how long have you been a photographer

mentos_007 · Jun 30, 2005

7 yrs now... but it became my passion 5 yrs ago...

I'm still learning

iSellJerseyShore · Jun 30, 2005

I have been into photography for about 6 or 7 years.. But just last month, I stepped up to the Canon 20D SLR level... Pro or Amatuer? Somewhere in between id say

I'm always picturing a picture whether or not im taking a picture.... That is my personal quote

-iSellJerseyShore

Alison · Jun 30, 2005

It's been a hobby for about 10 years. I opened a business (portrait/wedding) nearly 2 years ago but I just consider myself as always learning.

iSellJerseyShore · Jun 30, 2005

AlisonPower said:
It's been a hobby for about 10 years. I opened a business (portrait/wedding) nearly 2 years ago but I just consider myself as always learning.

That is the way to do it, turn a hobby into a business

... How have things been going with it?

-iSellJerseyShore

airgunr · Jun 30, 2005

Well, I've been taking pictures since I was a kid. As far as actually taking a real interest and learning about photography and having a good SLR. About 2 years.

joeboot · Jun 30, 2005

I have been taking pictures for about 35 years. I got my first SLR 30 years ago (my dad offered me his Leica M3 but I just had to have a Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic F). He also taught me how to operate a manual camera and how to use a darkroom. Having four kids of my own, I spent 15 years using a point-and-shoot for 80% of my pictures but I'm getting into a lot more SLR photography these days. I am still very much an amateur, but if you take enough pictures, some turn out great!

Kodan_Txips · Jun 30, 2005

Since about 1962, on and off. I started by using a contact frame, my family's negs, and red/sepia printing-out paper, exposing it all in sunlight. Unfortunately you had to look at the prints briefly, and under artificial light, as they were unfixed, because the fixing solution was gold-based, IIRC, and cost a fortune.

cactus waltz · Jun 30, 2005

On a steady basis since october last year.

mygrain · Jun 30, 2005

I got my first SLR October of 2003. Been at it ever since. I will always consider myself a student no matter how professional my work gets or how much time I eventually spend shooting. It's a passion that has consumed much of my money and time...an addiction if you will.

Hertz van Rental · Jun 30, 2005

I am a descendant of Thomas Wedgewood - who in 1802 did some of the first experiments that eventualy led to Photography. It's in my blood.
I've been taking pictures for 40 years. I started getting serious about it 30 years ago.

ThatCameraThingy · Jun 30, 2005

Bought my first SLR in 1995. It was as close a you can get to a point 'n shoot. No manual overides. That was a Minolta

Then blew up the Minolta - Electronics expirement went wrong.
Then bought a Canon EOS 600 or something. one of the first AF SLRs

Then sold the Canon and bought a Pentax MZ-50.

Then in 2000 I started working in Photo Retail- manager of a local photo lab.
sold Pentax. and used one of the shops Nikon F80

Then in 2003 I bought my Canon EOS 30 with BP300 and started adding lenses.
recently came across EOS 1n for a bargain.

Been working in Photo Retail for a while now, but wouldn't call myself a PRO.

Rather an advanced amateur.

** My thinking goes as follows : If you own a Nikon your an amateur. If you own a Canon your a pro . wink wink nudge nudge

OK OK just kidding

Hanno

Lanrod · Jun 30, 2005

Been doing photography now for abot 10 years. Travel a lot and I am finishing up my degree. Shoot with a Canon 20D, Mamiya 645afd and a Holga.

Here's my site if anyone wants to critique.

http://www.jasonlandry.com

p.s.....please be patient, the thumbnails take a bit to load on each page.....if you are impatient, click on the big pictures and they will go through the array. (still working out the bugs)

thanks.

J.

SLOShooter · Jun 30, 2005

About ahh 10 years, off and on. Seriously for about a year now. Still an amateur, getting close to my first paid job though.

wharrison · Jun 30, 2005

Well, I guess I'll elect myself to be the "old man" of this group; I've been into photography since I was first given an Ansco Panda by my parents around the age of 7 years in 1948. Still learning and enjoying photography!

gypsyIX · Jun 30, 2005

i knew what i wanted to do when my mom let me borrow her kodak disc camera to take to the circus... when i was 6. now i'm 27, i have a bfa in photography and i've been a "professional" off and on for the last 9 years or so. i've done everything from headshots to photo retail to aerials from an nypd helicopter.

but it all comes back to my art, and my art doesn't want to pay my rent!

so no, i'm not a "pro" but how can you label something that is a part of your soul? something intangible that you cannot stop thinking about? it's different from love, it's need. it's like hunger, you can eat but you will be hungry again. i would starve to death without art.

i had a very prolonged dry spell, during which i felt dead inside. my apartment had flooded, and i lost everything. portfolios, over 12 years' worth of prints and negatives, scanner, everything. (everything except my equipment, all cameras and light kits were unharmed... makes you think, doesn't it?) i made a few feeble attempts to keep shooting, but it was like trying to build a home out of toothpicks. now that i've had time to heal and accept my loss, i'm beginning to rebuild. i have nothing to show for a lifetime of work, but i still have that spark inside that enables me to make art. so i know that i can begin again, and if i work hard i can have a decent body of work in a reasonable amount of time.

i'm sorry, what was the question...?