how did you know?

Christina · Nov 27, 2007

Did you wake up one day and decide you wanted to be a photographer? Was it a child hood dream? See something that inspired you?
Who encouraged you and was there and discouraging things?

And for those who moved from hobbyist to professionals... What put that into motion. Did it fall into place or did you dream of one day being great?

What was your entrance and thoughts into this great world?

crownlaurel · Nov 27, 2007

I've loved taking pictures for as long as I can remember. I think it clicked that I wanted to adopt the hobby when I realized that my pictures of my kids looked better than the local studios we went to (not the professional photographer studios that I couldn't afford but the cheap ones like Sears and Walmart). I got an advanced Point and Shoot and loved it so much I started reading more and more until I could afford an entry level DSLR. I actually have a film SLR but I don't have lenses for it.

The most discouraging thing is not being able to afford the equipment but it is fun to push the limits with what I have. I will probably remain a hobbiest for quite some time as I prefer nature to people. Photography has been my biggest healer from the deaths of my brother and grandfather this year. It's my "me time."

Chris of Arabia · Nov 27, 2007

A couple of things spring to mind. One was seeing a friends father doing his own b+w prints. The second was being in a barrack block where one of the other lads has a Canon A1. The third was borrowing a Practika from someone else in the same room, with a couple of screw on lenses and taking them to the British Motorcycle Grand Prix in 1981. Security was a little more lax in those days and I have shots somewhere that I took on the grid before the race started. Not long after that I bought my own A1, the first of three I had, all now either stolen or bounced unceremoniously down a scree slope outside Riyadh.

stubbsk · Nov 27, 2007

Me and my friends got into it about 4 years ago. I'm part of the explosion caused by cheap technology and internet.

However I did have an Olympus om-1 when others were using digital. I geuss that's what made us different to most of the other kids, we used film as well.

JerryPH · Nov 27, 2007

I did not wake up one day and say I wanted to be a photographer... I grew into the desire to want to become one, though.

My father was an avid enthusiast, and still is to this day, though he shoots a lot less with his Nikon F2A.

I used it primarily as a way to preserve memories... and after I got the D200, well thats when things really became a lot more serious and tons more fun for me.

I have many great hobbys (martial arts, car racing, music for starters), photography is just one of them. I try to inject as much effort into each one of them.

soylentgreen · Nov 27, 2007

Playboy. I said, "Wow, someone gets paid for to do THAT!!!!" Sign me up. Than reality hit. I guess my inspiration is more of the idealized one in which I try to capture fleating moments in time that will never repeat itself again. Except maybe in a parrallel universe, but that's another thread in itself. Being trained as a clssical artist, I delve into anything that's creative. Just another extension of myself.

malkav41 · Nov 28, 2007

I've always liked to take photos, but I never could get my hands on a decent camera until I bought a Pentax ME super for 150 bucks at a pawn shop about 20 yrs ago. I would shoot all kinds of photos, until the film door got sprung some how, and I put it away because I had no way of getting it fixed.

It wasn't until August of last year, when I bought a Canon FTb-n w/ a Vivitar 2600-D flash at the local Goodwill for 8 bucks that I really thought hard about being a photographer.

I signed up with the New York Institute of Photography in October of last year to try to improve, and build on my basic understanding of photography so that I could possibly one day perhaps be able to make a meager living at it.

Also, man I hate to admit this, the John Waters movie "Pecker" was a bit of an inspiration. :blushing:

My wife gives me some encouragement, but I think she sees it as another deadend based on past things that I've been gung-ho about at first but I ended up petering out on as I got bored with them.

LaFoto · Nov 28, 2007

Somehow I grew up with it. When I was little, my dad and uncle had a little photography business going on on the side (they had proper day jobs for all their lives), doing group shots, portraits, advertisement photography for a dealer of prefabricated houses and also movie film work (my uncle). That is how cameras were ALWAYS there in my life, and even developing tanks (and a bath tub that was very rough and never smooth from the developer being poured out into it destroying the surface) and later also a darkroom (for black&white printing).

But my sister took up the hobby and earned a little money on the side while a school girl by doing weddings and portraits for all the Turkish families that had by then moved to our town (70s). So I felt it was "her thing" but never "my thing".

I always had a camera, and always snapped, but never felt anywhere beyond snapping. The joy of "plucking things from reality" and giving them a "new life" inside the highlighting frame of a photo only came to me when I could first use an SLR-camera (my husband's cheap model back then, which he very soon "lost" to me the moment we started going out). It took me yet another 10+ years to really start looking into photography as my personal "main hobby" (my own SLR which I got in 1999 helped!)

I still am not a professional, and I doubt I will want to become a professional. It is an honour and great fun to be commissioned to doing the dance photography I do now, and to doing the weddings I have done, but I already feel that doing photographical work for others takes away from my own enjoyment of the very thing, so I much rather stay a "photography enthusiast" and better not even call myself "a photographer" (it's enough when others do so

).

jstuedle · Nov 28, 2007

In 9th grade I was taking a required course where we had 9 weeks, electronics, 9 weeks auto specialties, 9 weeks graphic arts and 9 weeks typing and 9 weeks of something else. In graphic arts we experienced offset press, lead type printing, photography and a few other techniques that escape me at this time. Year, 1968. At one point they divided us up into teams of 3, handed us a 2 1/4" X 3 1/4" speed graphic and 6 film holders. We loaded them, walked around the grounds and took 2 shots each. Learned to process and contact print. That day was the start of my social decline into the depths of this thing we call photography. To be fair though, I already had owned and used an Argus C3 for about 4 years, but until that day I was just using it for snapshots.

shaunx · Nov 30, 2007

i juz became a phtgrpr like ...childhood days i was interested in photography and afterwards it just became my passion and my exploring mind made me get into nature and discover the secrets hidden in nature.it made me in this stage.what i see thru camera ,, i want to change in output.i have succeded in that with gods grace....so ths is my short story of what i am today...