends Mum came home from a school jumble sale with a box full of all the equipment needed to develop B&W film. She thought it might be something for us to do in the holidays.

We dragged my friends Dad's old Ilford Sportsman camera out of the cupboard and having shot a film, loaded it into the dev tank under the bed clothes on his bed (with the room already as dark as possible).

After being amazed that the development had even worked we set up a darkroom in a spare room at my Nan's house.

That would have been in the early 70's.

Have been taking pictures ever since, but have only really got to grips with my technique since the advent of DSLR use about 7 years ago.

My friend is also still taking pictures - he publishes http://www.flyer.co.uk/ magazine

David
 
Strange really, same again, i'm 28 now and my Grandad when he was alive many moons ago i was only around 7 or 8 and he had his big old camera.. always loved photos since then just carried on from there really. :)
 
Wife complaining about poor pics of our daughter. It kind of went downhill from there, but at least the family pictures improved quite a bit!
 
This has got to be the most illuminating and uplifting thread I've ever seen here!
Just wish I had an inspiring response myself, just the truth, my wife bought me a 450d for Xmas, and that's where my story begins.
 
I meant to add the bag of cameras I found that day in my living room were actually won by my father in a poker game!!! Which coincidently played a large part in my life prior to me purchasing my first DSLR!

I find it fascinating that most people on the thread have had an early influence!! What is it with the medium of photography that makes this so? Is it that as an art form ( and I strongly believe it to be) that its the most accessible? And most of us can express in one way or another the way we see the world!! I go back to a favourite quote of mine "photographers are not particularly talented we just see things differently"
 
I had a bit of a depression episode after my best freind of 8 years commited suicide.
I borrowed my uncles camera during the time i had off for bereavement. Went out on walks and took photos every day, posted them on fb and was lifted by the fact it was something i enjoyed and that people were saying i had a talent.
Bought my lil baby (canon 50D), and after doing numerous portrait shoots......i'm enjoying it more than ever.
 
3 months ago I sold my Xbox and decided this is how I want to capture my life. I love it, i have no intention of it becoming a career as I earn too much money doing what I do......
 
As a kid in the 70s and early 80s I always loved taking photographs on my Dad's camera.

Although it was never a profession I fancied, I did photography at college (OND & HND) in the late 80s.

I shot so much 35mm because we obviously had all the darkroom facilities for free but when I completed the courses I did very little photography for a few years because simply 'taking photographs' and having somebody else develop them didn't appeal as much and cost too much.

I sort of drifted away from photography in the mid 90s because 'early crap digital' didn't really float my boat.

Once digital SLRs became available I became satisfied once again I was able to take control of everything from a decent camera right through to the PP.
 
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My first serious foray into photography only started last year - after being disappointed with pics taken on a "once in a lifetime" holiday and being determined to do better. Forums like this haven't helped - what started as costing me a few hundred has now multiplied significantly! :LOL:
 
I traded one type of shooting for another.
 
I started after a friend and I got into urban exploring a few years ago.
We found our cheap point n shoots were no good for the low light/ pitch black / underground photography.
So I bought my first dslr, a little Sony alpha 200. I then upgraded and switched to camp canon as I got more into phoytography.
I found I was enjoying the photography more than the UE.
So these days its pretty much all photography and no exploring.
So no early influence for me. Just one hobby that lead to another.
 
i started because the guy i used to work for always took photos of jobs we had done, and kept them in a folder, and always used to impress me how good they looked, so after a chat about cameras with him,bought myself a camera. A canon AE1 program and the seed was sown, have had breaks from photography occasionally over the years. But still enjoy taking photos.
 
I bought myself a Praktica slr because I was never impressed with pictures from instamatics. From there I bought a couple more lenses, shot some weddings for friends, moved on to a Chinon (auto modes but could use my old lenses with an adaptor. Shot a couple more weddings then I bought a Bronica with accessories and then a couple of lenses and some mobile studio gear.

With that lot I went full time for a while before losing the love for it totally.

I sold the MF gear to buy a sports car, and shot very little for a few years. Prior to shooting a mates wedding, I had a camera accident and bought my first AF Canon, followed by lots more and the went digital when the 300d was launched.
 
As so often in this thread it was was the fact a camera was given.
In the '60s my father gave me this:

image001.jpg
 
I have always loved taking pictures with my compact, I have many photo albums. When I saw a photographer speak recently about travelling around with documentary makers - seeing his pictures and hearing his stories were inspiring and he is the reason I bought my DSLR. I enjoy the technical aspect of it as I like learning, I fear my bank balance will never be the same though :(
 
I don't come from a big family but we are very close. Trouble is over the years, to make ends meet we were rarely all at home at the same time as somebody was always at work. This resulted in non photo opportunities!!! Or at least you didn't want to take photos as so and so was missing etc!

But then a few years ago my first niece came along! Went out and got myself a sexy little compact! Loved it...then she grew up and strated to move faster! The compact needed upgrading, and thus the DSLR was bought! 450d twin lens kit and now I am hooked!!!!! I love it! just bought my first extra lens! 50mm f1.4! OMG!!!

So in a nutshell....it was the family! I am so loving this hobby!!!!

Bolly
 
When my son arrived I had no time for anything and was working quite hard in my day job along with a coping with an extremely demanding baby. I felt that I had no time at all for myself or the hobbies at the time. I was then usher at a friends wedding and part of my role was doing the running for the tog. We chatted a bit about his kit and that's when it got me that this could be a hobby that would fit with my family lifestyle. My son was, and still is my primary subject and I get a great deal of pleasure from producing a journal of him growing up. I have a large extended family so for Xmas 2011 I asked people to buy me a Jessops voucher rather than the usual socks etc. This gave me enough for my first D90 and kit lens. That was the start of an addiction that seems to grow stronger by the month.
 
As a kid I used to help out at the jumble sales and an old lady gave me a box camera.

I shot with that for a while, then came a 110.

For my 18th I got a Zenith SLR which I learned a lot from, sold it when I met my other half many years ago but stuck with the 110 just in case.

I then bought a few more film cameras, had a bit of a break, then found digital.

I then had a compact and a bridge camera but found they weren't quite what I wanted, so looked into DSLR.

Looked at both canon and nikon, decided on canon and bought a 350D.

I then found this forum, bought a 40d, took my son out shooting motorsports and had to buy another dslr for my other son.

I enjoy it and it gives me good memorable time with my two youngest.
 
Probably a common in but for me after having a long break since taking snaps as a kid it was when we had our first babies. I'm not quite documenting every moment but its getting more and more frequent :D
 
My Grandad had always been into photography, apparently going round my local town photographing demolitions and development sites (as a hobby). Looking at some of his photos was intriguing more than inspiring but it did light a small flicker and made me aware of photography. Anyway time moved on and I needed to borrow a camera, my brother-in-law lent me a Praktika MTL(5)? with a 50mm lens on. I was blown away with all the backgrounds being out of focus (yep, I was obviously using something like 1.8 for landscape shots). I got home and 'needed' a camera of my own. I bought a Pentax K1000...then the ME Super and eventually upgraded to the LX. Also bought a XA3 (which I still have). Then I 'discovered' girls and nights out lol. Never touched a camera for years , and I don't know what got me 'back into' photography but I started again with a Powershot G2 for around £600 I think with a MASSIVE 32mb CF card...........and now here I am........again.
JohnyT
 
My great grandad was a professional photographer and a barber and had a studio / barber shop on the Shankill Road in Belfast for many years.

My grandad was and still is a keen amateur photographer and gave me my first camera aged 7, a Polaroid Instant camera. As a kid I loved the thing, the instant gratification of getting the pictures straight away was immense. :D Unfortunately we became estranged from my grandfather when I was around 13 and contact with him has been limited from then. Although he did once promise to leave me his Leica gear in his will so who knows...

My parents had no real interest in photography and over the years as a family the majority of the camera's we had were all of the point and shoot variety and rarely did my parents even bother to get half of the film developed. When they moved house a few years ago we found a box in the attic filled with undeveloped film.

Then digital became the in thing and the first p.c we got came with a digital camera as a freebie. From then on I spent several years jumping from one compact to the next never really thinking of a camera as anything other than something to pull out when going on holidays.

Around 3 years ago after finding out I was about to become a father for the second time I bought my first slr from Jessops as I just wanted some better pictures for when the baby came as even though I had upgraded to a more serious compact camera I had not been that impressed with the pictures. Since then from buying a camera just to take better pictures of the kids I have become more interested in photography over all my other interests to the points were it has nearly overtaken football as my favourite hobby.

In the last year or so I have taken on some paid work and while it;s not something I would want to do full time at the moment, it's a nice release away from my day job.
 
I got lucky with a photo of some fish when I was a kid and my grandad gave me his camera.
 
I just upgraded my basic cameras the more i got into it the better the camera i got.

Now I can't imagine using anything else!
 
Well, for me in depends what you call photography - when I was very small I used to play with an old film camera, but couldn't afford to have more than the one roll developed so it sort of stopped there.

Much much my old boss (8 years ago or so) got a Sony SLR and I loved what he did with that and it rekindled my interest, but whereas he had all state of the art kit (being the MD and somewhat well off) I got a cheap ebay jobbie for around £30 and wasn't very happy.

Five years ago or so a friend of my wife's came for a visit complete with a Canon 400D and I loved it and by this point having a bit more cash and a new job the bug took me... now here I am not really that much better but with many expensive toys and a poor (if very generous) wife always wondering what I'll be upgrading next :eek:
 
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