How long have you been doing photography for? (dated 20/02/11)

[antiquark]

Interesting how there's a small peak at 5 years. What does it mean? Do many people give it a go for 5 years, then quit the hobby? Maybe the average bank account is only sufficient for 5 years of camera/lens purchases.

[kbg32]

I became interested in photography after I was given a collection of Modern and Pop Photo magazines to draw from. I always drew for as long as I can remember. I began to read them and became fascinated. Got my first camera, a Minolta SRT101, for my 18th birthday.

[Mudman]

10 years or so. Got a Canon Rebel G for Christmas when I was 14 or 15. I paid for half the camera myself.

[Tompas]

25+ years -- started developing films and prints when I was about 14.

[taskoni]

A bit more than a year. But feels like forever, my friends don't recognize me anymore if I am not carrying a camera

[gb hill]

Hard for me to really say. I remember my mom's aunt gave us a Polaroid camera in the mid 60's. It took instant B&W photo's & I can remember the smell of taking this pink sponge thingy & wiping the photo after peeling off the back so it wouldn't fade to black. I was the one elected to take the photos or make the settings. Didn't get to use this camera very much because film was expensive. I wanted to take Photography in HS but I didn't have a SLR which were the craze during the 70's so I took a course in electronics instead. After graduation I joined the Navy & bought my 1st (real) camera. A Canon AE-1. I later sold that camera & didn't buy another for nearly 5 years. Then I bought a T series Canon slr & a complete darkroom. We went through a few years of renting so I never had time to set it up as I wanted. My wife bought me a Canon AE1program a few years ago & enjoyed using it but soon found it's way into the closet. % years ago I picked up the interest once again & bought a Canon QL17GIII, my 1st rf camera. I found RFF researching the camera on the internet. So really I guess you could say I'm a noob....still learning!

[Neare]

Originally Posted by taskoni

A bit more than a year. But feels like forever, my friends don't recognize me anymore if I am not carrying a camera

Haha yeah I'm in the same boat. 6 months ago friends would have a little chuckle every time they saw me with a camera. Nowadays they get really worried if they don't see one on me and ask where it is.

[Mesti3K]

Picked up photography in high school..lost it in college. Found and lost it in international travels. Cemented it in place about 3 years ago.

[redisburning]

less than 2 years and it shows in my photos lololololol.

[DNG]

Originally Posted by back alley

and we need all the geezers to join our geezer group on flickr...over 60 and still shootin'!!!

I don't do Flickr, but, do you a facebook page?
I have 2 paid gallery/storage photo sites, that's plenty for me.

[barnwulf]

I started photographing when I was in college in the late 1950s. My parents thought that I had taken some nice shots on a trip with an cheap Kodak 35mm camera and they thought I should have a better camera. They bought me a Zeiss Contina II which was a 35mm rangefinder type camera without a rangefinder. It had a light meter and you could focus it but you had to guess the distance. Not really a problem. Came with a 45mm Nova Anastigmat 3.5 lens which was not interchangeable. Cost then was about $85 which was not really cheap at that time. I had that camera until the early to mid 1960s when I bought a Pentax Spotmatic. Jim

[x-ray]

If you count the first roll of Verichrome I shot in my mothers Ansco 620 it has been 57 years.

[Roberto V.]

Well, I am one of the relatively new kids here. I bought a digi p&s 5 years ago which cost a lot of money for me back then ($240 I was 15). I used a lot until it got stolen. I still have some pics from back then that I still like. Then a year and a halg passed since it was stolen, and I decided to get a film p&s, since no digital p&s (Lomo Colorsplash I know, I know) would give me decent pics for that money. I quickly felt limited by that camera and got my first film SLR, a Canon Rebel 2000 which now belongs to my best friend. While I was waiting for that camera to arrive, I also ordered a Canon 10D, which I still have and love, although it doesn't get much use nowadays.
I shot with those 2 SLRs and a 50mm 1.8 for some time. I later got more random cameras and another Canon lens.
Then I learned about rangefinders about a two years ago. I got a Zeiss Contaflex SLR, since I couldn't afford a Leica, and in November last year, I finally got my M4! I haven't used any of my other cameras since (only my Contaflex for 2 rolls). I am getting a Leica IIIC with four lenses this coming week, plus a bunch of accessories.
I am now officially addicted to rangefinders.

Cheers!

[f16sunshine]

I bought my first new camera (Yashica FR and 50mm lens) in 1983. Prior to that used my moms 110. At the time I was doing a volunteering for Biology projects with salmon conservancy groups in Washington state. The lead Bio was a Nikon user and taught me a lot about close up work and use of DOF at close range. He was a working photog as a result of his studies in the field. It was fun and sent me on my way down the silver rabbit hole.

[whitecat]

I developed my first roll of film 50 yrs ago! Got my chemicals from Central Camera in Chicago which had been open for over 50 yrs and is still going strong today and I still stop in there. I do not own a digital camera.

[dazedgonebye]

This place smells of old farts.... :-)

[mnmleung]

Dad showed me how to use a Voigtlander Vitomatic II 30+ years ago now. Wish I still have that camera.

[ralphduke]

I picked up my first camera in the 7th grade and I am now 59..so its been a while.
Ralph
www.ralphduke.com

[ibcrewin]

It's funny. A lot of you were inspired by your dads. Well I started about 5.5 years ago, inspired by the birth of my daughter. I was a snap shot type of guy for years before, eventually getting a 3mp digicam.

I bought a dslr about 6 months after she was born and started getting into photography. I wanted to take better pictures, then found a Canon Rebel G for $12 and started using film. I had a bessa r for about a year in between the first and second kid, but that was lost on a family trip. Now that the second daughter is a little older, I've been shooting hard for the last 6 months. We moved to a house and I built a darkroom in the basement. Oh yeah, I got it bad.

[35mmdelux]

In the US Army 40 years ago I grossed $600 a month. I threw down $150 - 1 week's salary! - for an evil Yashica SLR. Not alot by Leica standards, but for a buck Private quite another story.

[John Robertson]

1951, and especially when I got my Purma Plus for passing my 11+ exams in 1954.
I still have the camera all its accessories box and instruction book.
Still looks like new. I used Adox R17 film developed in Rodinal.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ent/Purma3.jpg

[SimonSawSunlight]

I started thinking I'm doing photography about 6 years ago. I have been doing photography for maybe 3 or 4 years

[peterm1]

I first got into photography in a very odd way in the early 1980s. My ex wife and I took up Scuba diving and through that sport bought a Nikonos IV camera. I quickly found that underwater photograhy was too difficult for the likes of me and ended up using the Nikonos for above water photography almost exclusively. It did not take too long before we bought an SLR and the rest, as they say, is history. As is my scuba diving. But fortunately not so for photography. I contnued to do it even though sometimes it was only at a low level.

I should add that my photography really took off when I started digital photography seriously. Like many here I did not take digital seriously for a long time, mainly in my case because the technology was not mature and was far too expensive for the results you got. But having put it off for several years I bought my first serious DSLR - a Nikon D70s and I fell in love. I could shoot endlessly at little real cost (unlike the expense of film where every click of the button cost money) and best of all I could learn how to be a better photographer as I got instant feedback from my efforts. This was my photographic rebirth when about 6 years ago I really got serious.

[Bike Tourist]

Originally Posted by Neare

How long, as of 20/02/11, have you been practicing photography for?
And by practicing I mean starting with the point of investing serious personal funds and/or time into photography. ("My parents gave me a 110 camera when I was 6" doesn't count )


I am currently at 1 year, 4 months.

. . . 1959 . . .

[vbarniev]

Over 40 years. At 12 my mother gave me a Brownie. At 15 I had a Memorex, later a Pentax, even later a Nikon F. I was doing my own developing in my lab. at 15