View Full Version : How did you learn photography?
For the past few months I've been thinking more and more about how we learn to take pictures. Recently I started teaching photography on a one on one basis and have been pleasantly surprised by the progress of my students.
I first learned how to take photos by reading copies of Photographic magazine. Then I took a course in high school and went on to study photography at university all while working as a newspaper and magazine photographer. Each method has taught me something important.
So the question is: how did you learn what you know?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2540/4073570052_4f47c7a887_o.jpg
ZeissFan
12-07-2009, 14:56
I learned by myself. My high school didn't offer any courses, and no one in my neighborhood was interested in photography.
Sometimes, I don't think that I taught myself too well.
bmattock
12-07-2009, 15:01
My dad was a part-time private investigator and used to take photos for his work. I 'helped' him develop the film and enlarge the prints in our basement and he gave me a Diana camera so I could take photos too.
I still fondly remember my Grandfather showing me how to use his Argus when I was 9 or 10. Strangely he emphasized not dropping the camera...;)
Later, in high school, I worked on both the yearbook and the school newspaper and all of us who did got a crash course in the darkroom and some very basic camera instruction.
Since then, I've tried to educate my self; primarily trial and error, and then by reading--most of the photo magazines available in the mid to late 70s plus every photography book in my small town's piblic library--and more trial and error. I do miss not having explored photography in a more formal(a class or workshop) setting. I think I could have learned a lot of what I now know quite a bit faster and, maybe more importantly, having two other things would have helped my slow progress a lot: a structured learning environment and receiving, as well as giving, lots of face to face critique/criticism.
Rob
the way i learn most everthing- trial and error, lots of error.
Bob Michaels
12-07-2009, 15:15
I am still learning photography by reviewing my work with a very small group of photographers who I believe have vision at a higher level than I do. Interestingly, they follow the same process.
I found that feedback from on line postings and membership in camera clubs was not just neutral, but actually a negative, in the personal development process. That seemed to me to be one where everyone tended to urge you to middle of the safe road.
nikon_sam
12-07-2009, 15:19
I started in high school...took a few courses after...but mostly self taught with the help of a ton of books and magazines coupled with a ton of shooting.
Photography is a Passion for me so any time spent learning or doing isn't considered work...it's what I was meant to do...
Stephen S. Mack
12-07-2009, 15:45
I toiled after it, Sir, as some men toil after virtue.
With best regards.
Stephen
Chriscrawfordphoto
12-07-2009, 15:58
My dad was a part-time private investigator and used to take photos for his work. I 'helped' him develop the film and enlarge the prints in our basement and he gave me a Diana camera so I could take photos too.
Bill,
I have an old book from the early 70s that is about teaching your children photography. It is based on the diana camera!
Bob Helmond
12-07-2009, 16:06
At age eight, my grandfather gave me an Ansco TLR and provided film and processing. At twelve, his brother, my great uncle, who in 1947 was developing and printing color in his home darkroom, gave me my first 35mm, a Perfex 44 which had a built-in exposure meter! (Albeit an extinction type.)
A few years later, a high school classmate introduced me to developing and printing my own work.
From then on, it was read, experiment, read, experiment...
Now, 60 years later, I am still learning, and I fear that when one ceases to learn it is time for a dirt nap.
SamStewart
12-07-2009, 16:07
i learned about two years ago when my dad handed down his old rolleiflex tlr and nikon fe to me. i mainly learned through him and the internet.
Jason Sprenger
12-07-2009, 16:10
My Dad was photographer for the Army and then for a few commercial outfits. He'd pass me rolls of Plus-X when I was grade school, by junior high we doing prints in the laundry-room together. There were always photo gadgets around and he was always eager to talk about what they were and how they were used.
He had ulterior motives though, since carrying a camera is what he did for a living, he wasn't real eager to do it in his spare time. Thus, by the time I could "find my ass" as he'd say, I wound up covering the family events while Dad got to relax.
Chriscrawfordphoto
12-07-2009, 16:13
My father bought a 35mm SLR when I was a kid because he wanted to do snapshots of the family, and the point n shoot cameras of the time sucked. Back in the early 80's 35mm SLRs were all the rage, everyone was buying them! I was interested in the camera, because he had bought a long zoom lens. He taught me how to use it when I was about 8 yrs old and then got me one like it (with a 50mm f1.8 lens) when I was 11.
I practiced and read photo magazines and then took photography in high school. My school had a very dedicated art teacher who had been there forever. Don Goss had been the art teacher there when my parents were students there in the late 1960s! His students consistantly won awards in the scholastic Art Awards competitions and many went on, as I did, to become professional photographers, graphic designers, and illustrators. It was in high school that I realized that photography could be art, and I decided to go to art school. Studied art at Indiana University, but in the 10 yrs since I graduated I have still kept learning and teaching myself. I learned Photoshop, scanning, digital printing, web design and computerized graphic design all on my own, as that stuff wasn't in wide use when I was in college and wasnt being taught much yet.
tbarker13
12-07-2009, 16:18
My degree was in photojournalism, but I'd have to say most of what I know is from my own trial and error and trying to learn from watching other photographers
scottwallick
12-07-2009, 16:36
Learning photography is something I keep meaning to do but just can't seem to find the time. ;)
wlewisiii
12-07-2009, 16:37
Bought an AE-1 & a 50/1.8 at the PX (later it was exchanged for a Rebel XS & kit beast). Took lots of bad pictures. Took lots more bad pictures. Maybe one keeper in a thousand. Got tired of being bad about the same time as I found a cheap Yashicamat 124 on ebay, then found a Yashica GSN at a flea market and trying to figure out how to use it lead me here.
Now I'm still as bad a photographer but I've got a nice Leica to make my bad pictures with & plenty of company here to share them with... :)
So seriously, practice is the only way to learn how. A couple of books here and there have helped, especially "On Being A Photographer" by David Hurn and Bill Jay.
William
Trial and error. I became the family photographer as teen by default with the terrible equipment we had around in the late 1960's. It wasn't until I bought myself a Minolta Himatic 7s in 1971 that I actually produced an in focus photo. Then I read all that I could from the magazines (including Pop Photo which had great columns by some guy named Bill Pierce) and all the books in the Public Library. I started developing my own film based on the How-To articles in Pop Photo and bought my little Durst enlarger for bathroom and kitchen use in the late 70's. It wasn't until much later on that I had the time to take some courses at the local Community College and then at the ICP in NYC.
Roberto V.
12-07-2009, 21:46
I bought a 35mm SLR and taught myself how to use it.
My Mum and Grandmother got me started with a Box Brownie.
After that it was trial and error
It might not be the best way to learn but 45 years later I'm still taking photos and i still have that Brownie
The internet and trial and error ... certainly not the best way IMO!
My initial commitment to film was with a Fed 2 three years ago with C41 then progressed to developing my own black and white and did some colour developing a year ago.
Now thanks to GAS peer pressure I have a cupboard full of cameras and lenses that I currently have very little time to use but hopefully that will change next year! :D
Lilserenity
12-07-2009, 22:49
Trial and error and no formal training. In fact much of the darkroom skills (hah!) I have come from product manuals, very sprarse ones and making a fair few mistakes.
I also keep an eye on the work of my favourite painters, refresh my eyes on those who have since passed on, and pick up cues from things I have seen -- mostly subconsciously I guess.
I have to of gotten better somehow!
I would never turn down some formal training; I just haven't as yet jumped into it.
It started with a film SLR, photography magazines/websites and trial and error. The most helpful was the critique section of a particular magazine, which helped me learn to critique my own. Then I took a school photography class, learnt a little about darkroom, but haven't stepped foot in one since then for... 7 or 8 years. I did a diploma in photography three years ago, spent some time in the studio, learnt a bit more on photoshop. Now I'm back to trial and error.
I taught myself. I took a class in college but I don't remember learning much. Switching to film was the biggest help for me. It taught me how to use a camera properly, like what those numbers on the lens mean, how to use hyperfocal, DoF, framing and finally, how to shoot without a meter.
oftheherd
12-07-2009, 23:38
After my father died, as a freshman in college, I began experimenting with some of his old gear. Then quit when I joined the Army. The Army later taught me to use a 4x5 as a crime scene camera, but I never got to use one, only personal cameras for several years. In 1970, I got to an office that had a Kodak Instamatic as a crime scene camera. In frustration, I began teaching myself photography with magazines and books and a Yashica TL Super. I got better.
In the last few years, I haven't had the time I wanted to give to photography. Maybe in a couple of years.
Roger Hicks
12-08-2009, 00:02
800 feet of outdated FP2 and a Pentax SV, starting when I was 16.
My father bought me the camera and an enlarger because his father had been a keen amateur photographer, killed on HMS Gloucester off Crete during WW2.
Cheers,
R.
Dad gave me the basics when I was 12, Christ that’s 45 years ago!!!, still trying to figure out the rest
When i was a kid, my dad showed me how to take a photograph with his Yashica SLR, it was too heavy for me to hold steady at all, so he held it and i fired the shutter. Was then given my 1st SLR and just started shooting, then went to collage and discovered Documentary Photography.
you learn from having a passion for the subject and soaking up inspiration and technical know how like a sponge.
I learnt from books and the internet. I have not had tuition or known anyone interested in the same stuff I am, so the internet and books are a godsend. I learn from exhibitions, great printers, and as time goes, more by my own ideas and failure/successes in meeting them. I find less photography out there relevant to me now because my own goals have narrowed. The technical bit is not something that is so elusive now. Its more a case of honing and making small improvements as I go along. Doing documentary/reportage the technical goals are not as tough as they are in the fine art area.
I do it last 4 years, but I have yet to learn it ...
Dave Wilkinson
12-08-2009, 02:37
The internet and trial and error ... certainly not the best way IMO!
Oh...I don't know Keith! - every few weeks, among the BS and bragging - something usefull will surface! ;)
back alley
12-08-2009, 03:27
mostly on my own, trial & error.
lots and lots of reading, looking at images that i liked and figuring out where the light was when the photo was taken.
took a few courses along the way but found that i was too influenced by the instructors and my photos started to look like theirs.
still learning...
Johann Espiritu
12-08-2009, 04:04
I purchased my first "real" camera (an evil SLR) fifteen years ago while I was in law school. I had stumbled upon an exhibit featuring some photos by the late Irving Penn, and I was smitten. I was a painter back then, working with watercolor.
I "learned" through my first few rolls by reading the instructions on the box of film and the camera's operating manual. Since then, it was all trial and error, and looking at photographs. I have then since had several exhibits including one last year at the Silverlens Gallery (www.silverlensphoto.com). I'm working on another body of work which will be exhibited next year.
My first and only class was one given by former Magnum Photo President Charles Harbutt, a class that really taught me how to see and direct my photography that way.
I'm still learning everyday, though!
LeicaFoReVer
12-08-2009, 04:09
My dad is a professioinal photographer/cameraman,,,forcefully retired by the digital era as the number of job declined to zero...
jack palmer
12-08-2009, 04:19
Early interest in photography but I learned the most in my four years at the Maryland Institute College of Art where I majored in Photography.
Bavaricus
12-08-2009, 04:22
My neighbor was a professional photographer in my village (who was kind of Grandpa for me), doing anytypes of portraits, graduation pictures and so on. He also teached me the darkroom work at a glance - until i was 12. Then we moved, i did some courses in high school and later in the local photographers association. The rest was (and still is) trial and error.
laurentb
12-08-2009, 04:39
I learned mostly by making mistakes (TONS of them) and wasting film (hundreds of rolls, at least).
I've been an enthousiast shooter for years, with lower than average results until I really got serious and started to look at photographs, learn about art history, read AA's trilogy, plus many other books, and put some reflection BEFORE shooting.
It helped to get rid of some useless equipment, and think more about pictiures. (I invested most of the money I got back from this into film, paper and darkroom supplies)
I still waste film and paper, but at least I have some keepers !
Al Kaplan
12-08-2009, 05:11
I got interested in my senior year of high school, learned from reading the magazines, asking questions at the camera stores. One guy my age that I met at the camera shop lived nearby and had a darkroom set-up in his garage.
I soon discovered that taking pictures was a great way to make money without really working, and I never did finish my first year of college.
By being curious kid watching through the viewfinder.
And still continuing that way..
Interesting to hear how many people have learned photography from their fathers!
My mom and dad gave me a Brownie camera when I was about five. My Grandmother gave me a Yashica (which I still have and love) and she taught me some rudimentary photographic and darkroom skills. I got a p/t job at the local newspaper when I was I high school and some of the staff photographers at the paper guided me. Then I took some photo classes in college. In short, I'm still learning, mostly by trial and error.
LeicaFoReVer
12-08-2009, 07:42
I got interested in my senior year of high school, learned from reading the magazines, asking questions at the camera stores. One guy my age that I met at the camera shop lived nearby and had a darkroom set-up in his garage.
I soon discovered that taking pictures was a great way to make money without really working, and I never did finish my first year of college.
In our case it was not an easy way to earn money...I had assisted to my father years and I witnessed how difficult to shoot/record at weddings and ceremonies...dealing with drunk people who did not want to pay, carrying all the batteries, cables (for the video cam mostly) flash +lights, running around...People who steal the photos during sales :) But I learned a lot
I learned (what I have) through sheer frustration. I needed to make better pictures to satisfy myself, so I asked for advice from all of my photographer friends, looked at books, looked (and am still looking) at tons of pictures. And now, the internet.
I think I may finally be figuring out how to take decent pictures. Now I need to learn how to make decent pictures.
I have definitely figured out the technical aspects, at least from a workmanlike perspective. Up to and including film developing. Now it is down to the art. And printing. I really should get on that.
What I have been most surprised by is the lack of error in my trials in the darkroom. Probably, this is related to my education in lab techniques.
I went to art school and primarily was a painter.
Kinda became an art major because I liked the freaky/different girls in the art department. I had a Nikon F2A, was photo editor and darkroom manager for the student newspaper. I shot a lot and established a reputation for being a good photographer. Because I had 24 hour access to my own darkroom. I would burn though a hundred sheets of 8X10 in a weekend printing. I shot and printed a lot. Had a big reputaion.
Soon the girls came to give encouragement. I'd get solicited for nudes, and that led to other things and another reputation. The sex helped make me a better photographer LOL
Roger Hicks
12-08-2009, 11:50
When you say 'came'...
Cheers,
R.
Dave Wilkinson
12-08-2009, 12:06
I went to art school and primarily was a painter.
Kinda became an art major because I liked the freaky/different girls in the art department. I had a Nikon F2A, was photo editor and darkroom manager for the student newspaper. I shot a lot and established a reputation for being a good photographer. Because I had 24 hour access to my own darkroom. I would burn though a hundred sheets of 8X10 in a weekend printing. I shot and printed a lot. Had a big reputaion.
Soon the girls came to give encouragement. I'd get solicited for nudes, and that led to other things and another reputation. The sex helped make me a better photographer LOL
and when processing.....do you use a 'hardener'?
bo_lorentzen
12-08-2009, 14:13
Damaso,
never really thought about it....
My dad started teaching me when I was 8, he gave me a agfa roll-film camera and later introduced me to the darkroom. he was a avid photographer.
My hero in highschool was a retired PJ, he forced me off the SLR and onto the school rangefinders. Then trade school for photography.
I realize that I mostly learned how to expose and process media, print etc, naturally learning lighting, art classes and portraiture... all good and have served me well. the camera payed my rent all these years so something had to be right.
20 years later, Im slowly developing a desire to go back to school, this time with the object of looking more into the art and "why" of images. Having photographed professionally roughly 25 years, I find way to much of my images to be formula based rather than inspiring. you may call them boring and uninspired, it is difficult to pay rent and get in touch with inspiration. (clearly this do not apply to all people, but I find there is a difference from producing a image and to having time to clean ones mind and really create a image.)
Soo, in my case, school did teach me photography, 25 years later I would like to learn how to create images.
Bo
The product of the digital age. Videos, FLickr. I have moved on to books. Wedding books and "art".
Bought a minolta 7sii after seeing chris week's video and pdf. Bought my M7 1 month ago. I think the greatest teacher I have is my M7. I see things differently now.
I'm still learning and having fun at that ...
-doomed-
12-08-2009, 16:39
the way i learn most everthing- trial and error, lots of error.
Is this not the way to go about things?
I am still learning in this way when it comes to photography. I call it the bull in a china shop approach.
35mmdelux
12-08-2009, 16:42
Shipped off to the ARMY and bought a 35mm to take a few snaps. When I got serious took a few courses to get some exposure (no pun intended). Afterwards mostly trial and error- with emphasis on error.
Ronald M
12-08-2009, 17:00
Watch, read, practice, a few JR college classes, library, internet, seminars, ask questions, photography club, practice, practice and more practice.
It is amazing what you can learn by reading a library book or buy your own.
Benjamin
12-08-2009, 17:08
I didn't.
.
Bob Michaels
12-08-2009, 17:32
I'm still learning <snip>...
It seems we are in a very small group as most of the others keep referring to the past tense. Could we just be slow learners?
If I ever learn it, I'll let you know.
Chriscrawfordphoto
12-08-2009, 18:47
I went to art school and primarily was a painter.
Kinda became an art major because I liked the freaky/different girls in the art department. I had a Nikon F2A, was photo editor and darkroom manager for the student newspaper. I shot a lot and established a reputation for being a good photographer. Because I had 24 hour access to my own darkroom. I would burn though a hundred sheets of 8X10 in a weekend printing. I shot and printed a lot. Had a big reputaion.
Soon the girls came to give encouragement. I'd get solicited for nudes, and that led to other things and another reputation. The sex helped make me a better photographer LOL
I went to art school to become an artist, but meeting girls was important too. Hadn't had any luck meeting girls before that, women in Indiana aren't into intellectuals or creatives. Art school girls should be, right? Hell no, they were all married! I don't just mean the older ones, I mean the ones right out of high school, 18 yrs old, like I was. All married already...Uggh! I'm 34, still single! Not that I am complaining..as I have gotten older, I've realized 99% of women are crazy (not in a good way!).
Chriscrawfordphoto
12-08-2009, 18:53
Damaso,
never really thought about it....
My dad started teaching me when I was 8, he gave me a agfa roll-film camera and later introduced me to the darkroom. he was a avid photographer.
My hero in highschool was a retired PJ, he forced me off the SLR and onto the school rangefinders. Then trade school for photography.
I realize that I mostly learned how to expose and process media, print etc, naturally learning lighting, art classes and portraiture... all good and have served me well. the camera payed my rent all these years so something had to be right.
20 years later, Im slowly developing a desire to go back to school, this time with the object of looking more into the art and "why" of images. Having photographed professionally roughly 25 years, I find way to much of my images to be formula based rather than inspiring. you may call them boring and uninspired, it is difficult to pay rent and get in touch with inspiration. (clearly this do not apply to all people, but I find there is a difference from producing a image and to having time to clean ones mind and really create a image.)
Soo, in my case, school did teach me photography, 25 years later I would like to learn how to create images.
Bo
Thats the problem with doing commercial photography or portraiture/weddings. You can't really be creative because you're working for a client who wants the pictures to look a certain way. Some professional photographers have said to me that they quit doing artistic/creative work because photography had become a job, and even creative personal work was still 'work'. I never felt that way, maybe because my business has never been successful. I have never gotten enough commercial work to stay busy/fully employed by it so I had more time to do creative work and it remained enjoyable. I make a lot more money doing web design than commercial photography.
antonandreas
12-08-2009, 20:03
Acquired the gear acquisition syndrome early on after getting a DSLR a couple of years ago. Each camera taught me something different in addition to all the reading (books and internet) and practice.
initially, just by shooting old broken cameras I found in the trash and fixed... then art school... then really learned by myself. The internet was a really good resource though.
anorphirith
12-08-2009, 21:52
>>>>Google<<<<
I started off with a Smena Symbol my dad gave me for my 7th birthday. My dad was an avid enthusiast at anything for at least a few weeks at a time. Then his mind wandered (still does). I bought my first camera, an MTL3, in the early eighties and read a bunch of books, most notably the Encyclopedia of Photography by Michael Busselle. Learnt a smidgen of darkroom with the photo club at college. Then the interest went into a hiatus and resurfaced a few years ago, this time as a digital convert. These days I scour the net, magazines and more to try and catch up. There is more to be learnt, there always is.
Another self-taught photographer here. I don't think the technical basics of photography (aperture, shutter speed, DoF, metering etc.) are really that hard to master & certainly don't require formal training. It's all that "mushy" creative stuff (understanding composition, framing, light, etc.) that's difficult, @ least for me.
Gear-wise, I started out w/point & shoots only on vacation about 15 years ago, progressed to using point & shoots in daily life about 11 years ago, & then quickly made the big retro leap to mostly manual RFs in 2000 because they were almost as small as point & shoots, but more versatile & just plain more fun to use.
robklurfield
12-09-2009, 09:49
Learned photography. Not yet. I keep making the same mistakes but with different results. Life is short. Keep shooting.
Actually, my dad taught me some of what I know when I about 10 or 11 years old. He had an Exa and a Weston meter. Very cool looking stuff that I coveted even when I before I learned to walk; in my baby pictures, you'll frequently see me teething on his never-ready case. I guess I am still in the teething stage fifty years later.
leica M2 fan
12-09-2009, 10:18
I learned through books and magazines and like most posters .. trial and error. My success rate really jumped when I came across RFF almost 5 years ago. The many tremendously great photos here in the gallery have really opened my photographic eyes and helped me make pretty good shots, for me that is. I'm still learning and shooting daily. I'll never stop!
DougFord
12-09-2009, 10:42
Self taught; you read/learn how to perform some of the more technical aspects of the endeavor,
then trial/exploration and before you know it you got a monkey on your back. :eek:
I havn't learnt photography yet but I'm at it.
Started shooting slides decades ago but it was not untill 1998 I realy started to take it seriously. Traded my OM gear for a Nikon F90X and later added a 24mm and 105 makro bought tons of magazines, books and slidefilm. Became a member of a photoclub and joined up with 2 likeminded naturephoto geeks and my color photography just evolved from there. Later I started shooting B&W but I havn't learned that yet. APUG, LF forum and RFF among others are great sources to learn from so time will tell if I ever get it :)
Best regards
denmark.yuzon
12-10-2009, 00:07
My girlfriend taught me, because she took it in college way back... She lent me an AF Nikon F60, a year ago to get me started.. out of first 2 rolls, only 4 images were completely usable (not blurry, properly exposed, nicely composed)..
then i bought a Nikon FM2n, and have been photographing ever since..
Michael Markey
12-10-2009, 00:14
I have learned more in the short time that I have been reading RFF than I have in the previous 35 years . I am also fortunate in that, here in the north west (UK), there are a number of RFFers ,Sparrow, Bob France, Kuvvy and Xmas .We meet up on a regular basis. Their help has been invaluable.
Likewise Al Kaplin. I find his posts here both amusing and informative. Roger too. Books and web site.
Well.. I learned photography from the camera manual that came with the Zenit-E. And I can tell you one thing; it wasn't about photography.. and it wasn't well translated either.
In hindsight, it's amazing that I actually managed to shoot for years and years while getting superb results without any notion that it's the aperture that controls depth of field. I knew that the shutter speed controlled motion effects, and dialed in the aperture to make the light meter needle match.. Given the limited range of shutter speeds (1/30-1/500 plus B), I now understand that I couldn't do much wrong anyway, and apertures tended to stay in the 'sensible range' given circumstances.
funkpilz
12-10-2009, 01:00
I enrolled at the University of Flickr.
Tom Harrell
12-10-2009, 01:27
I bought a Minolta X370 and started snapping away! I also read lots of books on the subject! I got more and more interested in it as a hobby and bought a Minolta X700 for the additional features and control! After wearing out a couple of X700's I got a Canon T90 and another X700 to play with. I now have a Leica IIIf some Yashicas and a Konica or two.
Tom
Carterofmars
12-13-2009, 05:27
By shooting. Reading. Shooting. Thinking. Shooting. Thinking. Reading. Shooting.
And shooting.
FS Vontz
12-14-2009, 05:20
Learnt all the technical stuff online. The remainder of my knowledge was learnt by doing, and the rest I don't know? Well that remains to be seen.
Robin Harrison
12-14-2009, 05:37
I learn't to develop B&W film in a physics practical at university and was intruiged. So it was the technical side of things that attracted me first of all. I was given a Contax 139 as a birtday present, and spent a couple of years shooting that before finding rangefinders. In terms of learning photography (as opposed to learning about cameras), if all came down to reading (Amateur Photographer, Black&White Photography, books, photography sites), looking (galleries all over London, especially the Photographer's Gallery and one memorable show at Hackelbury) and shooting (a lot of film before I seriously tried digital). Reading, looking, and shooting.
Bought an SLR in the Army and read everything I could find. The Time-Life Photography series, magazines, books and then I used a lot of film. Now, over 40 years later I'm still doing the same, except I now shoot digital and learn from the internet too.
Richard G
08-07-2010, 21:52
1. Being born with poor eyesight and being stunned by fluff on the carpet at 6 months old when my parents gave me glasses.
2. Repeatedly stunned with each new pair, arriving with no scratches, and seeing clearly all over again.
3. Interest in photographs from our earlier years as a teenager
4. Interest in gadgets.
5. Learning on my mother's Zeiss Ikon Contina II with a compur shutter. The EV value from the light meter was dialled up on the barrel and the various combinations of shutter speed and aperture were set and the choices were all appropriately linked.
f8 was in red and the hyperfocal distance for f8 was marked on the scale focussing 45mm lens. That machine was a lesson all on its own.
6. Andreas Feininger and Jacob Deschin books on photography bought in 1977. Bill Pierce's chapter in the Leica Manual from the '70s.
7. Thousands of poor photographs teaching me what doesn't make a good picture.
8. A trip to Italy in 1986 and acquiring a lighter set up in the M4-2 with 50mm Summicron, cf M2 + Summilux. Took a lot of good photographs then, over and above the beauty of the subjects.
9. Taking lots of photographs of my children.
10. Exponential increase in insight with a shallower increase in ability since joining here and photo.net in the last couple of years. This is partly looking at lots more pictures, but most important for any project of improving one's skills, it is also keeping the company of people more skilled than me. The properties of C41 and Tri-X, and the approach to exposing these and transparency films, the value of non-Leica lenses and the appreciation of my old M2 over my metered M are all things learnt on the forums.
11. Looking at my children's progress with photography and trying to emulate their originality.
zupstermix
08-07-2010, 22:59
I first heard the terms: aperture, shutter speed, focal length, and the likes from my father. Then, almost all the basic stuff I learned on my own.
Books and magazines in Chapter's (Canada's Barnes&Noble/Borders) + slide film + my weekly allowance back when i was in my mid-teens.
Initially tried landscape photography, but was soon drawn in to Life & NatGeo & Kertesz. From that point, I dropped all the landscape how-to's and started to follow these guys that "just went out to shoot" - which was my thinking back in the day - Winogrand, HCB, Erwitt, etc...
In 1981-82, I was taking classes in freehand drawing, fine art history, color & design, & composition. I wanted to learn how to develop film and print, so I took a basic photography class in 1983. After that, I read every photography book I could get my hands on, especially the three books by Ansel Adams, and Henry Horenstein's "B&W Photography, A Basic Manual."
I worked in a placce that had a darkroom and the kind people there mentored me in between my jobs making optical components.
I started when I was 12 during art classes (1977). My art teacher at the time set up a darkroom and myself and three buddies would spend lunch time developing prints. I remember using a Minolta 35mm compact with scale focusing.
By the end of high school we all had our own darkrooms at home. We all shot together on weekends which led to part-time weddings for me with an OM1 and Mamiya 645. I developed the B/W myself and had the colour processed.
Somewhere in the middle I lost my passion for taking photos. I think it was because I was taking pictures for money and to make ends meet when I never enjoyed doing so. I have the digital age to thank for getting me enthused again (and financial security).
Apart from what I learned at school, I have done no courses at all. I suppose I learn most from the appreciation of other people's work and a healthy respect for the common laws of composition.
ChrisPlatt
08-08-2010, 06:12
I couldn't throw a curveball so I picked up a camera.
Chris
My Grandmother gave me a cheap plastic 127 camera when I was a wee lad in the early '70's, and I toyed around with 110 cameras after that. I good friend loaned me a Pentax K-1000 one summer while I was in college, and taught me the basics of the Sunny 16 rule.
From there I ended up studying photography in school. I learned a lot there, but ended up learning even more through books, magazines and experimentation. I still have a lot to learn, though.
Greyscale
08-08-2010, 11:16
While my father was a professional photographer at Wallinger Studio in Chicago for many years, sadly, I can't say that I learned anything about photography from him, his gear was home often, while he was home rarely. I didn't even own a camera until I picked up a Yashica TL-Electro X at a garage sale in 1993, at the age of 33. I learned how to use it mostly by trial and error and by reading a couple of books, and discovered that I had somewhat of a knack for taking nice candid photos, and soon became the semi-official photographer for family gatherings on my wife's side.
I used the Yashica until 2000, when the light seals became so gummed up that the camera became unusable, so I put it away in the closet, bought a series of digital cameras, which were all eventually stolen in a series of home burglaries, so out of frustration I gave up photography altogether.
Fast forward to April of this year. With the big "5-Oh" on the rapidly approaching horizon, I was becoming restless and bored, and longing for new frontiers to conquer. As luck would have it, the Mrs. and I went "garage sailing" one nice spring morning, where I came upon a nice looking black Yashica FX-D for sale for $2.00. Having such fond memories of my other old Yashica, I bought it, brought it home, logged onto the internet, and started doing some research on vintage cameras and photography. I managed to resurrect the old Electro-X, I have posted a couple of the first photos I have taken with it since its rebirth in the "Evil SLR" subforum of this board.
Inspired by the wealth of information available on this and several other forums and websites, I feel inspired to start seeing the world through the lens again, and this time, doing it right. I want to take more chances, teach myself to see the beauty in things that most others consider mundane or even ugly, and use the camera lens to bring that simple beauty to light.
Most unexpectedly, I have discovered that this journey has awakened a desire in myself to understand better the late father that I never really knew well while he was alive, and the most exciting news since the onset of my current, rampaging GAS attack is that I will soon be belatedly inheriting (24 years after his death) one of his cameras, a vintage Agfa Isolette II. Now if my little brother would just part with Dad's Nikon F that I'm sure he has moldering in a drawer somewhere ... and who has the Rolleiflex?
Andy Kibber
08-08-2010, 13:57
My father told me to read The Pentax Way let me play with his SP1000.
stewmander
08-08-2010, 14:49
I first started in photography in HS with a course. The photo teacher went to the different classes and did a little presentation of the photos the students were printing. Those photos looked really cool and got my interest. I then took a course in college (mostly for the lab access). I now learn mostly through the internet...so much to read and obsess about, its great!
I find that I enjoy the "theroy" and mechanics of photography rather than the actual "picture taking". I.E. - I like loading, winding film, clicking the shutter, selecting aperatures, developing film, enlarging and printing film, even mounting the photos. I am not so good at actually choosing an interesting subject, or taking good/interesting photos, but I have enough fun with the rest of the process =P
John Robertson
08-08-2010, 15:04
I was taught by my Uncle George who had a photo studio in Cupar, Fife, Scotland.
this was in the 50's I used Adox R17 film developed in Rodinal in my Purma Plus 127 camera, which I got as a reward for passing my 11+ exams to enter senior school.
I still use Rodinal. Boots the chainstore chemists were the distributors for Adox film.
I also used Woolworths Standard brand film, when pocket money was short.
I still have the camera 50+ years later.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l28/JohnRobertson/Equipment/Purma3.jpg
I got a camera as a HS graduation present. Took a photo class in college and was very lucky in assisting two excellent photographers. And, I read (and still do) anything I could find on photography and art, that was of interest. p.
800 feet of outdated FP2 and a Pentax SV, starting when I was 16.
My father bought me the camera and an enlarger because his father had been a keen amateur photographer, killed on HMS Gloucester off Crete during WW2.
Cheers,
R.
Roger; A bit OT here, but being a yank, I know Gloucester from "King Lear"; who was the ship named for?
p.
funkpilz
08-08-2010, 16:56
I picked up a camera and started shooting. Plus, I looked at loads of pictures online and learned a few things about composition in art class.
The thing about this question is that when you ask how we learned photography, you're sort of implying that the learning process is in the past. I'm speaking for myself here, but I think in fifty years of shooting a couple miles of film every year, I'll still be learning. I assume many of you feel the same way.
atlcruiser
08-08-2010, 19:08
Growing up I always had a camera. I still have the kodak X-15F I got around 10 years old. I took TONS of pics as a child. I remember my mother and grandmother telling me to "put that camera away!"
I got some long forgotten scale focus 35mm and had a pile of assorted P+Ss in 110 and 35. Eventually, around 1982ish I got my first "real" camera; an Olympus OM1n which I still have. I then tried to learn how to really take pictures by taking pictures, reading and learing how to see. Years have passed with a trip into digital then a trip back to film. Now I am both film and digital and honestly; I have no clue what I am doing or why I am doing it. I get a kick out of taking pictures. Every roll is a learning experience and I see it going on for a long time.
I read a lot on line and in books but the biggest learing tool for me has been to read, think, do, review, modify, repete.
mathomas
08-08-2010, 19:29
I formed a sudden and inexplicable interest in photography at around age 12, in the early 70's (I was always an artistic kid). I shot all the cameras around the house, and started begging/saving for an SLR. Meanwhile I read every book I could get from the Library (I think I read the whole Time/Life Photography series), and I bugged every adult I met that had a "good" camera with questions, etc.
I finally got an SLR (a Miranda Sensorex) with money I'd saved, and some kick-in from the family, Christmas of my 8th grade year.
Photography has been an on and off habit/hobby since then.
Timegoblin
08-17-2010, 04:59
Working for a Construction firm building a sewerage treatment works near London in the 1990's I was stuck in a place called Slough for 5 years.... rather than sit at the bar all night every night I decided to do nigh classes in the local college but had no idea what I wanted to do. Got the course prospectus, flicked the pages with my eyes shut and dabbed my finger in. it came up "City and Guilds photography part 1" so thats what I did.
Being poor by anyones standards I could not afford the sort s of camera the other course delegates had, some had amazing medium format Pentax, blad and mamiya kit... I went out and bought a Lubitel 166U and a box brownie. I was ridiculed somewhat but managed to get by ok, and to be honest the brownie 6 x 9 landscape shots were nice (if I do say so myself) and the 166U shots were pretty sharp (but vignetting at anything bigger than F8).
For 35mm I was using a really beat up old Pentax ME super as well as a FED4. My peers were using the latest Nikon, Pentax and Olympus gear, more ridicule came my way but I got through it ok.
Most of my shots were using illford XP2 or whatever 120 film I could scrounge. I developed some at college and some using an old soviet developer I found ina car boot sale.
I did 3 years in college doing photography using the sewerage treatment works and area surrounding Slough as my photo shoot area. I have very few of these pics left due to unforseen circumstanses.
Since then I managed to get my hands on a digi SLR setup, a cheap but useable Pentax K100D bgut as its auto everything I have become rather manual rusty so to speak.
I have not been doing a lot of film photography for a few years now, but with an up and comming house move I am looking forward to renewing my interest.
Currently putting film through a Cosmic Symbol (kodak 400 asa colour) and Zenit 12XP (Illford XP2) cameras and looking forward to the results. particularly as the film in both cases is about 4 years out of date.
-doomed-
08-17-2010, 08:13
I learned photography by reading along with trial and error. No one other than my aunt is photographically minded in my family. Without that sort of help , books magazines, a good bit of info I've read here and shooting meterless has taught me what works.
Rogers website has also been particularly helpful.
I started shooting in my late teens with an hp 3mp camera, which eventually died and got replaced by a Fuji D p&s, then a canon rebel xt followed by a 20D , then came rangefinders a whole slew of them. I learned the most shooting with my RF's and have come to feel they are the tool for me, I don't really like using SLR's nearly as much ( not that they are worse or better, I'm just no longer comfortable with them)
I don't think I've learned photography and I am still learning , no one should stop learning as I feel there will always be some sort of challenge that requires an inquisitive mind.
johnnygulliver
08-17-2010, 08:50
my grandfather and his Voiglaender Vito taught me the basics of photography when I was VERY young. Funnily enough Rob, his first lesson was 'before you do anything else, always put the camera strap around your neck and don't drop the camera' - v.useful advice through the years. He painstakingly took me through shutter speeds/f. stops, estimating distance, dof, or as he would say 'Tiefenshaerfe', exposure, composition, basic film chemistry & c. When I think back on it it seems like an entire photo course, which looks alarming for a kid: but I used to spend my whole 6 weeks school vacations on holiday with my grand parents in Germany, so this was all spread out in the form of conversations on photo walks in the Alps. When I think back on it is amazing how much of this stuff fascinated me and stuck. Moral? Get the kids interested early... that is if you want the 'sprogs' to cherish and use your kit when you're gone, rather than selling your old 'tut' off to the first bidder...
ray*j*gun
08-17-2010, 09:17
I learned the basics in the Press Club in college but after I graduated I enlisted in the USMC and they sent me to Naval Photo School in Norfolk.
cidereye
08-17-2010, 10:09
My Grandfather who I lived with gave me his beloved little Konica C35 at the age of 13, I found there was an after school photography club at my newly joined local school and within a week I was enjoying the sheer magic of life inside the darkroom and watching pictures appear on paper before my very eyes. An experience that has never left me, what magic!
Within 18 months I had converted my bedroom to a part time darkroom and saved 18 months worth of bus fare by walking to school and back and thus being able to buy my first ever SLR, a wonderful Canon EF which was a backup body a Pro friend of the family was selling.
That was over 30 years ago now - though learning carries on forever, anybody who thinks otherwise is just kidding themselves. :)
I first learnt the technicalities in film school, where we did a few subjects in black and white photography. Whereas i got a handle on exposure, DOF etc and even majored in cinematography, the art of photography really escaped me at the time when i looked back on it. After getting tired of lugging around a SLR on holidays with several lenses and girlfriends who resented the lack of attention, my old camera gathered dust.
10 years later, after working in fairly technical roles in film post production, suddenly the creative urge has arisen and the passion for photography has ignited in a major way. I still don't feel im very good, definitely still learning, but i feel this time around i've got a much improved attitude, patience and maturity to make a good go at it. No ambitions to do it professionally at this stage, I already know all too well how work can suck the passion out of you if you don't have the creative control to 'own' your work.. just for my personal enjoyment is enough for me right now.
Now if only i had a little more time to actually shoot...
My father was a photographer, we always had a darkroom at home. My first experience at 8 years was with the old man's home made enlarger which was a Speed Graphic 2 1/4 X 3 1/4 mated to hand ground condenser lenses. This later became my first real camera after time with a Brownie.
I became the photographer for the HS school newspaper and annual. My old man kept me abreast with the latest tricks, and I studied photography as part of an art major under Jim Sahlstrand in college. I bought Leica #1 then which I still own.
Ended up teaching photography at a JC, got real arty and quit the JC and have been arty ever since. Got hooked on computers, Photoshop 2, and scanners from the get as well as the very first Apple digital cameras. I've left dark rooms behind, Praise God!!!!
I still have digital cameras, but I'm reborn with the old and I am only interested in older gear now. I shoot film 3 to 1 over digital. It's no contest. Film scanned is still best for me for the arty work I do.
Excalibur
08-20-2010, 21:09
How I started to learn about photography? Well I took one class that lasted 6 weeks and then just started to read as much on photography as I could and as often as I could. After that it’s just a whole lot of experimenting. I still have a long way to go but I have been improving little by little.
Before Al Gore and I invented the internet, I used to pore through photo mags for information. Most of it was advertising.
So, I finally tore out one of those coupons for NYIP... New York Institute of Photography, which, decades ago, was purely snail mail with critique cassette tapes. 27 lesson plans as I recall.
I recall it with great respect and think it was nicely done and fit my learning style.
Otherwise, I started out in the fifties with a Brownie Hawkeye and many, many cameras and thousands of rolls of film later, I am still not that good a photographer.
But I am an incredible "Gear Hog". GAS is my middle name.
barnwulf
08-21-2010, 14:37
I am on RFF quite a bit and I can't figure out how I always end up posting on P. 5 or maybe P. 10. Does anyone read all these pages or am I just writing to myself. When I started college I had a friend that had a darkroom. He showed me a few basics and I was hooked. I took a course in photo journalism at the college and the instructor told me to go to the Art Dept and take some graphic design classes. After one year, the Art Dept started teaching what they called "Creative Photography". I never looked back and got my degree in Art and Photography. I worked as a professional for a few years and then taught photography for 5 years. I stopped photographing for about 15 years and then started again. I very serious about it now just as much as I have ever been. - Jim
Interesting stories... and that many here had a pre-teen start. My dad had a mild interest but that wasn’t conveyed to me. I was about 23 when I got into photography, and stationed overseas with the USAF. My mother, bless her, had insisted I take a camera, so I got a box Brownie but was lax in using it and sending home the snaps.
Then on quiet night shifts I got to talking with a guy down the hall in Base Ops who was a photo enthusiast. It caught, as he had access to the base photo lab after hours.. I found that my Brownie 127 had two f/stops, Sunny and Cloudy Bright. And two shutter speeds; flash door closed and flash door open. So I had about 6 stops exposure range to play with, leading to better pics. My photo friend persuaded me to get a better rig, my first 35, scale-focus and leaf shutter. Off-duty I would walk the 18 miles either to or from town, different routes, and all over the city, finding subjects that I wouldn’t have seen without the photo enthusiasm.
On the way back to duty in the States I had some leave in Istanbul and Paris, and that time was photo-intensive, same as vacations now. I worked part-time in the camera shop in town near the air base, meeting a wide variety of others with photo interests. I met a memorable wannabee, rich kid who bought a big Nikon kit, traded it for Hasselblads, traded that gear for Leicas, turned that stuff in for Bolex equip, and sadly never made good use of any of it. And got to know my first elitist, the store half-owner too good to wait on customers, upstairs framing his latest masterpieces. He used Hasselblad exclusively, and did know which side was up. I had free use of all the used camera gear, and bought my first Pentaxes.
Out of the military and back to college and work, I found how stultifying it can be in a big “formal” camera club. Interesting resources and events, but rigid thinking. I had a darkroom set up in an apartment closet, read the magazines, read each month’s issue of the Encyclopedia of Photography, 25+ volumes (not sure if that’s the same as Ezzie mentioned). And wandered Seattle with two cameras around my neck. Anyone else buy into correspondence classes with the Famous Photographer’s School? Modern School of Photography? :)
Later, having moved out of the big city, and self-employed, I took a class or two each quarter at the local university for several years: All the photography offered plus individual studies (yeah, Oh Two, under Jim Sahlstrand!), art history, color theory, design, calligraphy, etc. Saw “academic photography” as a genre. Had half of a two-man show at the local gallery.
As others have mentioned taking breaks from photography, so have I, and then I’ll get back into it in a somewhat different way. I skipped the 1990’s and SLR featuritis. I’ve learned from RFF and other sites online, and taking on challenges in my way of making photos. But, as a former mechanical engineer, I can’t escape a liking for the gear. :D
I got a 15 min lesson from my father on his Pentax Spotmatic before going on a trip to Zimbabwe. I was hooked after I saw the pictures.
After then it was books, magazines, the internet and huge amounts of experimentation.
If I was to do a course now it would be with a master printer/fine art darkroom pro to fine tune my printing.
slantface
10-01-2010, 19:09
I broke my leg during the summer between Junior/Senior year of high school. As you can imagine, I was helpless, and bored. My mom was nice enough (as she always is), to buy me a cheap Canon. During that summer, and the following year and a half, I shot, shot, shot, as well as taking a summer class at RIT, in Rochester New York. Once in college at the University of Rochester, and subsequently the University of Vermont, I pursued the endeavor further, taking every photography class available. Although I don't shoot professionally these days, I will forever be in love with photography (particularly film photography), until the day I die. Who knew that a broken leg could lead to such great passion!
Started as a kid with an Agfa Speedex B2 that my stepfather gave me circa 1960-61. Took a year of photography in high school using a Yashica J rangefinder a friend gave me around 1967-68. Then, on my own for 11 years. Another class after college and then on my own for the last 30 years. Will be taking a couple classed at the local community college starting in January.
Classes help and are different than sharing and discussing online but the basics and more are easily learned through self study IMO.
ErnestoJL
10-09-2010, 14:56
I started learning the basics from my father when I was 10 y.o.
Later, he gave me a book I still keep, and for about three years I didn´t do so much in photography until I placed my then dirty hands on dad´s new Voigtländer Vitomatic IIb.
Later in 1970 I took a basic lab training at the Gas del Estado Club which was the only formal training I had.
Since then, I buy photography books and magazines, from where I learn a lot.
The same applies for the Internet forums I visit where I found a lot of good photographers eager to share the knowledge they have of this illness with other people.
Ernesto
lilmsmaggie
01-06-2011, 12:24
Still learning.
Not sure when I got started initially. I remember Brownies and various other cameras, none of which were mine or belonged to anyone in my immediate family. My first camera was a Minolta SRT101 w/ 50mm Rokkor-X lens. Most of my learning was through magazines and trial and error until I got up enough courage to enroll in a beginning photography class back in the mid '70's.
I had also purchased Ansel Adams' first unedited photographic book series when they first came out. I still have them. The revised editions are easier to read. Ansel was a bit too technical in the early unedited editions particularly when it came to explaining the Zone System. I burned a lot of film and made a lot of mistakes and then I stopped completely because life happens.
Luckily, I kept my cameras and rediscovered photography about a year ago. Tried the digital thing but I prefer film and so, it was back to a beginning photography class at the local community college to re-learn the basics and then some. I think having stopped using a camera, then coming back to it after a couple of decades has helped me appreciate photography more.
I've since bought myself a 4x5 Chamonix 45n-2 and have begun the process of learning large format photography.
Photography has always been an on/off thing with me. No one in my family is into photography. But it probably all started when I became extremely curious with a 35mm P&S RF that I won in a contest in the boy scouts.
But it continued to be an on/off thing with me. My first semi-serious camera was when my son was born. I purchased a Sony DSC-F717. With it I started learning tricks with DoF & shutter speed. I always tinkered with the pictures that came out of that camera converting images to B/W and other fun things.
The madness did not truly begin until I met my GF. Her father passed aware quite some time ago, but he left a small collection of SLR cameras behind from the 70s with her. Although she is not interested in photography, she had always been curious if any of his cameras work. One of those cameras is the Konica T3 and her father had a few Hexanon lens with it. I started reading up on how under rated Konica glass has always been and was intrigued. With the F717, I was always trying too hard to create B/W pics. Now I see the perfect opportunity to do real B/W photography.
Unfortunately, her father's T3 is a bit beat up and the metre is not working. Instead of sending it out to be repaired and oiled up, I ended up purchasing an extremely clean and fully functioning Konica T3N from the bay for only $50. I'm also slowly building up my Hexanon glass collection.
My GF is now intrigued and would even like a simple 35mm camera of her own, and that's the main reason I came here in hopes of getting great support in a photography community and soon with a RF I will have for her.
So far, I'm only shooting Kodak BW400CN, I will soon be experimenting with TX film and who knows what else I may come across. :)
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