How did you get started with photography??

I checked the forums and did not see a topic on this. So how did you all get started with photography? And I'm new to the forum anyway.

For me, my dad worked for kodak most of his life and was always bringing home cameras to test. He introduced me to Photoshop 5 when I was maybe 10 or so (I'm 23 now) And I just ran with the idea. I loved it. My first digital camera was a 2mp kodak that I cannot even remember the name of, but I just loved taking pictures. I ended up with another point and shoot after that, then got the kodak Z1012 superzoom. Thats when I got serious about it. The college I went to did not offer any photography or digital imaging classes and I did not really have any friends, so I spent tons of friday and saturday nights refining my photoshop skills. And now it was my dad again who bought me my 60d and the L series 70-200 2.8 And now I am working on becoming a sports photographer.

Anyway, I would love to hear about all your stories on how photography became a passion or addiction. And where it all began...

~kevin~

Cool thread idea. I started around 4 years when I was 11 and asked for a camera Just cause i always wanted to take pictures of family ext. I got a canon s5is and loved it to death until I just was not happy with the image quality anymore. So last year I decided that I really wanted to do this thing so I picked up my camera and got into it and now have spent more money on gear then I'm sure any 15 year old has...

I knocked up my wife.

I had to take an elective in high school. So I looked over what was available and thought, "what the hell, photography sounds like it'll be easy (and maybe even fun)."

Scatterbrained wrote in post #13038288
I knocked up my wife.

Me too

"Your pathway to today"

What has the evolution of your photography cycle been like?

Advertising - how to Start

How did you become a pro (or semi-pro)?

I used to take tons of B&W pictures as a kid with a Kodak Brownie. Age about 10. Then I just dropped it.

I started my full time job when I was 20 and a guy on the crew was into photography. He had a nice Minolta - X7 I think. He took a lot of slides and I was just floored by the colour and quality so I got back into it.

Then I discovered Ansel and read al his books. Built a 4 by 5 field camera kit by Bender and dabbled for years with the zone system - also my SLR. One day I just got tired of the darkroom and spending money of film and developing for the SLR to get one great capture out of every 100. Not as easy to share the hobby back then.

In 2005 I picked up a 20D. Well that changed everything. Into it more now than I was during the Ansel days.

January 2010 - Went to this car event with a crappy point-and-shoot.
March 2010 - Bought a G11 to take some nicer pics.
April 2010 - First ever taste of a DSLR, a 7D at school
September 2010 - Friend lent me a 5D2 + 24-70L and 16-35L to let me try out a DSLR for an extended period of time (2 weeks)
October 2010 - Went on an overseas school trip, got to use a friend's Nikon D5000 and another friend's 550D for several days. Definitely liked the feel of the 5D2 more.
Early December 2010 - Used G11 to take some photos of a school play, while my IT teacher was using a 5D2 + 70-200 f/2.8 IS
Mid December 2010 - Bought a 7D + 24-105, worth 2 years of Christmas and birthday presents from my parents. Didn't see the point in going with a cheaper model when I have a bad habit of wanting to upgrade very very quickly.

...crappy old Sony point-and-shoot to 7D in less than a year...
Tried my friend's 1DMk4 + 14mm f/2.8 too...good thing I didn't have that for too long

was when our son started street hockey in winter 2009.... our FujiFilm p&s was giving kids with zombiefied eyes and fuzzy and just horrid.. so i started looking into it.. this is a hobby for me and boy is it an expensive one...

It was an innate interest for me in the 70's. So I started to mess around with my dad's Canon and Konica. And my great uncle gave me some old developing equipment. I was in elementary school. So I took pictures through middle school...then when in HS, it just wasn't cool. So I stopped.

Come 1999, I have a new baby. Well, film photography was waning and the equipment were goofy... plastic bodies and lenses that made a lot of noise in Auto focusing.. What? Auto Focus?? Ok.. So Minolta got their Butt kicked in the court by Honeywell because of Auto Focus patent Infringement some years earlier.

So I bought a Sony P&S for like $800... what a crap but man, my 128mb memory card could hold like 100 pictures!!! Wow!!!

Come 2006, we go to a photo studio for a family portrait.. well, minimum package of $700.

Screw that.

I bought a 20D and a studio kit (3 lights, back drop, umbrellas, softboxes...the whole shbang) for $2000...

And never looked back.

Ok, I looked back...and got back into film photography again...now doing Medium Format B&W also.

thanks for reading.

Back in '03 or '04 my mom bought the first digital rebel (300d?) for taking pictures of my brother and I playing baseball, soccer, whatever b/c she was no longer sure if her shots with her AE-1 would be in focus or not when she got them printed. I would always just mess around with it, completely not understanding anything I was doing with it settings wise or anything. Then in '08 my parents bought a 50d after seeing the quality of my uncle's 40d over the rebel and bought that along with a couple of books on how to use the 50d so that's when I really started to get into it. Somehow I was able to convince my parents that they needed a 70-200 2.8 IS for shooting HS baseball games at night and they bought one . In April of 2010 I finally had some cash laying around and bought my 7d and money has continually gone down the drain since...

PhotosGuy wrote in post #13038753
"Your pathway to today"

What has the evolution of your photography cycle been like?

Advertising - how to Start

How did you become a pro (or semi-pro)?

Well you can probably add this one to the list

Anyway, I've always like to tinker with things as a teenager. My Dad bought me a u-build-it 110 camera (This may show my age a bit) and have been hooked on photography ever since.

In High School I became the yearbook photographer (one of them anyway). We had a local photographer who had kids in my school and the one that I went to school with became the head of the photography committee (surprise, surprise). This didn't deter me from buying my own 35mm camera to shoot yearbook photos with. A Pentax K-1000 which I still have and am using some of the lenses on my Canon with an adapter ring (There I go with the tinkering again).

I got my first DSLR in 2005 with the Canon Rebel XT (350D). I shot many weddings with it, used it in a portrait class in 2009 and am now shooting weddings and have a few of my photos published in magazines and calendars between Chicago and Atlanta. I feel I haven't really officially "started" yet because there is always room to grow at this point. Unless you consider the 365,000+ personal photos I have in my collection.

Now, if you look at my list of Toys you'll see that I have become somewhat serious in the past few years.

My sister sold me a used Canon Ftb, Canon FD 50/1.4, Bushnell 200/F?, and an Avatar 28/3.5? that was given to her by a somewhat dodgy boyfriend. I was young and didn't ask for a history. So I probably got started using hot equipment. For ongoing penance I do a lot of charity work with my DSLRs.

I have to tell my story backwards in a way. When I got out of college I got a point and shoot. I just grabbed snapshots here and there. I always wanted to own some kind of camera. When I got married I sold my S400 and got an SD700IS to get better shots on our honeymoon. I got better shots, but my honeymoon made me realize I was ready to take it seriously and got a 40D shortly after. My enjoyment of the hobby has only grown.

Recently I took out this box of prints from when I was younger. I have one of my dad's old AE-1's with a 50 f/1.8. He got a second one from one of his clients. I had forgotten how much I used that and enjoyed it when I was younger. He wasn't into photography and I don't think really knew much about aperture, shutter speed, etc. Not sure how I got any pictures to even come out. But I bet I was playing with that thing since I was 12 or so, and I'm 35 now. Looking through that box made me realize I have always enjoyed photography, but it took my honeymoon for me to take an interest in learning about it and get a DSLR.

My wife is going away for a month and taking my 7D with her. I'm thinking I may buy a few rolls of film and shoot the AE-1 and 50 f/1.8 while she is gone. I need to go reading some film threads!

randy98mtu wrote in post #13040717
My wife is going away for a month and taking my 7D with her. I'm thinking I may buy a few rolls of film and shoot the AE-1 and 50 f/1.8 while she is gone. I need to go reading some film threads!

I've been shooting film off and on recently. It really puts things back into perspective. You shoot a couple rolls of film then pick up a DSLR and you realize how much more careful you are with film than you are with digital. I can easily shoot 1,100 exposures at a wedding with digital. But with film I'll do half that but 99% of the photos are perfect. The digital ones are nearly all perfect but I experiment a lot more with digital.

The term "throw away photos" is much different with film than it is with digital.