Why did you get into photography?

I got into photography to enjoy God's Creation as I love taking Landscape and Wildlife pictures... I got into digital photography as I got fed up of taking what I thought where brilliant pictures to find if I only stepped one foot step to the left it would have been better

In third grade, my mom showed me her old Canon AE-1. For the next year, my sister and I would set up "photo studios" in our living room and take pictures of our younger siblings. We'd spread a blanket across the coffee table and sit them on it and make them laugh. Once we spread a baby lanket in an open suitcase and put my infant brother in it. The picture turned out hilarious since you could only see from his nose up. The rest was in the suitcase.

In fourth grade, I was entering some kind of fine art competition and the only category left was black and white photography, so I entered and ended up winning first at state. Been hooked ever since.

http://mayberries.deviantart.com

I got into photography because of my passion for flying. I love the challenge of being a pilot and also love the unique challenge of photographing them. I love being able to capture the magic of that first solo flight and the majesty of a machine that can overcome gravity and make it look easy.

I originally got into it at about age 7, with a Fisher Price 110 camera. Yes, made for kids. My mom used to take pictures with a similar (non-kid version) camera and I was just trying to be like her, I guess. I also liked looking at the results, normally just pictures of family members, and think "wow, I made that!"

I pretty much stopped taking pictures in high school, save for a few disposables or taking mom's camera at family events and snapping shots for her.

The bug hit me again in 2003, when I found you could finally get a decently usable digital for $100. It was a Kodak 2.0mp camera and indeed "decent" it was. It was good enough for family/friend photos. The ability to take hundreds of pics easily and sort them and delete them and put them on the web was sort-of addicting, and I used it a lot.

So.... what made me upgrade? I was in St. Louis visiting my dad around Thanksgiving (I live in Houston), and we went to the park where the Gateway Arch is located. I took this shot....

...which I felt was pretty well framed and really neato! But... I was (and still am) disappointed that the quality of the camera being used wasn't better....

Then, we visited the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and when I couldn't get one... NOT EVEN ONE good, clear, shot of the interior, I decided I had had enough of a cheap camera. Time to upgrade.

So, I went straight from a $99 2.0mp camera to a Konica Minolta DiMage A200 8.0mp camera with every bell and whistle known to man ....

2 years later, I found it did everything... just too slow... so I went with a Canon Rebel XTi and I'm currently in the process of learning it

Here's one I took today of my kitty:


Now I need to get back to St. Louis in November to re-shoot from the exact same spots

-Michael

I started taking pictures when I was 12 with a purple plastic camera that I got for my birthday. I had been asking for a camera for awhile, and I got one finally. I'm not sure what drew my to photography initally, but I'm thinking God might have had something to do with it.

I got into photography when I became a mother. I had this precious child in front of me with beautiful blue eyes, smooth skin, and a head full of hair. When I tried to take a picture of him though, I always cut off his head, had glowing red eyes, and washed out skin!

I started learning more about photography so I could take pictures that matched the image in my mind. The more I learned, the better my pictures were.

Fifteen years later . . . I am a pro now. I do mostly kids, families, high school seniors, and weddings. I love what I do. It lets me drive the carpool every day, contribute to the family coffers, and play with my camera.

Photos were the milemarkers in my family's life. We were a military family, and we seldom saw a full year any one place, and all that moving and changing could blur memories. The one thing we had to hold on to were pictures, catching a moment forever, keeping distant family members in our hands when we were so far from them.

The big jolt came when my stepfather was sent to Viet Nam. My mom wanted to send her pictures of herself to my dad, and all she had was me to get the shot. I found out I was pretty good at it, even using an old Kodak Brownie camera (look in a museum, kids, there's probably one there!). I've been shooting pictures since six, serious about it since eleven, and at 13 I got a (then)top-of-the-line Minolta XG-7 with money I had worked for. I started working at building my own dark room, and even did weddings and portrait work a couple of times. I've never quit being a photographer, and I thank God for giving me that gift of expression.

s0journ3r said:

... So, I ordered a Canon S2 IS. I've been using it now for some time, but now I want a digital SLR. And I'll be purchasing one at the end of this week (or next week) - Lord willing.

Click to expand...

You won't regret it ... One thing, though. Keep the S2 IS. There's places where the SLR is inconvenient or even banned (some sporting events), plus the movie mode and swivel screen give you things the SLR can't do.

Now, as for images, be prepared to practice A LOT and learn manual controls, exposure control, and post-processing in software on the computer (e.g. Photoshop). I'm in month 2 with my Canon Rebel XTi and I definitely have lots to learn and lenses to buy

-Michael

TexasCatholic said:

You won't regret it ... One thing, though. Keep the S2 IS. There's places where the SLR is inconvenient or even banned (some sporting events), plus the movie mode and swivel screen give you things the SLR can't do.

Now, as for images, be prepared to practice A LOT and learn manual controls, exposure control, and post-processing in software on the computer (e.g. Photoshop). I'm in month 2 with my Canon Rebel XTi and I definitely have lots to learn and lenses to buy

-Michael

Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up!

I'm planning on purchasing a Nikon D40 (it's within my budget). I purchased a book on digital photography...hoping to learn more about those things you mentioned. Trying to understand how aperture, ISO, and the shutter all work together. Confusing sometimes. But, I want to understand this stuff so I can take awesome pictures!

Any tips you learned...please...toss them my way!

Yours truly in Christ,
sojourner

I got into photography through my uncle, we used to go on church walks when I was younger and I was always fascinated by his camera, so my mum and dad got me a point and shoot, then after a year or so at the age of 14 I got my first SLR, someone at my church was selling their Pentax ME Super, and it was from there that I really got interested.

As to using apperture and shutter speeds etc, having a completely manual camera for 3 years was a great help as I was forced to learn about exposure.

Mark

MarkEvan said:

I got into photography through my uncle, we used to go on church walks when I was younger and I was always fascinated by his camera, so my mum and dad got me a point and shoot, then after a year or so at the age of 14 I got my first SLR, someone at my church was selling their Pentax ME Super, and it was from there that I really got interested.

As to using apperture and shutter speeds etc, having a completely manual camera for 3 years was a great help as I was forced to learn about exposure.

Mark

Click to expand...

That was a great camera, Mark. Probably picked up your skills immensely.

I think I've been in it nearly all my life as I've always loved it and viewed it as being art.
But by today's standard of camera's it has become a very fine art indeed!
What prompted me more than anything I think is my love of nature and God's Creations.

These are really interesting! I've enjoyed reading your stories -- and TexasCatholic, your photo of the St. Louis arch is gorgeous.

I myself have been dabbling in photography pretty much all throughout my childhood, but there was always the small problem of buying film and getting it developed -- not just the few dollars it would cost per roll, but also going back and forth to the store, etc. As a result, photography was always a sort of "on and off" thing for me -- there would be periods where I would photograph everything and anything I could, and there would be other periods (sometimes lasting years) when I would hardly take pictures at all. And there were some in-between phases, where I would shoot some pictures but never actually get them developed (I think I still have some undeveloped 4- or 5- year old film lying in a drawer somewhere.)

I took a few photography courses when I started college (the old-fashioned black-and-white film kind) and I have such fond memories of those semesters. In addition to learning how to develop film myself, it was really the first time I used more sophisticated SLR cameras -- as a kid, I mainly had the "point and shoot" variety at my disposal. In the end I decided against going into photography as a profession, but instead kept it as a sort of hobby.

The real change didn't come until I got my first digital camera (just a cheapo $99 dollar one from Wal-Mart) which was only last year. In the months to follow I literally took hundreds of photographs -- I would go for walks in the woods or drive into the city just to take pictures of things. My discovery of Flickr also had an influence on this hobby -- it was suddenly so easy to organize and share my photos that in no time I had amassed twenty photosets and 700+ photographs. This frenzy of picture-taking has tapered off a bit over the past month or two (I think with it being winter I've been spending more time indoors, and there's less that I'm interested in photographing inside) but I still consider photography to be one of my most cherished hobbies.

Anyhow... I've rambled quite a lot here -- sorry for the excessive length of this post, lol. Happy shooting!

- Sandy

Why...?

When I was a kid, my sister and I took a summer long intro into photography class at the local planetarium. Learned how to shoot with one of those old boxish type cameras, develope the film..., the importance of that funny red light that went on when you closed the developing room door.

Mom was the local family photographer... always taking pictures... glad she did, lots of memories.

Life kinda happened with a long stretch of no camera, or time/inclination to enjoy photography. Glad to be getting back into it again. Fun stuff!

I took my mums Finpix down to lake on time and got pictures of the sunset, downloaded them and my mum thought they were really good so have been doing it since.

I am currently saving up to but either a Cannon or a Nikon camera

I'm not sure why I got into photography really, other than the fact that I started realizing I had a nac for it.

Still, There's something so wonderful about capturing Gods beautiful world but doing it in a way that the naked eye cannot see it. Long exposure, for example, fascinates me because it exists in real time but over such a period that the eye cannot focus in on it without the right exposure tools.

I also found a fondness to capturing details, shapes and sizes, abstract things, really, that can express emotion in a way that casusal observes may not notice until they see it in print.

Noel

I started with taking photos when i go overseas for travel and the photos turn out so well and so much wonderful memories that i fell in love with photography bcos of what it is able to do....capture moments and memories