Who was your inspiration to start photography?

[bentcountershaft]

Umm, this turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. If you want to give me a tldr then I understand.


I have three but I think it was a slow, subconscious process for me finding an actual inspiration. Music has been my love for as long as I can remember. It's the only thing that has consistently been in my top five priorities since I discovered girls. Before I played an instrument I was a fan for ten years and not just of the music but the packaging as well. Cover art and booklet photos as well as performance photos in the magazines were/are always fascinating to me.

After a very long time (maybe six years ago) I started to notice that one guy's work in particular always struck a note in me: Ross Halfin. I found his blog and started following it because it's funny to read. He's a wonderful prick. He's the first guy I ever followed just to look at his shots and just made me think about the art of capturing moments.

Number two I discovered about a year and a half ago. A wedding photographer in Scotland that's a regular contributor to a non photo forum I frequent. There's a "share your photos" thread there with a lot of phone pics and family/friend gatherings and such and a few more artsy fartsy endeavors. This guy does a lot of walk around landscape and candid work and would contribute often and his pics always blew me away. I had never really talked with any photographers of that caliber before and I started asking questions and trying a few of my own pics with my wife's cheap point and shoot.

This guy is nice to a fault and was very encouraging and always complimenting my shots and that was enough to get me hooked and I kept at it, eventually asking him about what he shot with thinking naively that if I got the same set up as him that I would be an instant success. Well he shoots with a 1Ds3 and a good size pelican case full of L's. Not exactly a beginner set up. I figured if I was going to make this a hobby I may as well join a specific forum dedicated to it like all of my other hobbies and a quick google search landed me here asking noob questions about gear and technique, which leads me to number three.

In the beginning I never had any intentions of shooting posed people. Landscapes, architecture, artsy fartsy mini studio stuff and maybe candids and performance stuff but never envisioned working with a model. I haven't jumped into this yet, but if time, finances and wife permit I think I will down the line. The reason I haven't already tried is that I need to get the basics of exposure down and get going on learning about lighting. I'm just in my infancy of researching lighting now but I have to start somewhere. While I'm no expert at shooting available light stuff I feel that waiting until I am to learn about studio lighting will be a disservice to my eventual long term goals.

So why have a decided to slowly work my way to this type of photography, despite being interested in just about everything but models in the beginning? Because of someone that is no longer here but was just long enough to make my jaw drop. There are several very gifted photographers on this forum and I love learning from you and seeing your work but there was one guy in particular that made me say, "I want to make photos like that." and that guy was IronFlatline.

At first I thought maybe I felt that way because he works with beautiful naked models but after months of looking at his work I can say that definitely isn't it. It doesn't hurt mind you, but if that's all I wanted I could have a hell of time at a strip club for a whole hell of a lot less money. I think while his work never even hints at being pornographic it's more beautiful, sexy and a hell of a lot classier than the entire history of Playboy, at least from what I've seen.

I know I'll never have his resources for equipment and support but my (very) long term goal is to shoot like that. I have a very long way to go but maybe in ten or twenty years I'll be ready to try it. Baby steps. But at least I have a direction now.

Damn, that was long winded. Sorry about that.

 

[Art of Emotion]

tl;dr ... but I bet Art will... she's use to long-winded posts... mostly from over-emotional, crazed, females.

To true.. not only that but I'm a talker myself. You know how lengthy my 'advice' replies usually are over there.

Stupid question but wtheck is a tldr?

 

[Art of Emotion]

Umm, this turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. If you want to give me a tldr then I understand.


I have three but I think it was a slow, subconscious process for me finding an actual inspiration. Music has been my love for as long as I can remember. It's the only thing that has consistently been in my top five priorities since I discovered girls. Before I played an instrument I was a fan for ten years and not just of the music but the packaging as well. Cover art and booklet photos as well as performance photos in the magazines were/are always fascinating to me.

After a very long time (maybe six years ago) I started to notice that one guy's work in particular always struck a note in me: Ross Halfin. I found his blog and started following it because it's funny to read. He's a wonderful prick. He's the first guy I ever followed just to look at his shots and just made me think about the art of capturing moments.

Number two I discovered about a year and a half ago. A wedding photographer in Scotland that's a regular contributor to a non photo forum I frequent. There's a "share your photos" thread there with a lot of phone pics and family/friend gatherings and such and a few more artsy fartsy endeavors. This guy does a lot of walk around landscape and candid work and would contribute often and his pics always blew me away. I had never really talked with any photographers of that caliber before and I started asking questions and trying a few of my own pics with my wife's cheap point and shoot.

This guy is nice to a fault and was very encouraging and always complimenting my shots and that was enough to get me hooked and I kept at it, eventually asking him about what he shot with thinking naively that if I got the same set up as him that I would be an instant success. Well he shoots with a 1Ds3 and a good size pelican case full of L's. Not exactly a beginner set up. I figured if I was going to make this a hobby I may as well join a specific forum dedicated to it like all of my other hobbies and a quick google search landed me here asking noob questions about gear and technique, which leads me to number three.

In the beginning I never had any intentions of shooting posed people. Landscapes, architecture, artsy fartsy mini studio stuff and maybe candids and performance stuff but never envisioned working with a model. I haven't jumped into this yet, but if time, finances and wife permit I think I will down the line. The reason I haven't already tried is that I need to get the basics of exposure down and get going on learning about lighting. I'm just in my infancy of researching lighting now but I have to start somewhere. While I'm no expert at shooting available light stuff I feel that waiting until I am to learn about studio lighting will be a disservice to my eventual long term goals.

So why have a decided to slowly work my way to this type of photography, despite being interested in just about everything but models in the beginning? Because of someone that is no longer here but was just long enough to make my jaw drop. There are several very gifted photographers on this forum and I love learning from you and seeing your work but there was one guy in particular that made me say, "I want to make photos like that." and that guy was IronFlatline.

At first I thought maybe I felt that way because he works with beautiful naked models but after months of looking at his work I can say that definitely isn't it. It doesn't hurt mind you, but if that's all I wanted I could have a hell of time at a strip club for a whole hell of a lot less money. I think while his work never even hints at being pornographic it's more beautiful, sexy and a hell of a lot classier than the entire history of Playboy, at least from what I've seen.

I know I'll never have his resources for equipment and support but my (very) long term goal is to shoot like that. I have a very long way to go but maybe in ten or twenty years I'll be ready to try it. Baby steps. But at least I have a direction now.

Damn, that was long winded. Sorry about that.

Wow you've had time to think about this I think that's great.

I love the process leading up to your interest in photography. I'll admit I'm rather new to this forum so don't know of the member you referenced to. However I love human anatomy when combined with an artistic photographer. You see curves and shadows in an entirely different perspective. You don't feel 'naughty' you feel a deep emotion of such natural beauty. I had a few side ways glances when I take interest in Nudes but truth be told a photo will hold my interest if it has artistic value to it then a girl just doing a straight on photo of herself. The thought the angles, the lighting, the perfection (all human forms). Sorry I went off on a tangent. I found that part to really relate with how I feel about nude photography.

Also I started out with landscapes but mostly loved doing macro & floral shots. Gosh you should have seen my picture folder 2 years ago.. it was pretty much all flowers. My interests shifted over to models shortly after I became engaged. Surprise much ?

Sorry I'll stop now. Overall while it was 'long' it was an enjoyable, refreshing read on my end

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Too long; Didn't read.

Erose, because of the length of your posts, that we must *struggle* through to get to your point, you *owe* it to BC to read his post. Twice!

It was a nice story of where he's been and where he'd like to go.

 

[Art of Emotion]

tl;dr ... but I bet Art will... she's use to long-winded posts... mostly from over-emotional, crazed, females.

To true.. not only that but I'm a talker myself. You know how lengthy my 'advice' replies usually are over there.

Stupid question but wtheck is a tldr?

Too long; Didn't read.

Ahh thank you I'll take that long winded post any day. It was actually nice to read

 

[Chamelion 6]

As for me? Nobody, it just happened. I've always loved art. From crayons, to painting, to pen and ink.... In high school I got the opportunity to join the school newspaper as a photog and that sounded like a lot more fun than writing. I bought myself a cheapie Minolta SRT 101 and started shooting. By my sophomore year I had a handfull of awards to show off and I was hooked. Went to college intending to be a photo journalist but dropped out and went in a different direction and sold all my stuff, including my darkroom.

A few months ago I got a camera... I think I'm hooked again.

 

[jewely]

`

 

[starcluster]

i cant say its an inspiration for me! its more like motivation..

i used to take pictures before with Hp camera but i didn't know that am doing good with taking pic or that am interested in photography, i just shoot the things that i cant keep my eyes off of it...

and one of the things that i cant resists seeing is the stars, but the problem was for me at the time is that the Hp wasn't much of help, so i purchased a canon camera...

in site that its not even related to photography (Anime and Manga) i found someone who is interested in photography and really good at it asked ME to form a photography club (believe me it was ALL a coincidence)...

we started doing photography home works together and comment on each other work, we held contests.. here where my motivation has started! is to do better
and couple of ppl started to join us too....(my photography world has just started)

and here i am after 10 months from that :3

 

[NikonNewbie]

I just always liked to take pictures, but in general Roy Varga (as far as portraits are concerned) and just every stinking photographer in National Geographic.

 

[12sndsgood]

I dont think there was any one thing that led me here. my dad had a canon when i was younger and i borrowed it a few times for trips but it never bit me enough to get one of my own. I always had other hobbies that took up my time and money. I think it probalby started hitting me once i got into cars and going to car shows and then starting on my own project. i started wanting to take pics just to have as ides for something i could do or add to my own car. then i just saw cars i had to have shots of. thats when i wanted a camera. and even then i spent 5-6 years saying i was going to buy one. but when it came down to it i'd dump more money into my car and push it off.

I bought a half way decent olypus and started using that. it was kind of a high end point and shoot. whopping 1 megapixel. the next year i bought the wife a cheap point and shoot with 2 megapixel and i thought wow this is twice as good as my camera. so i gave my old camera to her parents and started using the new one. that was when i found out megapixels didnt mean crap for taking a good pic, the camera didnt take anywhere near the quality of pics the old camera did. so i went about 2 years with barely taking a single picture. and from not taking pictures my desire for a good camera grew and grew. i finally bought my D3000 last november. (almost its 1 year anniversary lol) and have since taken probalby 10,000 pics in the last year. but what is funny is that what origonally got me into wanting a camera (cars) is probalby the least thing ive photographed with my camera. getting the camera has somewhat opened my eyes to what is out there and what is possible in photography.

Now i find myself looking at wedding photos and looking at how they were shot and how the lighting was and what i feel could have made it better or diffrent then the way it was taken. im trying to reading everything i can to learn the craft better and get a better understanding of the fundamentals instead of just pointing and shooting. ive got understanding exposure on the back of the toilet and the car magazines are buried underneath. its just a whole nother world has been opened up to me. i dont think i went to a photography forum until i came here a few months ago. and now im here everyday. i feel like im being lazy because i havn't posted up pics in a week or two for you guys to tear apart and critique. i get dissapointed when i don't get allot of critiques because i want to learn so much so fast. its just been consuming me for the last year. and the car that started it all is sitting in the garage where its sat the last two years needing me to finish and get back on the road. but instead im learning about shadows and exposures and iso.


sorry that got kinda long.

 

[Bram]

I was insprired by a friend who showed me some of his low light and long exposure shots, I talked to my parents about it when I was 17, I told them I wanted to buy a camera. They told me to get a job. So I held a job throughout highschool in order to afford my First DSLR which I still shoot with today, yes the D40x. Bought it then for about $400.00 Yes it was alot of money for that camera and I know that, but i've never looked back. I started to paint with light and take photos of water droplets and my dad looked at me like I was high or something. I told him "no dad just wait till you see the final product". So after some PP I showed him and he stood there and looked at my favorite photo to this day of a water droplet (crown), and I ended up framing it and hanging it in the living room and nobody has objected so far.
I know they're just my parents but they've supported me ever since I showed them what I was capable of doing with a camera.

 

[MohaimenK]

Benjamin Franklin

 

[PyroFox]

I was inspired by my dad. He was always taking pictures. Also Ansel Adams. I remember the first time I saw one of his pictures at Yosemite.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Very nice thread and worth reviving. So here is my story.

As I've told a few members here, I grew up surrounded by artists. Although amateur, my dad was a very good musician and because of his professional position he got to meet a lot of the big names of his time and brought them home. My mom came from a litterary family so she brought home the writers and poets. Incredible way to grow up although there were few visual artists in the mix. I spent most of my growing years within a european community because that's where my parents were from originally and what that means is that I was always included in the happenings in the house. In Europe there isn't really an adult world and a kids' world such as there is in the US. We were in the same house and we mixed so I was exposed to the arts from a very young age. I was also exposed to fame and never really gave it a second thought until way later. These people were just everyday, normal people to me.

So I tried my hand at music. But I was too darn lazy to learn an instrument. Plus it was rock and roll time and I wanted to be up front. I wanted to be the singer. Only problem was I wasn't much of a singer... lol.

At the same time I started using the Kodak Brownie camera I had been given by my dad when he bought himself a Leica and the rest is history... :lmao:

I started taking photos of these people (some of which I still sell today,) then I started meeting visual artists and brought them home and they became part of that incredible mix that I learned from.

So, there it is. I learned photography because I was lazy. Kinda funny to think about now considering how much time I ended up spending learning photography. And I'm still learning...

 

[Speckles]

I just want to take pretty photos. I also now want to marry Bitter Jeweler. :badangel: