Where did you start out and where are you now.

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Name
Andy
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Just wondering as a hobiest who loves the art...
Where did you all start off on your photography career and what do you do now..
I started off as a new dad wanting to get some nice shots of his son... Shooting in full auto mode. I now have a good understanding of the camera I shoot on (d3300) and in my spare time if I'm unable to get out shooting I'm either reading up on things or watching a few of my favourite video bloggers on YouTube which have greatly helped my understanding...
Im 32 years old and wanting to take this journey further in the future but really unsure of the direction to go and the best way to get there!
 
I started as a kid who wanted a camera like his father, and was bought an 'empire-made' job that took some kind of film. My parents paid for a couple of films to be developed before deciding that they couldn't afford my hobby.

I've worked part-time professionally in the 80s, and now just take pictures for personal pleasure.
 
I started as a kid who loved Polaroid cameras, liked the ability to get the photo straight away.

I now have a wedding photography business with my wife and a commercial photography business that is my own.
 
I started with a Practika from Argos when I was 19; 35 years later I’ve run and wound up a couple of photography businesses, where I am now isa good question. It’s so long since I’ve been primarily a hobbiest that I’m not altogether sure what I’ll be shooting next year or the year after. We certainly don’t need all the gear we currently have , but I don’t know what we need as I don’t know what I’ll be doing.

The only certainty is that I’m not giving up any time soon, photography is part of who I am (moreso than what I do)
 
I have always had an interest in photographs and by extension photography. Started with a Zenith when my dad got something else but I can't remember what. Then got an OM10 before moving onto digital. Whilst recovering from cancer I got my Canon 500D with the intention of "upping my game" for various reasons that never really happened and whilst I have not given up with photography I don't spend much time with the camera nowadays, even though I have retired. Shame really but I just can't get motivated to do it. Other hobbies have taken over.
 
I started with a 1930s 6 x 6 Agfa folding camera with half the folding viewfinder missing (so essentially just a wire frame). I bought it while I was doing my A levels and found it at a jumble sale. I bought it because it was intriguing. I discovered that I could use it to make pictures - not pictures OF something, Pictures. My main subject was the old mining buildings around where I lived. Once I started work, I bought a Zenit E (this was 1973) which cost me four weeks wages. This camera also produced Pictures. I now have three Zenit Es, all from the early 1970s and all working well. I now have a nice digital Canon 80D and rather more film cameras.

I am an amateur (ie I do this for love) who regularly exhibits both on my own and with my local Artists Society. I occasionally sell a picture or two.

I have been known to significantly process my pictures - back in the day, I was a big fan of the Sabatier effect (aka solarization) and frequently added colour using gouache.
 
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Had a 110 film camera as a kid and my dad had a 35mm manual Canon fixed lens that I used to play with. Had a 35mm SLR at uni but really only used it on auto for projects and did a bit of printing from 35mm negatives in black and white. At the time developing a film and getting the prints was a luxury expense.
Moved to compact digital for trophy shots when fishing and holiday snaps once that became the standard.
6 or so years ago bought a bridge camera and tried to teach myself photography properly. Became frustrated as the book and internet at the time would give the technical elements but not any reasoning and wider explanation. It was only at the start of this year when I was off sick for a week and came across a number of youtube channels that it all made sense.
There is now a wealth or really excellent online tutorials and channels. Bought a D3400 in the Spring and feel I have got to grips with it finally. My interest lies with Landscapes and outdoor so the challenge now is putting myself in the right places with the right light and working on composition
 
I started with a brownie 127. I have done weddings and portraits. I now do wildlife and still the occasional wedding.
 
Started out swiping whatever old film cameras happened to be in the house during the mid - late 80's, I'd 'claim' them as mine, buy rolls of film, and be constantly disappointed when the photos returned - but hey, you got a free film! so on to the next :)

It wasn't until my early 20's when I [stopped drinking, fighting and chasing skirt as my main hobbies] got the urge for something with more control. The digital era was getting stronger and I was fascinated that you could review the images right after taking them, and didn't need to wait up to 2 weeks to see results back via the local chemist/photo store. Went through a bunch of shoddy little compacts, but each one getting better than the last - 10mp!! woah!! - Got my first bridge camera as a Christmas present and spent every spare hour reading up on exposure triangles, DOF, rule of thirds - all that good stuff we all still get pedantic about today - only back then it was fun, I was learning and loving it. When I hit the limits of bridge cameras [the ones then were limited to 8sec/1/2000, poor on cam flash, fiddly menus and controls and not-so-wonderful IQ] I started looking on local advert sites for used dslr. My first was actually a Sony! A used but minty A200 and paired that with a Minolta 50 1.7, I was in heaven, the difference in image quality was amazing for me, and I discovered what 'bokeh' meant. I would go on to Nikon dslr after a year with that, and over ten years and 4 bodies I had done some weddings, christenings, 21st parties, family portraits, music gigs ... anything that would net a few bob to pay for more gear. Jack of all, master of none ... Had a website and had cards made up, pretended I was going to be a pro some day ... but it ended up with me more being that guy - "Hey, we'd love you to come to our party! ... don't forget to bring your big camera, cheers" ... a bunch too many freebies for favours later I ditched that idea and fell back in line with the hobbiests, all i ever really wanted to be.

Been chopping and changing, buying and selling through various systems since. Still learning, it's not as fun as it used to be, and I have packed it in a few times, but I always come back, still hungry.
 
I started by buying a nice car and wanted some decent photographs of it :LOL: Spent a day cleaning it and took it out with my Fuji bridge camera, the shots were crap so I went back to the drawing board. Went online and discovered DSLRs, and how good they were, so bought my first one, a Sony A200, because obviously mine was a camera problem. Spent another full day cleaning the car, took it out with the A200 and the shots were just as crap as the Fuji. By that point I was £300 in so decided to learn to use the camera properly. Ironically, then sold the car later on to afford better camera gear :LOL:

Since then I’ve shot studio stuff, families, portraits, abit of fashion and then fell into wedding photography which took hold of me. Pretty much exclusively shoot weddings now, apart from shots of my own family :)
 
I started by buying a nice car and wanted some decent photographs of it :LOL: Spent a day cleaning it and took it out with my Fuji bridge camera, the shots were crap so I went back to the drawing board. Went online and discovered DSLRs, and how good they were, so bought my first one, a Sony A200, because obviously mine was a camera problem. Spent another full day cleaning the car, took it out with the A200 and the shots were just as crap as the Fuji. By that point I was £300 in so decided to learn to use the camera properly. Ironically, then sold the car later on to afford better camera gear :LOL:

Since then I’ve shot studio stuff, families, portraits, abit of fashion and then fell into wedding photography which took hold of me. Pretty much exclusively shoot weddings now, apart from shots of my own family :)

Your Fuji bridge must have been a lot better than mine :D Or it was most likely the lens made the bigger difference in my case :)
 
Your Fuji bridge must have been a lot better than mine :D Or it was most likely the lens made the bigger difference in my case :)

IQ increased with the A200 but my photography skills did not :LOL: well they did later on but I wasn’t immediately happy because everyone knows owning an SLR makes you a pro! I started out with the 18-70 which was alright, bought the cheap 70-300 which was okay for the money but took forever to focus. Then bought the 50mm 1.4 which was excellent, just a little long on crop for me :)
 
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IQ increased with the A200 but my photography skills did not :LOL: well they did later on but I wasn’t immediately happy because everyone knows owning an SLR makes you a pro!

To be fair to the old s1000fd, which I did love and learned a lot using, I also discovered Photoshop/post processing when I switched to dslr - that made the biggest difference if I'm honest. But also that old Minolta 50mm was a wee cracker. I'm not sure I even knew what a prime lens was before getting it. Noisey little bugger, but tack sharp. I could also do a lot more with even that cheap dslr, it's when I really started to take over control of my images
 
I always had film cameras as a kid in the 80’s, then bought a Digital IXUS v2 in 2003 when I got my first job. After a few years shooting with that I started borrowing my Dad’s Nikon FM2, before buying a Canon 20D as a graduation present to myself.

I started off shooting snowboarding, as that was my main hobby at the time, but moved to shooting motorsports. I did that for 3 years, before meeting my wife and not having so many free weekends. I switched to shooting travel and landscape and then my little boy when he arrived.

I’ve recently switched from Canon to Fuji, which has reinvigorated my interest.
 
Started with my dad's camera when I was a kid. My dad had a yashica SLR with couple primes but I didn't use it much since it was kinda big for my little hands. The plasticy little Pentax fixed lens one was light and worked better in my hands. Took the Pentax on few holidays, got a few nice pictures (and some not so nice). I kind of that a faint idea on how to set the camera but never really fully understood it.

Then came along my brothers... (2003) So my dad bought our first digital camera. A canon 3.3mp bridge camera with full manual controls. It was awesome, I still have some lovely memories from it. I was the main user. I shot most of my family pictures and holiday pictures at the time.
Then at while at Uni I got an opportunity to travel to Egypt (2008). I asked my dad for a new camera and he got me Nikon p&s with 8mp (yay!). Fully auto, no manual controls apart from self timer and turning off auto-flash lol. Anyway my dad had to buy me a new phone and he didn't want to spend more on a fancy camera. Also he didn't trust me to keep a fancy camera safe. (p.s. I still have this camera and it still works :D )

Anyway between finishing rest of uni and finding my feet in the real world I kinda forgot about cameras and photography. The smartphones were a thing by then and I took the odd snapshot with it.
Once I had settled down and had some money i decided to go to Japan (2013). Couple friends joined me. They bought new p&s for themselves. I decided to just use the camera I had (big mistake!). In Japan, I started noticing how bad it was in low light, my friends' p&s weren't any better. My camera could only take up to 4GB SD card while my phone had 16GB. Long story short I came back from my holiday resolved to sort out my camera. I decided I will never again go on a holiday and be let down.
I started looking for DSLRs as soon as I got back without wasting a minute. There were so many options, all very confusing and realized how far things had moved. In my searches I came across the EVF. Felt it was the best thing since sliced bread. Was convinced by Sony's SLT+EVF tech along with the massive 10fps!!! in a consumer level camera. So I bought my first DSLR with my own hard earned money the sony A57. Since then I have changed bodies many times also tried Fuji, Nikon, Eos M, Oly, Panasonic etc. In the end came back to Sony (rather annoyingly!!). There are many things I dislike about my camera but it works the best out of the lot at the moment. For my backup I really like Panasonic (big fan!), had and loved their DMC-CM1 phone. Now using the LX100.
I photograph anything and everything :D Recently had a child so most of my time goes into that now.
 
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I started about 13 yrs old wanting to photograph a Robin for my mum, it was her fav bird and as I couldn't draw a photo was the obvious choice - and I started with a Zenith EM film camera

Although I really liked taking photos it wasn't until digital came along that I'd say I really loved it, and I love it now both as a hobby & professionally more than I ever have before

Oh and it took me about 27 years to get a decent shot of a Robin, which hung proudly on her wall until her death earlier this year - the print is incredibly faded but I just can't throw it away

Dave
 
Oh and it took me about 27 years to get a decent shot of a Robin, which hung proudly on her wall until her death earlier this year - the print is incredibly faded but I just can't throw it away
Doesn't this sort of sum up what photography is about for most of us. A memory, I don't know how good the photo of the Robin is (I would guess pretty good), but i don't think your mum would have been thinking about it's quality (obviously I didn't know her), it was something you did for her and she would have loved it. Now it's your memory. :)
 
Doesn't this sort of sum up what photography is about for most of us. A memory, I don't know how good the photo of the Robin is (I would guess pretty good), but i don't think your mum would have been thinking about it's quality (obviously I didn't know her), it was something you did for her and she would have loved it. Now it's your memory. :)

Very much so - photography can be used just to create pictures, art etc. but in its simplest form it create memories, or more specifically triggers to a memory

My daughter yesterday posted a photo of us together from around 17 years ago, its a simple snap of us in a cafe taken by my wife. I immediately remembered that I was wearing my fav t-shirt at that time and even how it felt as the material was especially soft, and the same with my daughter's t-shirt too as that was also a bit different; this led on to where it was taken and then holiday memories came flooding back too

Photography is awesome for that :)

Oh, and the Robin photo isn't actually that good but she loved it

Dave
 
as with PhilV - a Praktika from Argos, at the age of 15 for me, because I was getting into cycle-touring, and walking/climbing - and wanted to document what I was doing. Talking about this in class at school caught the ear of the chemistry teacher, who pointed out we had a darkroom that was basically not being used as the school had closed it's photography club a couple of years earlier. Re-Opened it with a friend who was my walking/climbing partner, and the helpful chemistry teacher (who, fair enough, had the ulterior motive of making us better pupils in chemistry lessons - it worked, I got my A-Level Chemistry at an A grade...)

Walking/Climbing escalated from the dales to Scotland, Scotland in Winter, The Alps, Andes, Himalayas... Photography was still for me documenting and showing off where I'd been, but my Mate got into the visual side, wanted to make films, ended up at film school, directed one of his graduation pieces with me as cameraman in the alps, climbing "the Big one, The Nasty one and the Pretty one" (Mt Blanc, Eiger and Matterhorn) in a summer...

Real life and need for a job meant I didn't shoot all that much, but my mate graduated, and "fell into" Pro photography as a side-job to his work as a gopher in a TV facilities house. He'd do anything - Commercial, Advertising, Actors Headshots and even Weddings. I'd help when the jobs were on weekends, or interesting, or if he'd budget to pay me...

So, I built room sets for Bathroom Designers, Wardrobe Manufacturers, Bar Equipment Sellers, came up with tabletop rigs for everything from Pasta Sauce to Cheap Nasty English Sherry. I also second-shot on quite a few weddings - basically doing what's currently the more common "reportage" kind of thing, wandering around with 3-4 rolls of film in a 35mm while the "set peice" stuff was done by my mate on 120 with the 'blad.

I also got dragged into a short stint on a Cruise Ship, a very hectic month while the 'tog had broken his leg in a "falling p***ed off the gangplank" situation...

Eventually my mate Decided to get himself some premises - a shop came up in town, where he could put a minilab in - do film processing downstairs, and have a studio above... Worked brilliantly for 9 months, he was coining it in, then Max Spielman opened 200 yards away and undercut his prices big time - couldn't compete, as the economy of scale on chemistry, paper etc, and the deals they had on the minilabs (it's always gonna be cheaper per unit to buy 50 minilabs direct from Noritsu, than to lease 1 minilab from Agfa) - it was a shame, because I was really enjoying helping in some of the aspects of that business as well - it was great to run a studio upstairs, and basically just send the Client downstairs with a roll of 35mm and say "Tell them to put that through straight away for prints..." Nearly as quick as shooting polaroids for feedback from the felt-tip fairies (art directors).

Anyhoo.... He went bust. Sold all his camera and lighting gear to me before it happened, at a really good price, with the proviso that if he came back to me in the next 3 years, I'd sell it back to him at what it'd cost.

It took him 6 years to get the money together. I sold him all the kit he'd sold me back at cost.

He then GAVE me the EOS-3 and EOS-1V bodies, and the F4 L holy trinity lenses - and told me that any of the other kit I wanted, I could borrow whenever I needed it.

Since then, I've gone digital, discovered this place, helped with the POTY Competition, Learned a bit about Still Life Art stuff, generally been helpful enough around here that they gave me a green badge and told me to help out if I can.

After Nearly dying 3 years ago, photography has taken a bit of a back seat - i've had to concentrate on getting fitter, healthier, and - getting a "day job" after the failure (well, fizzling out) of my freelance work as it seemed my clients weren't over keen in having mission critical IT work done by someone who was possibly doing to drop down dead of another heart attack.

So, it's a while since I picked up a camera in anger, my Photo MoJo isn't really there at the moment, but I still keep "pottering around" on here, and try and be helpful where I can (usually in the F&C section, as that's where the bulk of my years in photography lie)
 
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I'm 35 now, so I got into photography at about 28

I was not particularly interested in photography about 7 years ago, until I saw a photo of a pub lunch taken with a shallow depth of field - and I wondered how that was done. Someone had taken it with a 5d Mark II, full frame sensor with a fast lens... after checking the prices I thought I'd never spend that much on a camera...

2011 - I bought a Sony A580 and particularly got into macro (for a short while) and it was lure of the MP-E 65mm that got me to buy the Canon 5d Mark II within about a year of starting out.

all the time i'm photographing nature, people, pub trips, christmas parties, I got into street photography - just lots of things..

2012 - I took my camera to a friend's wedding and took some photos which they loved (85mm 1.2!) and after that another friend of theirs who invited us to their wedding asked if I could bring my camera, following that I was asked by another friend to be the official photographer for their wedding. I eventually accepted, though the father of the bride was a wedding photographer himself - so I was plenty nervous..

2013 - I did my first paid wedding for someone I did not know, and shortly following that I thought 'never again!' it didn't seem worth the stress...

2014+ - I was asked to be a second shooter and I have been second shooting weddings for several years, and still do it now.

2016 - I started shooting local live music for fun, I know some musicians I went back stage with them to take photos and stuck around to shoot other acts doing their rehearsal, the person who ran the show loved my photos and I still shoot for him. Off the back of that I'm getting paid gigs and photoshoots.

2018 - In March I started photographing events for a private school, now that has escalated into me photographing for three private schools

August 2018 - I was made redundant from my web job which has paid for all my gear up to now, I have decided to go full time photography.

Now - I was meaning to push weddings but with three private schools providing work I have not been in a rush, so I am yet to book my first wedding as a full time photographer.
 
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I bought a 5D (the original one) and the 100-400 when they came out thinking it would be easy. It lasted around 3 months before giving up as I never bothered learning. Last year I decided to try again and bought a Sony A6000 (so glad I did). Not long after I bought the A7ii and it became my main hobby.
 
1st camera was a Kodak Instamatic. Then I used my mum's Retina which was ancient (20+ years old!) when I got hold of it. Just got into medium format film recently so digital is taking a back seat (apart from portrait work 'cos I can't manual focus for toffee)

It's been a hobby most of my life, but only when I went digital did I really start to get into it (because digital is easy and I'm lazy). I picked up a teaching qualification a few years ago now and was fortunate enough to get part time evening work teaching adults at our local 6th form college 2 nights a week for 24 weeks each term. What I love the most is seeing people start to be positive about their own work and seeing them improve from happy snappers to photographers with vision. I love photography and I love teaching. The pay's not enough to give up my day job, but I don't have to do marketing which is a total plus in my opinion.
 
I started out with a Kodak Instamatic my Dad gave me when I was about 9, living in Hong Kong. That graduated to a Pentax Spotmatic with 50mm and 135mm lenses, metered manual shooting after instruction from Dad, by about 14. Over the next few teenage years, mostly in Hong Kong, I added to the Pentax outfit with an additional body and 28mm lens, whilst Dad also got me an Exa 1a with a 200mm lens for photographing aircraft at the airport (Kai Tak in HK and Staverton back in UK). Over subsequent years I stuck with the Pentaxes until in the late 90's (my 40's) I upgraded to a Pentax MZ-5 with a couple of zoom lenses, to get Av and Sv modes and autofocus, and added a Bronica ETRSi outfit for landscapes. I dropped out of the hobby then for a few years, but in about 2009 replaced all of my film kit with a Nikon D300 plus 18-200 zoom. I didn't use that much though, I felt that digital removed a sense of "soul" from photography. After a few years gap, I've lately come back to this hobby in my early 60's, seeing the value of digital for certain work so using the now-old Nikon but also an M43 Olympus outfit put together from eBay, but also rediscovering film with a mixture of antique and more modern cameras. So for me I think I'm now getting more from this hobby than I did when young; back then it was about recording people, events, aircraft, to capture memories like Phil said, but now I'm enjoying the process and the discussion more than worrying about the results.
 
I started when I was around 15 with a Canon EOS 50e. I wanted to photograph landscapes as a hobby because I wanted to but couldn't paint them . Now 20 years later I somehow ended up shooting weddings for a living . As a hobby photography is now at the bottom of my list.
 
Started with a Boots 110 Minigrip

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-...tridge-Camera-Made-in-Hong-Kong-/222992133495

Went via a Minolta 110 SLR & Praktika Super TL to having no camera at all for decades.

I was given a cheapo digital as a wedding present.. fast forward a bit..
... then started photographing some of the interesting folk I know. And that's much more about the people, what they do & the lights I point at them than it is the camera.


Im 32 years old and wanting to take this journey further in the future but really unsure of the direction to go and the best way to get there!

Photograph what you're interested in. Practice, study, analyse, repeat. Then forget the theory and have fun.
 
Started out aged 10 in 1945 with a present of a second hand 6x9 folder (no name) with a f 7.7 lens and 4 speeds. a few films and a basic processing and contact printing kit.
Eventually and after Army service studied photography at the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts, and spent my working life as a photographer with spells in graphic design and litho printing. ending last ten years as a college Print and photographic manager.
Have used most sorts and sizes of camera. from 35mm to 10x8 glass plates. but mostly used 2 1/4 sq and 5x4 large format.
 
I think I was 7 or 8 and given a toy camera which you sent away and got the square, black and white prints back in comb-bound format. I remember beiong hugely disappointed with my first photo - which was of a wild rose in a hedge. It had looked like it filled the frame, but was a mere speck on the print. A valuable lesson learned in how we look and see things.

Next camera was a126 Instamatic at 11 which was used for holiday snaps. Next I was bought a Zenith E to use for an A level project in1976 and that's when I started taking photos for their own sake. I upgraded to a Pentax ME with a 50mm and a 28mm lens when I left school and stuck with them until 1991ish.

Looking back the photos I took in my late teens and early twenties aren't all that different to the ones I take now. Similar subjects, similar compositions, same lack of interest in making technically perfect photos! Strangely, despite having bought far too many lenses in recent years I still prefer the 50mm/28mm combo.
 
I got my first camera at the age of 10, a Kodak Instamatic. I took a lot of pictures and one day I took a picture of my sister and a horse with the sun behind them. In the shot I got back (this is with a film camera...) my sister and the horse were in silhouette and it hit me that a camera could be used not only to capture the scene but also to get a more artistic result. That got me thinking.

I later had a few compact film cameras but a big change came when I started earning decent money. I worked hard and started to buy myself something each month as a little reward and once I'd got all of the suits, watches and hifi that I wanted it was new camera time so I walked into Jessops and asked for a camera that was better than my compact and came out with a Nikon SLR which I used for something approaching 20 years. RF's came and went too. I went digital with Fuji and then Canon DSLR's and then went mirrorless with Panasonic MFT and later with a Sony A7.

I still like simple cameras and I still take more or less the same pictures but more recently I've started to take more natural looking unposed shots too with the aid of AF and face detect. The fact is though that in the last few months I've taking fewer pictures than at any time as I just don't get the free time now.
 
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I started out with a childhood interest in natural history, and wanted to take wildlife photographs. But actually started (at 11years old) processing and printing b/w prints in my bedroom, before I owned a camera. Photography then rather eclipsed my interest in wildlife. By 16 I was working evenings and weekends at my local photographers. Worked professionally in photography for 15 years, where it was both my work and way of life. I always saw the work part as allowing me to develop the skills I needed for the personal part.

After this 15 years, studied Ecology at University and began working as an Ecological Consultant, and for the last 15 years been teaching Decision Science, Nature Conservation and Animal Behaviour, to undergraduate and post-graduate biologists, while only maintaining a peripheral interest in photography, neither consultancy or teaching give you any time to do anything but work. However, four years ago I started teaching a module on "Digital Imaging for scientific discovery and communication" which allowed me to devote some serious time to photography again :)

I retired 3 months ago, and photography is back being at the centre of my life as it was 30+ years ago. I've been really lucky to have spent my life working in things I feel passionate about (wildlife and photography), and I am looking forward to becoming a "photographer" again.
 
I started taking macros and after a long journey this year is so s*** than I am not even doing that at the moment. Only commercial real estates. The autumn so far is developing pretty badly here in UK and Euro trip collapsed due to crap cars and crap mechanic.
 
I can't draw, I can't paint (well I can do both, but really badly), which is a bit frustrating when my dad is an artist and sculpture, my younger brother is also a sculpture and artist, my older brother although not an artist can draw very well and my mum was a sculpture. Other than my older brother, they all have or still do work in the film and television industry. So I thought I can be creative, I just need a medium to be able to express it. Photography is what I came up with, so about 10 years ago I bought a fuji bridge camera, I can't remember which one, then after a couple of years I bought another one (the next model up). Although these cameras had manual and auto settings, they never came out of auto. I just didn't know enough about camera's at the time, I didn't know what you could do with semi auto or manual. My photos, were just of family, pets and days out. What inspired me to take more of a real intrest in photography was my wife's horses. They are wonderful creatures, very expressive, big, strong and they are all different. This lead to me buying a dslr, I still didn't know much about camera's. I didn't have much of a budget, didn't do any proper research, so bought the wrong thing for what I wanted to do, action shots is what I wanted and even though I could get them, it was a bit limiting with it's slow burst rate and 9 focus points. But I learnt so much with that camera (Canon 1100d). Then I discovered this forum (I was actually directed here from a different forum based in America) and it has really made a difference to me and my photography, I'm still not great, but I'm a lot more competent and understand so much more than I did. Then I bought another Canon camera a 50d and even though it was actually older than my previous camera, I really liked/like it, it felt good In my hands, still only 9 focus points but I had improved my technique and could keep a single focus point on a moving subject/horse pretty well, it has a faster burst rate and all focus pints were x type. By now other types of photography began to intrest me abstract, creative, macro, flowers etc. So now I'm on my 3rd dslr, still Canon an 80d, I really am happy with it and can't see a need to change anytime soon, it does all I ever need it for and more. What I have come to learn though is other than some specialist types of photography, the gear really is a small part of photography and I've learnt that from being on here, from all (well nearly all) of the regular posters.
I think this is the longest post I've ever written, so sorry if I've bored you all :D
 
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2016 - I started shooting local live music for fun, I know some musicians I went back stage with them to take photos and stuck around to shoot other acts doing their rehearsal, the person who ran the show loved my photos and I still shoot for him. Off the back of that I'm getting paid gigs and photoshoots.


With this kind of shooting what do you do? Ttl flash (on camera hotshoe) any advice for this, lens recommendations, Aperture priority with a decent depth of field? My friend is in a band and asked me around 6 months ago if I would shoot him but had very little confidence and no experience in this field so would have been clueless!
Thanks if you are able to offer any tips on this!
 
With this kind of shooting what do you do? Ttl flash (on camera hotshoe) any advice for this, lens recommendations, Aperture priority with a decent depth of field? My friend is in a band and asked me around 6 months ago if I would shoot him but had very little confidence and no experience in this field so would have been clueless!
Thanks if you are able to offer any tips on this!

https://gallery.danielcook.com/

I have various galleries on there, I haven't done anything where flash would be appropriate.

I shoot wide open, typically around ISO 1600/3200 and a shutter speed of 1/125th-1/180th
 
, typically around ISO 1600/3200 and a shutter speed of 1/125th-1/180th
I wish my camera could handle ISO like that. As soon as I shoot more than 400/800 the noise is awful on it! Especially in low light.
Good images you've got though. I think I might just have to go for it at some point and go out and shoot a band!
 
I wish my camera could handle ISO like that. As soon as I shoot more than 400/800 the noise is awful on it! Especially in low light.
Good images you've got though. I think I might just have to go for it at some point and go out and shoot a band!

If I couldn't go above ISO 400/800 I'd use a fast lens 1.4/1.8 and shoot at 1/60th and take a few more photos to get a keeper out of the many blurred (but as Phil says just up your ISO and shoot at a reasonable SS)

But if you've got the opportunity/environment in which flash is welcome then not so much an issue!
 
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I wish my camera could handle ISO like that. As soon as I shoot more than 400/800 the noise is awful on it! Especially in low light.
Good images you've got though. I think I might just have to go for it at some point and go out and shoot a band!

Just going through last nights images, I think the lights were dimmer than usual as photos are a little more underexposed with typical settings, but just for fun - here's what ISO 3200 looks like without processing.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/62198876@N02/45353978542/in/dateposted/
 
I wish my camera could handle ISO like that. As soon as I shoot more than 400/800 the noise is awful on it! Especially in low light.
Good images you've got though. I think I might just have to go for it at some point and go out and shoot a band!
I doubt very much that thats an objective choice.

4 issues to consider:
1 if you underexpose noise gets a lot worse.
2 A Nikon camera of that age should comfortably shoot over 800 - often what photographers consider unacceptable is not noticed by customers Ive got an A3 print from a 300d shot at 1600ISO thats perfectly usable (15 yr old Canon)
3 Try some decent NR software - carefully
4 A noisy image is better than a blurry one (keep your SS up)

But if the above doesnt convince, theres nothing wrong with some flash.
 
I started as a kid using a Cosmic 35 by the Russian Lomo company that my dad had brought for me ( he has a facination with all things Russian). I never really took to it other than a few holiday snaps. My dad died and I ended up with all his cameras mainly film with one or two Digital point and press cameras they were put in a cupboard and forgotten for a few years. Then I went to Whitby Goth festival, My Mrs and me are alternative types but she is/was a Goth and persuaded me to dress up. I choose to dress as a Victorian gentleman and to be honest felt like a right prat until I got out on the streets of Whitby and was mobbed by photographers sometimes taking an hour to cover 100 meters I ended up loving the attention and got talking (my constant talking to people also winds up Mrs Badger so extra bonus) This made me decide to dig out my dads film cameras and after a bit of research to my surprise you could still get film and still get someone to process it (I had thought film dead !) As at this point I was unable to do my job due to illness I had the time to go at it full throttle (this was early 2017) I brought some more Vintage film cameras ,tried all the cameras out that I had inherited, I was even given a DSLR which after much annoyance I found was faulty (It took me sometime to work this out as I had very little experience). I think I have come a long way in just under two years but realize i still have a lot to learn. My real love is film but the inner skin flint in me sometimes sends me to the dark digital side. It still winds Mrs Badger up that every time we go out I have a camera in my hand and even my grand kids have started to follow in my foot steps !
 
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At about 46 yrs of age i took a kodak digital camera (a mate gave it me) to a football match and took some general pictures....from the terraces

in july 2002. i bought an olympus as in my avatar on left .i needed some zoom .. shooting more football everywhere i could..

in sep 2004 I went to dagenham and redbridge game and the photogrpaher there changed my life when he let me have a play wiht hs DSLR a canon 20d I think... Wihtin a week or two I had bought a canon 10d and a sigma 70-200

in 2008 I set up as a full time sports photogrpaher and aug this yr celebrated 10 yrs full time at age 62 :)

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!!!
 
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