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07/05/2002 05:06:15 PM · #1 |
I was wondering what the photographic background is of this group.
My first camera was a Yashica FX-D with a 50mm lens. I took a basic photography class in highschool. Shot a lot of portraits outdoors in natural light, w/B&W through highschool.
I got a 90mm lens when I graduated college (1993). Started taking travel shots, and scenics, and working in color more often.
Bought a scanner (film and flatbed), and printer after moving to Arizona in about 1999. I also bought a Contax AX so I could autofocus my manual focus lenses.
Got my digital camera in late May after about 2 years of looking.
I subscribe to Popular Photography, and I read other mags that interest me. No other educational background in art or photography. (engineering major).
I still like shooting portraits in natural light the best, and I did a Christmas card shoot for some friends a few years ago. They want me to photograph their newborn too.
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07/05/2002 05:15:18 PM · #2 |
The Federal Witness Protection Program told me I'm not supposed to discuss my background. :-)
Just kidding. I have no photography in my background -- I am a trained musician (using the phrase loosely) and a teacher by trade. I have had a couple of point and shot 35 mm, which were good, but I still couldn't take good pictures.
A couple of years ago, the school I taught at got a couple of Mavicas and I was hooked. For Christmas 2001, my husband gave me my little Sony, which I just started to truly learn how to use in April. What little I know, I've learned by reading about on the web, the local libraries, and HERE on DPChallenge. (sounds like an infomercial).
I'm more interested in my future in photography. One day I would like to score a camera a little further up and actually get good enough to show my pictures to people besides my family. :-) (Not counting all ya'll of course, you'ns is trying to help me get to that point.) |
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07/05/2002 05:22:15 PM · #3 |
Well ... hehe I've been addicted to photography since i was a little kid .. granted I'm a big kid now .. but I have photos and photos everywhere!!!! I've been shooting with a digital camera for about 6 years ... started out with an Epson PC cam or soemthing like that .. held like 20 images at a time ... with a serial port ... then moved on to Kodak ... i have a CD-120 laying around ... but that memory card again wasnt enough for me! Then i got introudced to Sony .... a Mavica FD-81 .. and i love it!!!! and I now have an FD-91 .. and I wouldnt give it up for the world!!!
It's kinda funny cause i went to school for art ... graphic design to be exact ... although my career is taking off with the photography .. but i guess that's how things go ... and godo thing they all tie together ... I'm not saying I'm the greatest photographer ... cause I'm always learning .. but it's fun and i enjoy it .. and that's all that matters ... :o)
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07/05/2002 05:47:38 PM · #4 |
I am your basic computer geek. Digital photography seemed like a natural extension. I learned black and white photography in Junior High with an old brownie. No bells, whistles or anything, just point and hope. After that, I fell off the world for a long time. In 95 or 96 I got a Casio point and shoot digital. Nobody had digital at that time, so it seemed like I was always "demo"ing it around. It took 320x200 only. I still have the "data" around, but it's almost all trashy, grainy junk. On the good side, I began learning on a new media. I graduated to Sony FD-7, soon after they first came out. The photo quality got much better. It had an all optical 10x zoom. Wow, what a difference that makes. On the down side, I couldn't print anything larger than 4x6 before pixelation took over. I still have that camera, but don't use it much. I'd ask if there were any takers, but my wife has sort of adopted it. Now, I have a Sony F505. I love this camera. For years, I had been totally point and shoot mentality. Since I joined DPC, I have been attempting to tap my creative side, but I am a bit of a square, literal kind of guy. I can appreciate art, for the most part, but tend to want "realisizm", less abstract stuff. Personally, I prefer shooting animals and objects over people, less objections overall. Final words - "Geek attempts Art".
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07/05/2002 06:03:42 PM · #5 |
Being nearly 40 years old I missed the move to computer design in college when I graduated in 1985. Traditional graphic design techniques that I learned in college (pre-mass digital) did not interest me at all so I got into industrial/commercial communications production like trade journals, illustrated books and even Bonnie Raitt's "Nine Lives" press tour in 1986..You also might find a book I helped Pat Oliphant (a political cartoonist and personal hero) produce still floating around the bookstores "What Those People Need is a Puppy!" during my pissed off, political radical days.
Film photography was a part of my education (communication) but I haven't taken a serious film photo in 10 years and it shows :-)
When digital approached the reasonable semi-35mm quality (4-5 megapixels in 5x7 sizes) I bought my first camera in 15 years, a digital Canon G2, and the instant gratification was what I was looking for. I have taken more photos in the last 2 months than I have in the past 15 years (over 4000 images) and LOVE IT! |
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07/05/2002 06:33:28 PM · #6 |
Well, my bio on my profile page says alot, but...
I bought a 35mm Underwater camera (Canon Snappy) in college. Took some px on the coral reefs off Montego Bay, Jamaica. That was fun, but a point and shoot. I rec'd my first real 35mm SLR film camera about 12 years ago. I was psyched after having to put up with low end cameras and fad cameras. Cameras and pictures have been in my family all my life. My parents had a super 8 movie camera (the silent type!) while I was growing up, and my dad won a couple of awards with 35mm shots, so I was greatly influenced by their enthusiasm. Anyway, I love still and movie shots. Have a Digital Video (for about 2 yrs now). I worked at an area hospital for 10 years, and during that time learned B&W darkroom techniques - but it was Electron Microscopy, not "fun" stuff - like publication printing, posters, dodging, burning, etc. Still, I would use the darkroom with my own film and chemicals to experiment with my 35mm. I went to my Digital still FujiFilm camera 3 years ago - to post items on EBay! Ha! The rest is history! Loved it! Expanded it by learning some software. Bought a scanner and added techniques for restoring old photos. I've learned alot, but still crave more.
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07/05/2002 06:54:05 PM · #7 |
I got a little cannon camera as a kid and hardly ever used it, I didnât take a picture from the age of 9, until I got my digital camera for my 21st birthday(just under a yaer ago) and now average about 50 shots a week. 99.9% of which are appalling.
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07/05/2002 07:02:35 PM · #8 |
| i have always loved photography. bought a yashica 35 mm slr late 70's. camera was stolen and didn't buy another 35 mm until 2000 (used one-time-use and point and shoot cameras in the meantime). picked up another yashica from a pawn shop. took a couple of b&w classes on community college level. learned darkroom techniques, mounting, etc. took a digital class using a sony mavica with floppy diskette storage. received a kodak dc 280 from a friend who was upgrading and am definitely hooked. learned great tips from dp challenge. planning to continue b&w and digital classes in the fall. |
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07/05/2002 07:06:40 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by queen 91:
...camera was stolen ...picked up another yashica from a pawn shop....
Hope it wasn't the one that was stolen!
Sorry, bad joke. Just couldn't resist!
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07/05/2002 07:18:16 PM · #10 |
This is great stuff, thanks to all that have replied so far.
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07/05/2002 07:38:28 PM · #11 |
| I'm a total amature when it comes to photography but I'm a life long art student who's serch for creative express turned to computer graphics a couple of years ago. I've always had a camera, (remember the little kodak browny you held on your tummy and looked down on?) but even latter in college when I had a Mymea 35mm all I seemed to be able to shoot was your old family scrapbook type stuff. Meanwhile, Mother taught Modern Art History, I took studio art, I tried to be a High School Art Teacher--- Well I've had many ups and downs but the latest up was getting my computer and then getting Adobie's Home Edition with my scanner. When I found out how easy it was to edit my photos, I fell in love all over again. I got Paint Shop Pro 7 because I couldn't afford Photoshop. I took a course in PSP7 and feel like an artist again. I want my photos to be a part of my art but I definetly felt the lack in experience in judging photos and well as taking them so here I am. |
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07/05/2002 08:34:10 PM · #12 |
Always had those point and shoot type film cameras as a kid. But never got beyond the actual point/shoot stage. I've always been the artsy type getting into sketching, poetry, theatre and such. Became a total computer geek with the onset of pc's and discovered all the fun artistic stuff you can do with software now days. Digital photography just sort of slid right in there with it. My boyfriend bought a Kodak DC3400 when we met so that we could take shots on vacations and stuff and I sort of took over the camera and became a fanatic. Since then I've bought the Canon G2 and I pore over every bit of information on photography that I can find on the net or the library in hopes of actually being able to take great shots one day that someone would want on their wall. I may not be rich and famous, but that doesn't matter... hell I'm having the time of my life. When I want time to myself I jump in the car with my camera and hit the road!
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07/05/2002 08:39:30 PM · #13 |
My first real camera was a used Argus C3 that I bought in the mid ''50s. I got into developing plus X, but I could never afford an enlarger so I could only print when I could sneak into the high school darkroom. When I was in the Navy in the mid to late ;60s, the first thing I did after I landed in Iwakuni, Japan was to go to the PX and buy one of the first Nikon F''s even before i changed out of my flight suit, then wherever I went I''d pick up lenses & stuff. Drug that thing all around SE Asia and took well over 5000 shots with it, then came back here and sold it for more than I paid for it. Got a job flying the planes swashbuckler makes for an airline for thirty years and always had a camera with me. Since my Navy days I''ve gradually traded up (or sideways) until the early ''90s when I started to get interested in the first digital cameras. Assisted with some of the early 4 x 5 digital backs, which was interesting, but we ended up making a lot of excuses:) We could only shoot product, and with up to a 15 minute exposure, that was limited too. I retired in ''96, and got a Olympus D 500, then finally after all those years went to a photography school. Sold the Oly and got a Sony DSC-770, all of 1.3 mpx, but it had a good lens. Sold that and started on Nikon again: a 950, then when that fell off a cliff, a 990. Sold that when the G2 came out and I got one. Love it:)) On a parallel line, I quit photo school after 6 quarters of an 8 quarter course. With the money I saved I got a Mamiya 645 system that I was doing a little work with, but when I retired I realized I couldn''t afford to shoot 20-30 rolls a week like I had been, so I sold it and got a D1. For 2.7 mpx, that camera is amazing. What I seem to be doing mostly now is landscape and archetecture, and that D1 is a little heavy to be taking on hikes, so I''m using the G2 more. Some day if the stars line up, I''d like to get that new Nikon 5700. 8x zoom, 5mpx, and a raw format. Yeah!
* This message has been edited by the author on 7/5/2002 8:39:00 PM. |
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07/05/2002 08:41:22 PM · #14 |
My graphics/prepress background goes back to the fourth grade when I printed some library book card pockets on a tabletop letterpress -- handset metal type one letter at a time from big drawers (the leading was actual strips of lead)...Ditto machines, mimeograph machines...offset printing. I eventually worked as prepress for a commercial printer (learned halftones and duotones on a process camera with actual screens). I first learned computer typesetting on a UNIX system (troff) over a 300 baud modem, and also on dedicated phototypesetting equipment. When Macs, PageMaker, Quark, Photoshop, and the Linotronic laser imagesetter came out, my boss said I better learn a Mac, since my job wuld be done on one soon...through my volunteer work at the Free Clinic I met an ER doc who was also a developing (and now successful) photojournalist. I helped him design/typeset his first two books (link to the second) and learned quite a bit about cropping and tone control. I also designed and prepared a book on Chiropractic anatomy for a major scientific publisher, which involved masking and adjusting over 200 photos of specimens and xrays.
I've always "shot pictures" when I had/borrowed a camera, usually for specific events or a trip. But when my son was about 2 I decided I had to get a digital camera so I'd never have to hesitate about shooting some images.
I've always considered the main differences between taking pictures and being a photographer were 1) taking LOTS of images, and 2) developing the ability to pick out and appropriately modify the good ones. I feel pretty comfortable with part 2, and getting this camera has let me carry the camera with me and use it often. I can only remember about 3 times in 2 years I've had a great shot in front of me and no camera...I'm aways so short of time that I pretty much leave my camera in auto mode. But not using the video screen means I've only used about 5 sets of batteries in almost 3 years, for thousands of frames. |
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07/05/2002 08:57:19 PM · #15 |
I have no formal background in photography. I have had several point and shoot 35mm cams in the past. I didn't like the results I got with them so I asked my dad what to do. He was a professional product photographer. He suggested that I buy a decent inexpensive SLR camera and a couple of lenses, so I got the Nikon N60 with a 28-80mm and 70-300mm lens. I saw immediate improvements in my photos. I still did not know how to use the camera very well.
So, I went back to dear old dad... He taught me the technical issues of exposure control and the basics of how the camera works. With that knowledge, I simply played around with it every chance I got. After about 75 or 100 rolls of film, I felt very comfortable with the operation of an SLR camera.
When I discovered that there were digital cameras that had SLR features, I ran out (in May 2001) and got my first digital camera. I got the Sony Mavica FD-95, which was a 2.1mp unit with aperture and shutter priority modes. I used this camera for about a year and decided that I had to have fully manual control to make myself happy. So, I upgraded to the Sony Cybershot DSC-F707 and have been very happy with it.
I am strictly amateur at this point but I do have prints for sale now. If someone would just buy one :)
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07/05/2002 09:45:30 PM · #16 |
| I was born to be a cowboy and when I realized that I was getting beat up more than I was making money I became a machinist. I first became interested in photography when my kids were small. I wanted to do more than just shoot snapshots so I took some adult ed classes and learned my way around the darkroom doing black and white. I was the volunteer photographer for a small town police department for a couple of years where I had the opportunity to use a Graflex 4X5 and do more dark room work. The pictures were great but the subject matter was not very artistic. I traded a 1940 Buick for a Bessler 23-C enlarger and additional darkroom equipment, and made a darkroom at home where I did some color stuff and entered a contest and won second place. That also seems to be my accomplishment so far with digital, (Between Rides). My wife bought me an Olympus E-10 after I decided that the D-320-L wasn't fun anymore. It has been a blast and I am slowly learning its capabilities, by entering something each week in DPC. I have learned a lot from all of you and certainly hope that the site can keep the atmosphere that it now has as it grows and grows. -- autool |
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07/05/2002 10:18:25 PM · #17 |
I was born in 1967 in NC. I was a shy child..........
Guess you don't wanna go back that far huh?
I'm strictly amateur, knowing only the basics of photography. I did have two semesters of it while studying to be a graphic designer. That was about 3 years ago (went back to school late in life). I did all of that with a Ricoh 35mm manual. I loved photography but after I got out of those classes...and didn't have my own darkroom, I just kind of got away from it. Too busy with my portfolio for graphics really.
Last year I decided to buy a digital camera. I just chose the DSC-P50 for the price...and because someone had one at work and I knew they worked easily with my Mac. I bought it just to take photos of my family really. Then...a nice friend introduced this website to me and I caught the fever all over again.
So...my background is in art. I love to draw and I've always done that since I was very small. I'm a graphic designer who does most of my "art" now on the computer screen. But I feel that photography and illustration are two things that give me a sense of really working to create something meaningful. Something that will be here when I'm long gone. I guess the more work you put into things..and the more of yourself you put into thing.....the more they mean to you. |
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07/05/2002 11:42:58 PM · #18 |
| I always loved taking pictures and looking at professional shots especially of nature. I'm afraid I was too intimidated by the cost and complexity of film photography so I never got into it. After my son was born I found that you can use your imagination and take some very memorable photos with the most basic point and shoot film cameras. I played around with the hobby occasionally until my husband bought us a digital camcorder that I could convert frames into still photos. I really got the bug then. Last November I broke down and bought my dream camera and haven't stopped shooting since. I'm still very much an amatuer but I am also improving with time. This site has helped me tremendously in using new photography methods and subject matter. |
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07/06/2002 12:12:19 AM · #19 |
My life story:
My father was a weapons expert and survivalist. He worked assignments from the US government that included photographs. We had an extensive darkroom in our house where we developed our own pictures. At age 7, I was forced to learn it weather I liked it or not. I attended art school against my fatherâs wishes and landed a job running commercial printing presses 1978. Ten years later, I went on to selling commercial printing and producing Fine Art reproductions. When my father passed away I inherited quite a handful of cameras of every kind. Most of them are still sitting untouched in a box. I did shoot several rolls of film through several of the cameras. The pictures all turned out fine, but I find them all too tedious to work with. I simply do not have patience. I bought a Nikon N70 with several nice zoom lenses. I moved up to large format F-series Nikon cameras to improve the image size for large format reproduction. I know it's not as âgoodâ as many of the cameras in the box, but aim and shoot is my style. I hate waiting for my film to be developed (itâs that lack of patience). So now I shoot digital. The D1X was a natural transition from the f-series and I wanted to be able to use my existing lenses. Now I take pictures with instant gratification. I have learned more about photography in the last two months with my digital camera because I can just keep shooting and look at the settings later. That is what has sparked my interest in photography. Iâm afraid my lack of patients still shows in the challenges that require a tedious set up. (currently 4.3 in the transparency challenge). [:-}) But I am "really" enjoying it for the first time - Thanks DPChallenge.
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07/06/2002 12:17:05 AM · #20 |
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07/06/2002 12:33:55 AM · #21 |
I do not know about the rest of you, but I really like reading this stuff.
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07/06/2002 12:39:52 AM · #22 |
The only thing I regret in my background (what little of it there is) is not learning how to process black and white film. I have been thinking about signing up for the photography class at one of the local community colleges to learn this process. I would never do it myself, but I think it would be a huge benefit to learn how it works...
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07/06/2002 12:54:17 AM · #23 |
It's old technology John - Even Ansel Adams would be shooting digital today if he were here. Your time would be better spent learning fractel software and rip programs if you intend to sell your work. (just my opinion).
Originally posted by jmsetzler:
The only thing I regret in my background (what little of it there is) is not learning how to process black and white film. I have been thinking about signing up for the photography class at one of the local community colleges to learn this process. I would never do it myself, but I think it would be a huge benefit to learn how it works...
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07/06/2002 01:02:09 AM · #24 |
Originally posted by Gotcha:
It's old technology John - Even Ansel Adams would be shooting digital today if he were here. Your time would be better spent learning fractel software and rip programs if you intend to sell your work. (just my opinion).
Originally posted by jmsetzler:
[i]The only thing I regret in my background (what little of it there is) is not learning how to process black and white film. I have been thinking about signing up for the photography class at one of the local community colleges to learn this process. I would never do it myself, but I think it would be a huge benefit to learn how it works...
[/i]
I wholeheartedly disagree with the comment about Ansel Adams...
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07/06/2002 01:07:45 AM · #25 |
yeah, so do I. The image range, and tonality control of B&W photographic techniques are still not matched by digital. Digital is great, but the depth of field control does not match film, and I have yet to reproduce that contrast of a great film image. Of course that may be me and/or my printer.
Epson has a new printer out with grey ink, so hopefully digital will catch up soon. I love digital, but I still think film is king as far as image quality.
Originally posted by jmsetzler:
Originally posted by Gotcha:
[i]It''s old technology John - Even Ansel Adams would be shooting digital today if he were here. Your time would be better spent learning fractel software and rip programs if you intend to sell your work. (just my opinion).
Originally posted by jmsetzler:
[i]The only thing I regret in my background (what little of it there is) is not learning how to process black and white film. I have been thinking about signing up for the photography class at one of the local community colleges to learn this process. I would never do it myself, but I think it would be a huge benefit to learn how it works...
[/i]
I wholeheartedly disagree with the comment about Ansel Adams...
[/i]
* This message has been edited by the author on 7/6/2002 1:10:52 AM.
* This message has been edited by the author on 7/6/2002 1:11:26 AM.
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