What drove or inspired you to take up photography?

Had a Kodak 44a when I was about 11 years old. Even used Kodachrome slide film in it!
Really got into the hobby proper when I borrowed a Practica TL 35mm camera with 50mm lens from work for some reason in the early 1970s. I was so impressed by the sharpness it produced I had to have one.
Been through a series of cameras since then, but always been a Canon convert after giving up my earlier Practica LTL and then a Fuji SLR with open aperture screw mount...
 
I've had a lifelong fascination with the visual image. I was always drawing as a kid and had loads of illustrated books, and there was a drawer full of National Geographics that I used to love looking at.

I was always using my dads Yashica camera as a kid, so he gave me one of his old cameras he'd used in the 60's to use. It was crap, but it got me through till I was 11 and I got a Practica SLR for Christmas. That was 30 years ago and since then I've always had a camera to hand, but I only really started taking it seriously when I bought my first digital camera in 2002.

Since then I've learned a huge amount and like to think that I've improved every year in one facet or another of the many different parts that make up the jigsaw that is modern photography, e.g. Composing and seeing, exposing, post processing, printing, project work and also showing my work (publishing, exhibiting, publishing, etc). I think it's this journey of constant growth that has kept me hooked!
 
40 odd years ago I liked taking photos while in university. Once kids starting showing up and I began my teaching career photography somehow got forgotten. Fast forward 20 or so years and our daughter was getting married. I wanted to be able to take some photos so bought a 2mp Sony point and shoot. I started taking it to school to take photos of students. 2mp blurry photos of kids didn't cut it and so I started down the long and winding road of better cameras and lenses to where I am now.
 
For me the thing that drove me to photography is a love of the outdoors. Having the camera allows me to escape the mundane nature of life and allows me to focus my thought processes on the scene around about me forcing a focus onto the "here and now" as opposed to dwelling on the past and/or future.
 
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I'd always been interested in cameras when I was a little kid. My parents picked up on this and bought me a Canon AV-1 when I was 11, and from there I was hooked. As others has said, it was (and still is) about capturing beautiful sights, and a complete inability to draw (I blame this on being left-handed - complete lack of fine motor skills).
 
When I first moved from England to Oz, I didn't have any of my guitars or musical equipment. And although I had always dabbled into photography, this is when I first took it seriously. Then I went over to New Zealand and did a load over there.

When I eventually moved back to the UK I found my new 'calling' in London Street Photography. Something if you would have asked me about when I first started a few years back, I would have scoffed or just dismissed street photography. Now it is VERY important to me.

I have the same sort of approach as I do with music, which I have always had a very experimental take on. I find it important to experimental with different ideas on the spot while I am out, and when it comes to editing film scans: I like leaving in scratches and blemishes. All the natural/ human elements that get involved with the process it is important for me not to remove.

Having a clean, fully polished image anyone can do/ can look like anyone else's work. Sometimes it is better not to over do it. conversely, I find it important to put a lot of time and effort, it is important for me that people also realise stuff like that is not deliberately put in or added, but merely allowed to be shown for the human errors that crop up from time to time.

I also like to keep open about other people's experiences and ideas. I find it important to breed a culture of creativity, and try to help others (and myself) try to think and shoot outside the box where possible.

So yeah, I started out doing scenic landscapes and exotic creatures, and I've transitioned over to gritty urban scenes and people in the p***ed stained streets of London haha.

From this:
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To This:
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Ive always loved looking at landscape photos. Not so much now but i used to listen to youtube trance songs and they often have those dreamy world pictures with them... i really enjoyed just looking at them whilst the songs were playing.

In february 2015 i went to Iceland and had two months and just a phone camera to organise e everything. I wanted to take the best possible photos I could so I bought my first DSLR which i am still using today.

Ive been hooked on photography since.. not just landscapes though... motorsport, aviation, astro, macro, wildlife as well.
 
I started at school back in the 70's.. I was a most difficult child/pupil and basically the discovery of photography, totally turned me around.. I managed to get on and complete my O-level in photography and then wasted six years after leaving school trying to get into art college to study photography - got there in the end.. When I finished I applied to Royal College of Art to do an MA in Photography where John Hedgecoe was teaching and I failed two years running to get in.. that hurt.. anyway I got the opportunity to teach photography at a local college and then moved through many stages of post grad and post doctorial education and now find myself back in the teaching arena and doing something that I totally enjoy..

I work mostly with sight disabled and SEN children who have been exposed to natural disasters and have delayed PTSD; often having lost all or most members of their family. This work is right up my street as I also studied Psychological Pathology and Clinical Hypnotherapy.. so the skills when combined make my job a total joy.. My work is made possible by self funding via my love of travelling, doing landscape photography, then coming back to the UK, having exhibitions, and selling my work where ever I can find a commercial outlet.. and the cycle repeats itself each year..

My love of photography will never die because it is in my blood.. I am old school, got taught by Geoff Weston and was lucky enough to have attended one of the last Ansel Adams workshops back in the early 80's.. my knowledge and love of B&W has kept me grounded through the digital explosion of modern media.

http://efenty.wixsite.com/photos/special-projects
 
What an interesting and often very funny, read of everyone's introduction to photography!

It's something I've never given much serious thought personally. I mean, really, who cares? But when f11 magazine asked me to write up my photographic life, I had to evaluate that very question... why? If you're inclined, you can read the full article via this link in F11 Magazine. But why I started photography can be summed up in just one para from that article. Cheers!

From childhood I've been an inherent observer of life. Since first I can remember, I've always felt a little distant and apart, not fully accepting or accepted. My first camera was a Kodak box brownie 127 when I was about thirteen. Now looking back, I suppose this simple box gave me that physical barrier and distance I needed, as well as a way to socially interact in a way I felt I couldn't otherwise. So photography became a natural affinity for me, giving me an outlet, a way to express myself.
 
Nick Owen said:
What an interesting and often very funny, read of everyone's introduction to photography!

It's something I've never given much serious thought personally. I mean, really, who cares? But when f11 magazine asked me to write up my photographic life, I had to evaluate that very question... why? If you're inclined, you can read the full article via this link in F11 Magazine. But why I started photography can be summed up in just one para from that article. Cheers!

From childhood I've been an inherent observer of life. Since first I can remember, I've always felt a little distant and apart, not fully accepting or accepted. My first camera was a Kodak box brownie 127 when I was about thirteen. Now looking back, I suppose this simple box gave me that physical barrier and distance I needed, as well as a way to socially interact in a way I felt I couldn't otherwise. So photography became a natural affinity for me, giving me an outlet, a way to express myself.
Click to expand...

Glad you put up the link Peter, as have just read it and really enjoyed so thank you. I like what you say about Not having a zoom lens too.
 
My father was a keen photographer and let me use his SLR when I was a teenager. What fascinated me, and still does, is the capacity to isolate a single moment in time. Is still find that pretty surreal.
 
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