On The Fraternity Of Photographers

Hey All,

Isn't it cool when you can connect with other photographers? Not just in this forum, but in personal contact?

I've been intoducing my son, my daughter, and my 15-year-old grandson into various degrees of "serious" photography. I bought my daughter an XTi and equipped her pretty nicely, my son is indefinitely borrowing my 30D and a few lenses and has been going out on shoots with me, and my grandson has adopted my Powershot SD 630 and actually has an eye for interesting stuff, and that all gives me pleasure!

And then, there are the encounters, when you meet a fellow photographer and there is an exchange that has meaning to us in whatever context we find ourselves in, an exchange that gives us a lift, maybe some inspiration, maybe some guidance!

A couple of recent examples:

I've been learning to shoot the sport of kiteboarding lately, and since I'm not a sports shooter I have to go through a learning curve to get things right. These folks are a pretty tight community, but they are not camera shy, so when I started showing up on spots along the Columbia River here in the Pacific Northwest with some serious camera gear and began posting some cool shots on their website, well, things got friendly!

Among numerous good contacts, I've gotten to know the in-house photographer, a Nikon shooter who is both a great kiteboarder and a great (published) photographer. We've spent some good time together talking about shooting kiteboarding, and he (despite our Canon bias) has given me great suggestions and encouragement!

Recently, I was on a day trip up the Columbia River Gorge with my grandson to a favored kiteboarding spot. As we were coming back down the river, we decided to stop at Multnomah Falls, a well-known landmark, and hike and take pictures. He got some great shots with the SD630, by the way,

Well, at one point I was surrounded by three other photographers. I didn't get much conversation with the Nikon shooter, unfortunately. I struck it right off with a couple with an S3 IS (I have that camera, nice camera!). They also own an old D30, and we took off in a great chat about our gear and our photography.

Then another couple had either a 20D or 30D with a zoom lens -- they had unfortunately left their wide angle lens at home. So, I offered to let them use my 16-35 to get a wider shot. With these falls, wide (or shall we say tall) is good! The guy happily got off some shots, not as wide as I was getting with the 5D, but still he got a chance to get some once-in-a-lifetime wide shots of a very beautiful waterfall!

So, one of the cool things about our hobby is to share our enthusiasm, our knowledge, our stuff with others who have the same passion, and to receive as well!

Any others have some cool experiences with this "fraternity" thing, stories that cross the lines of Canon/Nikon, P&S/DSLR, and that inspire the passion?

So true. It's like so many other hobbies. You're lucky having people close to you that share your interests. For some, photgraphy is the last thing family or partners want to talk about.
It's always nice to talk shop with other enthuiasts, and nice of you to share equipment...

I also find this true. I have become friendly with a few of the newspaper pros that cover some of the games I go to. They're a great group of people. Conversations on the field have ranged from equipment and technique to talk about our families and other interests. Although I'm not a full time pro, they treat me the same as each other.