Saturday Shout: How did you get interested in Photography?

With the PMA show and the inevitable deluge of shiny new products just a couple of weeks away, it seems fitting to, well, step back and reflect for a moment on exactly why we’re all so interested. So in this week’s Saturday Shout, I want you all to pause, gaze down at your navel and contemplate how, why, when and where you first became interested in the great world of Photography. My own personal story is one of jealousy and rage (I’ll save that for a rainy day...) - what made you pick up a camera for the very first time? Shout out now…

Published: Saturday, February 11, 2006

Reader Comments

1. I came back to Canada from a trip to Honduras in May 2005 and I severely wished that I had had better camera with me. For the trip, I had a 2MP Kodak EasyShare and, though I took a few nice shots with it, it made me realize how many more I missed.
   
   Honduras, my home country, is a place with great disparities, great people, and beautiful scenery. On long trips, I would try to take photos out the window but my camera could rarely be trusted for that. Movement would blur subjects if it was a little cloudy, or I would get ridiculous amounts of noise. The good photos that I did get were of very low resolution--which was a little discouraging.
   
   I got paid for this trip and when I returned to Canada I invested in an Olympus E-300. It seemed like a fabulous deal. It came with two lenses and I was mesmerized by the "fully digital lens lineup." I used this camera for over a month until I decided to return it. The noise was too intrusive, the lenses were too expensive, and the E system, overall, seemed limited for my purposes.
   
   I exchanged it for a Canon XT and I was very happy with the images it could produce. I experimented with night photography and noise was hardly a problem. Since then I've been shooting film for a photography class. The Canon EOS lineup allowed me to be able to shoot both mediums while still being able to exchange the lenses that I bought along the way.
   
   A few days ago I was accepted to a school for photojournalism. It requires more equipment, but now I'm wondering if it's time to exchange the Rebel XT for a 5D or perhaps save some money and get an Olympus E-1 System for $3,000 CAD less. Decisions decisions?
   
   -Dario Ayala

   Dario at 03:13pm on Saturday, February 11, 2006

2. Do not try this at home! It was back when I was doing psychedelic drugs.
   The two just seemed to go hand-in-hand. Years later, after having given
   up drugs, I realized I had been shooting entirely in b&w. While I still have
   a fondness for b&w, today I shoot in color.
   
   Jealousy and rage ... I find that hard to believe.

   GARY POGODA at 05:28pm on Saturday, February 11, 2006

3. It was in the early 50's and my dad got an 8mm Kodak movie camera. It was the kind with three lenses mounted on a turret. He had been considering an Argus C3, but the idea motion pictures at home, the he'd done himself, was just too alluring, and the Kodak won out.
   Seeing an interest in my eyes prompted him to get me a camera for my 9th or 10th birthday. It was a Kodak Brownie, and the bug bit HARD!!

   Bob Ledbetter at 07:20pm on Saturday, February 11, 2006

4. My Mom let me use her box Brownie on a vacation trip in the 1950's. I was hooked and have been taking photos ever since. Now I have left a pile of film cams behind and work with a Canon 10D, 6G of flash card memory, a bag of lenses, a PC, a laptop and 13x19 Canon printer. A long ways from that little box camera with its tiny magic shutter lever.

   Barbara at 08:21pm on Saturday, February 11, 2006

5. My mother gave me a used Canon AE-1 ( I later learned she got it from my brother ) as a present 30 plus years ago. A few years ago my neice got married and during the affair they had a slide show of both sides of the families of my neice and her groom. Many of my neice's images, my brother, her grandmother ( my mother, grand father ( my father ), etc, were the pictures I took of my family members with the AE-1 over the years. Of course, being a man, my eyes soon filled with tears.
   Photography is a great endeavor im making people happy.
   Thanks Mom.

   Nicholas at 02:54am on Sunday, February 12, 2006

6. I didn't.
   
   Well, I was interested in photography when I was 8 simply because my father was. I eventually lost interest in it.
   
   However, after just seeing the moderator of the sportbike forum publish a video of a car crashing into her (http://www.smoothcurvesracing.com/images/Accident20060210.wmv), the idea of photographing idiots on the road seems to refuel my interest. Everyone should have a camera mounted on their vehicle.

   Justin at 04:02am on Sunday, February 12, 2006

7. I said to myself:
   
   "I can't xxxxxxx paint for shit and I sure as hell can't xxxxxxx sculpt, but I still would love to see naked girls and I love them photos in those porno mags, so I think photography would be a great way for me to get laid."
   
   But I ended up not having any patience for people and lighting, so I shoot landscape and nature shots.

   AA at 05:11am on Sunday, February 12, 2006

8. Justin, I was not able to get to the accident video. All I get is a bunch
   of hieroglyphics on my screen. Do I need a specific plug-in?

   GARY POGODA at 10:07am on Sunday, February 12, 2006

9. 1966, Danang, Yashica twin lens reflex 635
   (It shot both 120 roll fim and 35mm), spent the year shooting black and white, next was a Ricoh half frame wind-up drive, then the black Canon FTb. Started serious collecting in 1980, felt real comfortable with Canon, still with them.
   Been hoping that the smaller , pocket cameras would follow in the tradition of half frame (APS sized sensor) with CMOS, to produce really quality images, ain't gonna happen, the conspiracy continues. Lottsa small cameras were 35-45mm thick, which qualifies them as pocketable. Even the Ricoh RDC-7 digital had the potential to be great if it had a CMOS sensor!

   nick in japan at 12:15pm on Sunday, February 12, 2006

10. Well I started when 6 months ago I realised I am beginning to see photographs, i.e. still images in my mind when i look even common things around me. Being the saver type, I didnt want to buy a cam and sort of dismissed those images.
    
    It continued to "bug" me until one day when I was half asleep and dreamt when I was 40 years old with all the family committments, and I looked back... GOSH that shocked me...I got my Canon S2 IS two days later :D
    
    Never looked back since. I hope one day to shoot the images I'm still seeing in my mind. Some of which I have already identified the country or the location. :D

    Colin at 12:23pm on Sunday, February 12, 2006

11. Colin, this is off subject a bit, but let me tell you about one of the smartest things I ever did. After years and years of shooting, thousands and thousands of slides, negatives and pictures, it hit me, my five previous children all had their share of photos taken, boxes and boxes, here and there, but wouldnt it be nice to start an album with my expecting wife featured, then continue with a dedication to a picture- a- day after the birth? Well, I started about the time my wife was about 6 months along, got into the delivery room, as I had with the previous 2 births, and started the process ( do black and white for the delivery, believe me!)
    I really tried hard for a picture a day, but it is just too demanding and really not necessary, one a week, minimum works well!
    I started this more than 10 years ago,Now I take a picture every morning when we leave the house to go to school, on Saturday , I go back and select the ones to keep and to print, either individually , or neatly in the composite program in one of the software programs I use. I am on album 127, yes, they take up alot of room, but, the laughter I hear on those days when Little Joe, digs out an album from long ago, makes it all worth while! When I'm a bit older and lose a bit more git-up-and-go, I'll build some albums from Joe's older sister's pictures, probably be doing alot of scanning for building composite pictures of 7, 12 or more images.
    Life is just a memory, good ones for you I hope!

    nick in japan at 02:11pm on Sunday, February 12, 2006

12. In 1947 I spent a summer in Montana while my parents moved from Seattle to Denver. My father left his folding Kodak with me and I started shooting with it. That convinced me I wanted to do the whole deal: shoot, develop, print. When the camera was stolen out of the car I convinced my parents to buy a new Kodak Duoflex, contact printer, chemicals, etc. I had a darkroom for the next 50 years until I discovered Photoshop and quality inkjet printers, and now, of course, digital cameras. Great fun in retirement.

    Donovan Rieger at 06:20pm on Sunday, February 12, 2006

13. My uncle arrived one night, very "happy", and proceeded to give my sister and I an Ilford Sprite each( I still have mine). We pestered our mother to provide the film and processing.
    It has all been downhill from there...
    Now I have a bag full of Canon 1-series cameras and a career in the industry!

    Tony bridge at 06:54pm on Sunday, February 12, 2006

14. > Justin, I was not able to get to the accident
    > video. All I get is a bunch of hieroglyphics
    > on my screen. Do I need a
    > specific plug-in?
    
    It turns out that WMV is a propietary Windows format. You may not be able to get a plugin for this. The video is being rehosted here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aIasXHYDAk
    Since it's streaming through a macromedia type page, you won't need to download the whole file before knowing whether it works.

    Justin at 10:08pm on Sunday, February 12, 2006

15. I was on the platform at Stevenage Station waiting for the train home. There was the most spectacular sunset I've ever seen the whole sky was on fire I actual said out loud that would make a great photo. The next day I bought a Pentax ME. That was twenty years ago. 2 strange things I never saw such a sunset again and Olympus were running a TV ad at the time featuring a mock photo competition the winning photo was Sunset over Stevenage Station by David Bailey I reckon he must of been standing next to me heard what I said got his camera out and snapped it

    Richard at 11:32am on Monday, February 13, 2006

16. Justin, that was an amazing video. Are you sure it was not staged?
    Those breast shots were a little too convenient. And how is it that
    the camera was moving around so much after she went down?

    GARY POGODA at 06:15pm on Monday, February 13, 2006

17. > Justin, that was an amazing video. Are you
    > sure it was not staged? Those breast shots
    > were a little too convenient. And how is it
    > that the camera was moving around so much
    > after she went down?
    
    I don't believe it was staged. Someone who would organize such a video would have thought it out enough to get advertising / sponsorship revenue. The rider didn't think to run any ads at the end of it, or show any brand labels. This video has been around the world, and the discussion is being replicated in every forum that is somewhat related. She is a moderator, and her thread is here:
    
    http://socalsportbikes.info/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=34948
    
    That was taken from a helmet mounted camera, so that's why the movement.
    
    A divx version of the clip is available through this torrent: http://www.torrentportal.com/details/337336/.html

    Justin at 03:55am on Wednesday, February 15, 2006

18. Oh, a helmet mounted camera. I was thinking a bike mounted camera.
    Now it all makes sense, and I agree, it was not staged.
    
    So when are you going to get one of those?

    GARY POGODA at 05:57am on Wednesday, February 15, 2006

19. Here's what happened. I started doing photography when I was around 12. At the time I was living in Russia, and my parents bought me a Russian camera - Smena. I played with it a bit, shot mostly B/W, then I got my hands on a Russian SLR ZENIT; i got more involved, dedveloped my own film (darkroom was in the bathroom). At the age of 16 I moved to the States and joined the US Army as a photographer. Served in the Army for 7 years, been to combat and documented some interesting things. Currently I run a website Sergykal Lounge - Photography Resources Portal at http://sergykalstudios.blogspot.com
    For the Army I mostly shot digital, but I do own a Nikon F5 system, that I use all the time - I am old school, I guess, although I scan the film and use Photoshop as my darkroom. In a few months I will be working for a newspaper in MD. For now I am concentrating on the portal project: I want to help other photographers as much as I can. I love Photography with a passion!
    
    Serge

    Serge at 05:57pm on Monday, May 08, 2006

20. I'd always enjoyed photography but never pursued it. I got married last year and we honeymooned in Italy. I knew I'd be seeing some amazing things and wanted to be able to shoot some good pictures while there. Picked up a Kodak C6445 fairly cheaply on EBay. It takes pretty good pictures but I was frustrated at the relative lack of zoom.
    
    I'm just finishing my first year of B-school and am spending next fall in Asia and plan to do a lot of traveling while there. That said, I decided to upgrade to a Lumix DMC FZ30. I think it will serve me well as I actually learn how to take proper photographs and allow me to move up to a D-SLR in a few years.

    Jeff Donovan at 02:06pm on Wednesday, May 10, 2006