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DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> How did you learn at first?
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07/14/2003 05:06:35 PM · #1
I'm just wondering how you were introduced to photography and how you learned the basics. It may have been on this site! Perhaps you admired a photograph and thought to yourself: I want to do that.

When I was younger, about 15, I believe, I remember gazing at photos (usually in calendars) by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, David Muench and others, and wishing I could do that. I vocalized these feelings to my parents, and they bought me a Pentax ME Super for Christmas. Unlike previous expensive gifts that I never used, I used this a lot and still have it! What a great camera!

I started really getting serious about photography a few years later, and I bought my first real photography book (not a Kodak *How to take good pictures* book or similar ilk). The book was *Begin with Bailey* by the great photographer David Bailey, and I suddenly realized that in photography was a wonderful mix of both art and science mixed with almost equal proportions. I still have that book, and I still read it! (I have to note here that David Bailey's photos would usually NOT win ribbons here on DPC--something good to remember when ribbons are elusive).

My wife and I recently purchased our first digital camera after much research. We discovered a whole new, digital, and very convenient world. About a year later, I was browsing around and found DPC! Now I've learned a vast amount more!

What's your story?
07/14/2003 05:10:57 PM · #2
Got my first camera 18 months ago and practiced a lot since then. My first entry here was about 14 months ago which did quite well.

Always wanted to learn photography but never had the time/ money until recently.
07/14/2003 05:16:06 PM · #3
Originally posted by Gordon:

Got my first camera 18 months ago and practiced a lot since then. My first entry here was about 14 months ago which did quite well.

Always wanted to learn photography but never had the time/ money until recently.


By "quite well" he means he finished first. Just though I should point that out.

My dad bought me my camera as a grad gift, then I took a film photography class. Now I'm just being a bum until I can get some good equipment. Which, oddly, will probably be film before digital.
07/14/2003 05:27:45 PM · #4
Traded a UMAX Astracam .7MP for a futon after I bought a bed. Was into technology, wanted to try it. Took 500 pics my first week, bought a 720 about a year after that, been shooting 3-500 pics a week for 2 years. Learned here, Photographytips.com, photo.net, photocritique.net, other online sites, you guys, comments, critiquers, pros, everything.

M
07/14/2003 05:31:18 PM · #5
The first photograph that had an impact on me was when I was four years old. My mother showed me a B&W photo of my stepfather who was a rodeo clown. The seriousness of the photo has been etched into my brain ever since.

I got my first SLR (a Pentax K1000) when I was fourteen and immediately started shooting B&W film. Now I'm almost 35 and I can't imagine ever being without a camera. Incidentally, I never wanted a digital camera but a couple of years ago my (very thoughtful and generous) wife bought me one for Father's Day. Go ahead and try to pry it from my cold, dead hands!

Keep your eyes on the forums as I am trying to get the rodeo clown picture from my mother.
07/14/2003 05:33:43 PM · #6
I got my first SLR when I was just 10 after using a compact camera for a few years. My first SLR was a pentax ME which was later past on to my brother when I got a pentax ME super given to me a few years later along with a complete set of darkroom equipment and an enlarger. I then started doing some black and white photography.

When I was about 15 I got another camera to use alongside my pentax. This was a Ricoh KR-10 Super which is similar to the Pentax me. But unfortunatley I got both cameras stolen in Italy around the time of the eclipse.

I now use a pentax MZ 30 and a ricoh KR 10 aswell as a Olympus C4000 digital camera that I have only just bought
07/14/2003 05:37:08 PM · #7
I used to drink a lot and black out. My therapist suggested I either drink less or take a camera so I'd have a better idea of what I had done the night before, and whom I needed to apologize to.
07/14/2003 05:41:41 PM · #8
Originally posted by pedromarlinez:

I used to drink a lot and black out. My therapist suggested I either drink less or take a camera so I'd have a better idea of what I had done the night before, and whom I needed to apologize to.


Amen to that....
07/14/2003 05:51:43 PM · #9
My Dad influenced me in photography. He won awards with a few of his photos. I always had cheap little cameras - but somehow pulled off some pretty nice photos with them.
My first SLR (film) camera was given to me by my husband 11 years ago.
Broke into digital in 1999.
So.. learned by doing, learned from Dad, read books, and mostly learned here at DPC :)
07/14/2003 05:54:06 PM · #10
got a fortune cookie that told me that if i didn't take up photography, I would meet a sudden and brutal end.


07/14/2003 06:07:43 PM · #11
My dad has been into photography for a long time and even built his own darkroom, where I sometimes helped him develop. When we went on trips I would watch him use his Hasselblad. A few years ago he handed down his Canon A1 to me along with a few lenses and I've been hooked ever since. Thank God for fathers :)
07/14/2003 06:28:46 PM · #12
My Dad gave me his old camera when I was 10 so he would have an excuse to upgrade. It was an old gray box about the size of a quart of milk with a viewer on the top that looked through a mirror to a lens in the front. It used huge rolls of film but I don't remember anything else about it.

I carried it everywhere and spent 4 years of allowance on film and developing. Been addicted ever since.

I've learned more in a year here then I did in the previous 35 years combined :)
07/14/2003 06:46:43 PM · #13
Originally posted by myqyl:

My Dad gave me his old camera when I was 10 so he would have an excuse to upgrade. It was an old gray box about the size of a quart of milk with a viewer on the top that looked through a mirror to a lens in the front. It used huge rolls of film but I don't remember anything else about it.

I carried it everywhere and spent 4 years of allowance on film and developing. Been addicted ever since.

I've learned more in a year here then I did in the previous 35 years combined :)


It may have being a medium format lubitel 166 B you were using as that is a similar sort of size and it is the cheapest medium format you can get.



Message edited by author 2003-07-14 18:49:51.
07/14/2003 06:49:48 PM · #14
I got my first point and shoot when I was 9, so I would have it to use during the bicentennial (oh my I just showed my age) it was a 126 camera. Then along came the disc camera in the early 80s. In 1985 I got a Cannon T70 and that was my baby till the motor died a slow painful death in 1996. I learned a little from each of those cameras and didn't do to bad but it wasn't until my DiMage that I started to really learn about all the little settings of course I have been taking classes and also been hanging out here learning little things.
07/14/2003 07:05:49 PM · #15
I learned by buying better and better cameras. lol. Kidding.

I started doing photography (more than snapshots, hopefully) in July of 2002 when I bought my Canon G2. I simply learned by buying a few books by John Hedgecoe and reading material on the Web. My biggest jump in learning came with DPChallenge because I received feedback from other photographers.

I still try to look at different ways of learning. That's why I keep coming back for more on this site. The different challenges help me focus my attention and energy in creating one photo.

What I'd really like is to be part of a camera club. However, I live in a small town. The only other person doing photography is the guy at the police station.
07/14/2003 07:11:24 PM · #16
Started off with a Canon A-1 about 10 years ago, worked in my B&W darkroom, Bought a Casio QV_2000 at some point, discovered there was no Norwegian web page about digital photography, and started DiKaMa (Digital Kamera Magasinet), which later became //www.digitalkamera.no, which now is akamera, the largest Norwegian web site on the topic of digital photography and video.

Did a lot of reading and writing about photography, and inadvertedly started retracing the steps of countless photographers before me.

Doing all of this, I learnt a lot about digital camera technology, started doing journalism (all while "graduating" through digital cameras - Kodak DC4800, Canon pro90, and a professional 35mm (Canon 1N-HS), before settling on my current cam and my medium format gear), and started doing web design and more serious photography.

- haje

Message edited by author 2003-07-14 19:12:33.
07/14/2003 07:12:58 PM · #17
Originally posted by grogan:

It may have being a medium format lubitel 166 B you were using as that is a similar sort of size and it is the cheapest medium format you can get.


Very close :) I'm impressed... But it was a bit cheaper looking and boxier (if that's a word)... Certainly that was the format :) Thanks!
07/14/2003 07:14:58 PM · #18
In my internet wanderings about a year and a half ago I stumbled across the photography of Noah Grey. At that time I had never owned a camera and had never taken anything but groups shots when a camera was shoved into my hands. I became facinated with noah's incredible work (which amazes me to this day) and began visiting his site on a daily basis (at the time it was updated nearly that often). Pretty soon I started "seeing" photos in everyday life, I just had no way of taking them. After months of this, I decided to give photography a shot. The thing was, I knew that if I wanted to learn and take the photos I wanted to take, I couldn't spend my time worrying about wasting my money on film/developing and limiting the pictures I was taking. A digital offered a flat fee and all the pictures I could take while my interest lasted. So I shelled out all the money I could spare at the time (not much for a college student) for a coolpix 2500, and started taking a storm of pictures. A month or two afterwards I found DPC and have done most of my learning here. Just a few weeks ago I upgraded to a coolpix 995, again, with just about every dollar I can spare right now. Hopefully the manual controls (which the 2500 lacked) will open up a whole new world of potential for me. I've still never done any signficant film photography at all.

Message edited by author 2003-07-14 19:21:33.
07/14/2003 07:24:27 PM · #19
I used to take a LOT of pics of my son. Just snapshots. People were telling me how I should get him into modeling or a baby contest or something. SO, in my search for a baby PHOTO contest, I typed in Photography contest by mistake and found DPC. Decided since I had a camera, to give it a shot. I browsed for about a week, then entered the something new challenge with a "close up" shot. After that, I got a tip to use a mag. glass when using close up shots, so I applied that to the next challenge and did a lot better. So, DPC is really where I started.
I had taken a few art classes in college, and I know what I'm looking for in a shot, but the camera and I just don't get along. I think I'll stick to making critiques and pull out the camera for the family shots.
~Heather~
07/14/2003 07:48:27 PM · #20
I will show you in pictures....lol My history...
07/14/2003 07:52:45 PM · #21
I wonder how Isaac, Carsten's kids and the Sidwell kids will remember their start in photography....

"well, my parents were obsessed. Eventually if we wanted anything, we had to say "dpc I need dpc milkmoney dpc for tomorrow, mom dpc."

Or maybe OSS's kid "I was the most often seen model on dpc (with the possible exception of arnit's girl). Then along came carsten and he had TWINS to use - how fair is that? So mom decided to shoot me two times as much. Those were the days."

All the kids' stories will end the same. "Finally I pried the camera out of my parents hands and haven't given it back. I only took pictures so they would stop!"

(I'm just poking fun, hopefully everyone understands lol)

M
07/14/2003 07:58:06 PM · #22
Originally posted by mavrik:

I wonder how Isaac, Carsten's kids and the Sidwell kids will remember their start in photography....

"well, my parents were obsessed. Eventually if we wanted anything, we had to say "dpc I need dpc milkmoney dpc for tomorrow, mom dpc."

Or maybe OSS's kid "I was the most often seen model on dpc (with the possible exception of arnit's girl). Then along came carsten and he had TWINS to use - how fair is that? So mom decided to shoot me two times as much. Those were the days."

All the kids' stories will end the same. "Finally I pried the camera out of my parents hands and haven't given it back. I only took pictures so they would stop!"

(I'm just poking fun, hopefully everyone understands lol)

M


Hmmm, I guess I haven't submitted enough shots of Malia lately to even get a mention... I'll work on it :)
07/14/2003 08:01:04 PM · #23
well, all my life growing up.....didn't like pictures at ALL (taking or in pictures). 2 years ago i had to take an elective. little did i know, today i am going major in it!!!! I really love it, i regret not taking an interest when i was a kid!
07/14/2003 10:16:12 PM · #24
I share a lot in common with Jacko (not his talent, unfortunately). This week sees my 1st photography birthday. I moved to a beautiful north Japanese town where the scenery is magnificent. I felt that it would be a disgrace to leave here in a few years with no momentos of the area in photograph form. So, I decided to take up photography. However, since then, my interest has deepened so much that I hardly go outdoors to shoot. I really need to do that, too, but with a small baby, finding the time is difficult right now.
07/15/2003 12:06:24 AM · #25
Oh, let's see...I started using my dad's SLR before I could grasp the concept of the science of a camera. Always using other people's point and shoots as a kid. Took quit a hiadus from photography till a bought my own Olympus D360L...but didn't have the money for a good digital till just recently. Now I have a Nikon 5700. I love the thing, but now I want figure out how to use the thing! Geuss I've come to the right place. Any suggestions are very welcome!!

-Wes
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