what was your reason

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matty198111

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mat
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im sure this has been asked before but i been thinking

basically the question is why did you get into photography, not so much how but why

money, hobby, got a camera for christmas ect

well as its my question i guess i should go first

basically i love being out doors and i take on any hobby that involves me being outside for a few hours to a few day sometimes even weeks.

i often go carp fishing for 4 days at a time, shooting/hunting and camping in places where there are not many people about. i love the great outdoors and try and spend as much time as possible outside and try and get my kids involved as much as possible.
in the many hours ive been on my own with nature or setting up somewhere to sleep under the stars ive seen some wonderful things, some beautiful and some abit weird and at times scary.
Never really occured to me to take a camera until early last year when i bought a cheap digital compact and soon wanted to upgrade.

well i still go fishing and on long walks ect but now i keep looking a portraits and wedding photos, i just love the candid shots and ive seen some incredible wedding pictures on here aswell as baby/children portraits so now i seem to be reading more and more and practicing with my missus and kids so hopefully in a few years i may have a brilliant wedding photograph portfolio

who knows

mat
 
I'd always liked taking photographs, when I used to go away for holidays or weekends with mates I always had a knack of getting loads of good candid shots of us rather than boring posed/group shots. It's not exactly "photography" but that was the main use of a camera when I was old enough remember. That would've been around 1998-2002ish.

Other than that, I didn't use a camera much until mid-2005, when I was going to a Ben Folds concert in London with a mate who was (and is) very much into photography. I decided I needed a decent camera for it so spunked out on a, top of the line :cool:, Sony P200 and when we were in the concert he showed me the very basics of using shutter/aperture settings to get shots of the show. He even introduced me to Flickr, I signed up for an account a couple of days after the concert to put the photo's up and that's about the story of where my adult interest in it comes from.

Since then I've slowly just read, asked, tried and learnt bits and bobs to get me along :)

Here's a pic from the concert..

19169838_8124a3e6c0.jpg
 
I honestly can't remember. My grandad was (still is at 80 something yrs old) a keen photographer, and my uncle was a photographer for the local paper and did weddings too. I got given a 35mm P&S camera at about 8 years old and it was my most treasured possession, I absolutely loved it. I always got given my grandad's old film SLRs when he got a new one too so as I got older I always understood how to get the exposure right by adjusting the settings.

Went away to uni, forgot about photography for a while. Had kids, and then 2 years ago got my DSLR and decided to work really hard.

So I just feel like I have always been into photography and just can't really remember why. What drives me now is to get great photos of my own kids. I suppose also when I was younger I used to take photos of my younger cousins all the time and I just love that feeling of giving a parent a photo of their child that they love. Always have done.

H x
 
The invention of camera phones are what really kicked it off for me. I was never bothered before but when I got my first Sony Ericsson camera phone (I can't remember which one but it was one of the first ones) I just started taking pics of pretty much everything :lol:

It's just kinda gone from there.
 
I feel the need to say how before why. :)

Someone left a camera (Nykon F430X??) in my place of business (Pub).
Put it somewhere safe, but no one claims. 3 months later it's Christmas day, pub shut, extended families round for Christmas dinner/party. Brother-in-law gets out his SLR camera. I say I have something like that in lost property and gets it out and use it. He showed me how to use it! "Put it on 'A' , that's the Automatic mode" he said. :) Anyway, got some good snaps, but just loved the feel of it. Couple of months later, (still using AP, thinking it's full Auto mode) take my daughter to Colchester Zoo and get some great portraits of her with a really nice shallow DOF. Her-indoors loved them, and so did I, so started to learn the basics etc. A month after that the camera was claimed back by the original owner! :eek::'(. Went to Jessops and bought a Nykon F50 cos by then I was hooked!
 
i started taking pictures of cars, bought an SLR and ventured out into other stuff :) ironically i don't really shoot any cars these days :)
 
Being fascinated by the technology was what got me started.
Mum was the family snapper, (Usually about once or twice a year when we went on holiday to the sea side and maybe at Christmas), and this thing had TWO viewfinders! One direct eye level and one bright line waist level.
She loaded it with this, even in those days, rather strange stuff called "Roll film" (620 not 120)! And you could look at the film through a little red window on the back! A few simple adjustments could be made to focus and exposure, and I just wanted to understand and "Master" it. But it was those twin view finders that really got me hooked. Fascinated by them. TWO, thats twice as many as other cameras! Imagine what it was like to a 3, 4, or 5 year old.
Then one day I was allowed to use it on my own and I shot off a whole roll of B/W. Started what so far has been a life long interest.

Thanks Mum. (And Mr Kodak).
 
On a similar vein to yours (OP).....spending time in the outdoors and toying with basic point n shoots over the years.:thumbs:
 
I sold a load of stuff from my house whilst clearing out junk, and I didn't need to buy anything out of the money I made from it and it was burning a hole on my pocket so I just looked around online for something to buy and thought a camera would be nice. Loved it ever since
 
Always played with point and shoot film and digital cameras over the years taking family snaps, even tried a second hand SLR but gave up after a few rolls of film as I didn't have a clue what I was doing.

A few years ago someone posted a picture on another forum I was on and sparked my intrest again, I wanted to be able to take a picture of a bird at the bottom of the garden and not have it turn out as a spec on the screen so took the plunge, read a few websites and ordered a camera.

Whilst waiting for it to be delivered I found this place and have learnt so much now the bird at the bottom isn't just a spec anymore now it's a brown splodge that resembles a bird and covers half the frame, who knows if I keep reading up on here in a year or two I may even get one in focus. :thumbs:
 
I'd had point and squirt film cameras for years and just used them for snap shots. In 2000 the Land Rover club started on a major clearance project and I bought a Kodak digital camera to document the works. In 2005. inspired by the pictures taken by a fellow land rover enthusiast on his DSLR, I bought a 300D.
 
My dear dad was a keen amateur photographer so at a very early age I was encougaged to play with cameras, I had one of my own before I was 10.
 
Always enjoyed taking pictures of my friends and holiday snaps, and have always owned a camera of some sort. I had a basic little Olympus film camera for years, then in 2002 when I got my first job I bought a 2 megapixel Fuji compact! Haha! Just took snaps on various digital compacts until I got together with my wife in 2007. She had a Canon film SLR, and did some photography & developing in the past, although not any more. She saw how much I liked using the compact and suggested an SLR.

Amazingly until this point, I had never even noticed the existence of (D)SLR cameras. I just saw them as 'big cameras' and not something I'd want to bother with. Had no idea at all about anything!

So my wife bought me a Canon 40D for my birthday in May 2009. Fell in love with it, took it everywhere. Read a hell of a lot on here and in books until I was confident with my settings. Invested in some lenses & a 5D mk II since then. Love it!

I've cut down on the number of pictures I take lately, aiming for quality rather than quantity. There's no one specific genre I concentrate on, I just enjoy it.

Made me think of a point though:

I think that if you already are in to something which photography complements it works well. E.g. Walking / hiking = landscapes, birds, Motorsport = cars, Music = gigs / clubs etc. A subject to work with that you know something about adds a lot to a photo.

I see threads on here saying 'what should I shoot?', and people who get their 1st DSLR and next month they have a website selling prints of any old random picture they've snapped. I think there's a lot to be said for subject, then camera. Rather than 'right, got good camera... now, what shall I shoot?'

Sorry for rambling!

via TP Forums for iPhone
 
The Observer Book Of Pond Life. Yes, seriously! As a strange child, I preferred sitting and watching insects to pointing sticks at other kids and shouting bang. I longed to take the pics in that book. Still do lol.
40yrs on, I'll get round to it, maybe this spring/summer.
 
I was inspired by the great photos that a friend from school kept posting on facebook and still am inspired by my contacts on flickr and posts on here also, I used to like taking photos as a kid and had P/S for as long as I can remember.

Matt
MWHCVT
 
For me it was a fairly simple and, I suspect, common trigger. A couple of years ago we were expecting our first child and up to that point I'd had the odd P and S camera but it would only come out at Xmas or birthdays etc.

With the upcoming birth though, we both decided we would like a better quality record of our child growing up so I bought a Canon 1000d with the IS kit lens, took a few shots and was hooked. I reckon that 80% of the photos I take are still of our daughter but I'm enjoying it enough that I gave my 1000D to my dad (who used to have a couple of Pentax ME Supers and a darkroom in the ensuite shower during the 80's) and bought a second hand 40D and some more glass
 
My mum was a keen photographer and gave me her fathers old camera, which had a brown leather case, a viewfinder that you looked down on through the top and for some reason wound on 2 for every one picture (e.g 24exp film got you 12 shots!) Expensive, clumsy, but I loved it because it was weird and old when all my friends had compact 35mm point and shoots. After doing GCSE photography and getting a D as I enjoyed developing film more than sticking photos to sugar paper, I kind of forgot about taking photos, though I always enjoyed other peoples.

Move forward 12 years and I married an artist, got a D90 as a wedding present and promptly got back into photography, mostly because I felt that the pictures I was getting with the "big camera" were no better than the photos I got with the "little camera" a bright pink, waterproof P&S!!
 
I have probvlems drawing the curtains but wanted to be able to get something more than fading memories of people and places - a camera lets me do that!
 
I got my camera because I wanted something new to play with but in the end I took it up as a hobby.
 
I was given an old box camera when I was 6. It took black and white film, 12 shots at a time. You lifted a metal flap on top and looked down a prism affair to see the image you were shooting (I seem to remember it was upside down?) then there was a lever around the lens to set f number and a lever on the side as the shutter.

Absolutely brilliant and bomb proof for a young kid. Been hooked since.
I must scan some of the shots from it.
 
Father in law gave me a canon 85mm f1.2L lens and i was going to sell it but then thought might aswell make use of it and buy a camera
 
POAH said:
boobs basically
Click to expand...

:lol::lol::lol:
:thumbs:

I was given a Nikon film SLR, model number escapes me now, and I really enjoyed the crispness of the shots. Majority camne out rubbish as I didnt know how to use it correctly, but the odd few that came out well (by chance) really gave me an idea of what was possible with a 'proper' camera.

Hooked from there


Oh...that and boobs ;)
 
bit of a fluke really, i heard of a flaw in the debenhams site at the time that let you put in as many voucher codes as you liked so i got a fuji S5000 for peanuts. then i got an olympus 1.4tc for it. then i replaced it a year or so later with my first SLR, the canon 300D.
 
I was training to be a wildlife illustrator at university so a lot of resource material was photography that I was taking. Did so much photography that I thought I'd move courses and with my illustration course not turning out as expected, it was a good decision. Did my three years and came out with a HND and a BA Hons in photography.

That was 2000 I graduated and aside from a few semi-random jobs working in the media, its panned out nicely since then :)
 
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What's not to like? I've had a camera in one form or another since I was a nipper. I got my first SLR at around 16 after my mate showed me his new Zenith E. I bought an Olympus OM10 followed by a Mamiya C330 which I still have to this day. I met another boy who was into B&W processing and learned the basics from him then started out on my own. Work, kids and marriage saw the cameras tucked away in the loft for many years. A small point and shoot was always at the ready though for special occasions. After another hobby took hold I found a need for better images to record it but Digital was the order of the day. My wife bought me a D60 for Christmas two years ago. I upgraded it to a D90 S/H from here and once again I'm hooked. So many new things to learn and I feel my photography is improving all the time even if the number of keepers doesn't bare this out. I'm about to purchase a new Sigma 10-20 and looking forward to exploring new avenues. Frustration comes from not having enough images to run through PP as I enjoy this part of it so much. One day I hope to dig out my old negs, scan them and see what I can get from them in this new digital, computerised age. It's a great hobby isn't it?:thumbs:
 
Wanted to be an artist but school ruined that for me, photography is bringing me back slowly. That and industrial archaeology, striving to record stuff before it's all grassed over in the name of the environment and health and safety.
 
I have always had an interest in photography, because I can't draw to save my life! It allows me to get creative. Plus I hate being in front of a camera, so keeping myself behind it is a fantastic way to solve this :D
 
Wanted to return the favour for my mates who'd taken shots of me doing my twin obsessons back then, Rock Climbing and being in a Band.

Soon found it was a great way to legitimately walk up to good looking women and talk them out of their Knickers :)
 
I was involved in motorsport so i wanted to keep a record some events, so the first slr was invested in and it went from there.
 
Always been into cars and I noticed people where posting good pictures of their cars on forums, much better than I could get with my phone.
So I bought a P&S and started to really enjoy it, my mrs could tell I was getting better at it so bought me a Nikon D40 for xmas a couple of years ago and from there Ive just carried on learning.
 
I've always liked good photographs, freezing a moment in history and all that, but never had the knowledge nor confidence to try something more that a camera phone.

Then work sent me on a course that included a week of photography teaching...the rest is history.....
 
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