How did you get your gear?

I'm always curious... Photography is an expensive profession/hobby. I see alot of members with alot of expensive gear/lenses. How did you acquire your gear? Did you save up for it? Did you use the money you made from photog gigs? Was it a gift? It seems like my acquisition of new gear is about as frequent as a presidency change.

(if it's too personal of a question there is an option for that too )

EDIT: forgot to add an "on credit" option... Can't figure out how to edit the poll.... DOH! lol

Well when I started photography, I knew that it was going to be a very expensive hobby so I put a limit on how much I was going to spend, period.

My limit was 4k. So with that 4K, I've "recycled" the money by buying and selling gear over the years. I also do a lot of switching up my gear based on need.

where is the mom and dad option???

Found it in somebody's car.

Piece by piece purchased or traded for.

Went with "I traded non photo stuff for it"...the non-photo stuff was money.

I started out with a Nikon D40 and have upgraded 3 times. Every time I upgrade I add a little out of pocket cash to get something better. My D40 was about $300. My recent little lens collection was purchased by money from my primary job. I've never bought any camera stuff with credit. Sometimes I will ask for something for Christmas or buy it with tax refund money.

I seriously wonder how 18 year olds get 5DM2s and collections of L's! I'm 30 and can't even do that, LOL.

Step 1: Gain money
Step 2: Buy photo gear

You are missing a "I just bought it" option.

I got my 1Ds Mark III, Canon 300mm f/4.0L IS and Canon 50mm f/1.4 as a gift for Christmas. I bought the rest of my things.

Take Care,
Cheers, Patrick

BILL ME LATER.. works great!

Wife paid all my gear

i wait for mine to fall out of the sky

http://sanfrancisco.cb​slocal.com …gh-roof-of-petaluma-home/

Once a year, I see what my wife spent on herself, and then I spend that much for photo equipment.

Withheld a photographer's prize winning poodle from them and demanded the gear in return for the poodle...

I bet the vast majority of POTN folk are hobbist like me, and didn't have photog income to buy gear. We just paid for it from our day jobs.