Why did you go into photography?

[Mulewings~]

My father was a camera nut. His camera was always in our faces. As we got older we'd sigh, and pose.
Soooo boring.

But it was fun to listen to my father talk to himself as he read his light meter and then set the camera up.

I'd mumble behind him 'f11 at 125' and think it was a big joke. Then he started to teach me what all that mumbo jumbo meant.
And he let me compose and pretend to shoot with his Pentax and this huge long lens.

Then he taught me to square up my thumbs to make a box, and compose 'shots' for fun.

He taught me to see the world in a different manner.

This I thank him for. He is directly responsible for my interest in photography.

This is one of his from 1954. I believe he used a Brownie camera.
I love this shot:

 

[T-town photographer]

Nice shot.

As far as why I got into and out of photography. I was given my first camera ( a polaroid) at age 4. I just loved the da@n thing. My Grandfather saw that and kept giving me cameras through the years. One year it would be another polaroid, the next a 110, ect, ect. I have just always loved to have a camera in my hands. One year I even got a Kodak "Disk". Man, I am really dating myself here.

When I was a freshman in high school I bought my first slr which was a Minolta sxt 101 I believe. After that I bought a 201. My sophmore year of high school I was on yearbook, magazine and the newspaper staff as a photographer for the high school. A local pro actually taught some free classes for High Schoolers that I took. My Junior and Senior year I went to Vocational School for half of each school day in photography. There they broke it down a lot farther than I had ever imagined.

After that i went to a vocational College that had a photography program. I was there for a little bit but did not graduate as I found a job doing fashion and glamour photography. I did this for a few years and then got burned out shooting the same thing over and over and over again. I left it professionaly for close to two decades. Now I am back into it and shooting what I think is fun or a challenge to shoot.

Hope this helps,

Michael

 

[Dominantly]

To shoot hot models........

 

[kundalini]

Unfortunately, even in 1954, power lines were a nemeses.

Even though you created your own box with your thumbs, it's YOUR box, no one elses. Kudos to your father for teaching you the difference.

 

[Mulewings~]

Yes...poor guy...he didn't have a photoshop tool either!


It is interesting though to find out what motivates people.

 

[T-town photographer]

Yes...poor guy...he didn't have a photoshop tool either!


It is interesting though to find out what motivates people.

I still don't know how to use photoshop



Now I will use the hell out a darkroom though


Michael

 

[jensgt]

I don't think there was a reason...just happened. I guess if I had to choose one thing it was being into cars...and then when I realized that the car pictures I took were awesomer than most peoples...I started shooting friends cars...then I got into nature and travel photography...then got a nicer camera...then got a dslr...then started learning how to actually USE a camera. LOL

 

[Pugs]

I was given my first big-boy camera (the Konica Autoreflex T2 mentioned in my sig) when I was in my teens. I dragged that thing all over Chicago burning up all the Ilford film I could afford!

That camera was special to me because it was given to me by my "Big Brother" from the Big Brother/Big Sister organization. Photography became "real" to me when he and I would sit in his living room playing chess. There was a large print of Mount Kilimanjaro on the wall and it was INCREDIBLE! George, my "Big Brother" had taken that shot and that made me realize that "average people" could be phenomenal photographers and I started dreaming about the places that I could go and the pictures that I could take while there.

The camera that he gave me is the same one that he had used to take that photograph of Mount Kilimanjaro and had dragged to the top of that peak and all over the world. That he would give me that camera was such an honor (it's still one of my prized possessions and I still shoot with it from time to time) that I felt it was my DUTY, my RESPONSIBILITY to learn to do more than just snap snapshots with it, so I started to research and learn and practice and waste film and paper and chemicals and... start producing images that I was proud of. One of my proudest moments was giving him two prints that I finally thought were good enough to honor the gift he'd honored with me.

In the years since, I've moved on to digital, but I still love my Konicas and I dust them off from time to time.

Hopefully, I'll be able to quit my IT gig in the corporate world and make photography my vocation as well as my avocation. I'm not there yet and not good enough yet, but I'll get there eventually.

 

[T-town photographer]

I was given my first big-boy camera (the Konica Autoreflex T2 mentioned in my sig) when I was in my teens. I dragged that thing all over Chicago burning up all the Ilford film I could afford!

That camera was special to me because it was given to me by my "Big Brother" from the Big Brother/Big Sister organization. Photography became "real" to me when he and I would sit in his living room playing chess. There was a large print of Mount Kilimanjaro on the wall and it was INCREDIBLE! George, my "Big Brother" had taken that shot and that made me realize that "average people" could be phenomenal photographers and I started dreaming about the places that I could go and the pictures that I could take while there.

The camera that he gave me is the same one that he had used to take that photograph of Mount Kilimanjaro and had dragged to the top of that peak and all over the world. That he would give me that camera was such an honor (it's still one of my prized possessions and I still shoot with it from time to time) that I felt it was my DUTY, my RESPONSIBILITY to learn to do more than just snap snapshots with it, so I started to research and learn and practice and waste film and paper and chemicals and... start producing images that I was proud of. One of my proudest moments was giving him two prints that I finally thought were good enough to honor the gift he'd honored with me.

In the years since, I've moved on to digital, but I still love my Konicas and I dust them off from time to time.

Hopefully, I'll be able to quit my IT gig in the corporate world and make photography my vocation as well as my avocation. I'm not there yet and not good enough yet, but I'll get there eventually.

That is a wonderfull story. Thanks for sharing.

Michael

 

[KalaMarie]

When I was a freshman in high school I bought my first slr which was a Minolta sxt 101 I believe. After that I bought a 201.



Michael

haha, my first SLR was a Minolta SRT-201 and I still have it!

 

[Caity]

I can't honestly say... I've always liked taking snapshots. I got my own P&S when I was 17 for Christmas. And that was fine for awhile. Then I wanted to do more... And was limited. So I moved up eventually, and I've had my "big camera" for a year. I don't know... I just love to be able to capture the moment. My memory is not so great, so this was the best way I could do that.

 

[Pugs]

That is a wonderfull story. Thanks for sharing.

Michael

Thank you, Michael. It's a special memory for me and it started a love of photography that's lasted a couple of decades or so!

 

[Plato]

When I was a freshman in high school I bought my first slr which was a Minolta sxt 101 I believe. After that I bought a 201.



Michael

haha, my first SLR was a Minolta SRT-201 and I still have it!

My first was the original "Honeywell Pentax" Spotmatic with a screw-mount f/1.4 50mm lens. I still have it and it still works!

 

[Big]

I have always had a camera since I was younger (probably 8 or so) Then I had a couple more $30 olympus film cameras which was the first camera that I started developing film with at the store. From there I always said I hated digital cameras for the fact that you can't just sit down and flip through a pile of old pictures. I broke down and got my first digital camera when I was 16 or 17 I think. It was a Canon Powershot A650. Loved it! I then found out that my grandfather was a photographer and when the day came that my dad passed down my grandfathers's Olympus OM-4, I knew I should stick with it. I then bought the Canon A650 since it seemed like a decent upgrade. I used that for about a year and now I own the 50D. I absolutely love photography. It's amazing how you can add your own touch to everything just by the way you turn the camera, set settings, or whatever it is. I like being outside taking pictures, mostly of wildlife and scenery. I'd like to do something with portraits only because I have family members that are looking to get some portraits done and I would love to be the one to do it but I need to do some research and a little practice before that happens...

 

[IgsEMT]

It was a job... now IS a job