How did YOU get started in photography?

[George Stewart]

I've shot photo's since I can remember, startining with 127, 110 then 35mm.

When I started working I got interested in improving the quality of my photographs and was going to look at Hasselblad equipment, when a friend tagged along wanting to look at Nikon's F4. When he handed the camera to me to checkout, I was immediatetly seduced by its Autofocus and speed (big mistake) but I still have the camera.

Later on it was a used Pentax 67 for astrophotography (still haven't purchased a Hasselblad). When I saw the dramatic improvement in image quality, I started using it for landscapes.

Soon I got bit by the thought of doing panoramic photography and found out that I could have a 4x10 camera with 90mm XL lens and holders for about half the cost of a Fuji or Linhof 617. The quality of images shot up again!

Then I thought about movements. Was it 4x5 or 8x10? I thought eventually I'd be printing my own 4x10 negatives, and that I'd need an 8x10 enlarger anyway so I got an 8x10. Way cool!!! But, I still liked to backpack, and the thought of going without movements and carrying a smaller rollfilm camera was no longer acceptable. so I added a 4x5 and some small lenses, which brings me to today.

I shot B&W seriously for about 20 years without a means of printing any of them (no room or funds). Several years ago I finally got that enlarger and went wild. Today, its the slow migration toward digital since I moved and had to close the darkroom. Its been over a year without the ability to print my LF stuff. However, by the end of this year I should be scanning and printing my LF stuff with some high end equipment. I guess I'd rather go without and save for the high end stuff and do it right in the end. Eventually, my darkroom will be open again.

As far as cameras for the future: I'd really like to have a Hasselblad SWC and perhaps a Toyo VX125 and maybe a 12x20...??? I'm sure I'll have to get a digital some time, but I plan to hold out as long as possible. I must resist the seduction of fast and easy in favor slow/hard work and the best quality.

Goerge

[Graeme Hird]

The long story made short:

- As a teenager in highschool, I used my father's Canon rangefinder in what I thought was an artistic way (wrong!). 1 roll a year was really burning the film for me.

- In 1987 (when I was 21) I was given the choice between a Minolta SRT 101 and a telescope, I chose the camera. A roll a week was good going.

- In 1993, my wife gave me a Nikon F801s for Christmas and I took up wedding photography to pay for the hobby. 15 rolls in a day? No problem ....

- In 1998, I bought a Tachihara 5x4. This was my first quantum leap in photography - I learnt more in 6 months than I had in the previous 11 years, and my photos showed it. Back down to about a roll a week.

- In 2001, I discovered Photoshop and digital printing (Lightjet) of my 5x4 trannies. Second quantum leap! I was finally in control of my prints rather than at the mercy of poor "professional" printers.

- Late in 2003, I discovered digital printing on metalic paper. That was my most recent quantum leap. I sat in awe of my first prints done on this paper and felt I'd finally achieved my goals in photography. Now, I can seek the perfect image and know that if I fail to achieve it, it's due to my own short-comings rather than technical issues outside my control. I now shoot about 1 roll of 35 mm a month and 8 sheets of Velvia a week.

- Next step is to quit the day job and open my second gallery.

Graeme

[tribby]

started with a kodak instamatic when i was seven. folks said i had an eye so i was conscripted as family vaction photog. got a really pretty photo of a tall ship on one vaction(sx-70) and was hooked. got a hi-matic minolta at 13, friends in japan got me a deal. then moved to a used srt 201, then mowed lawns and cleaned banks at 14 for a x700.

was shooting lf by 18...

[David R Munson]

I think I always had an interest in photography as long as I can remember. When I was about 12 I got an old Mamiya 35mm point and shoot at the church rummage sale and started shooting with that until I was 14, when we moved from western Massachusetts to the east side of Cleveland. I found my father's cameras in the move (Minolta X-370 and SR-T 100) and started really getting interested in it. I had no friends at the time and spend my time at the library reading photo books, at Second Hand Books starting what is now a thoroughly out of hand library of photo books, and shooting. It started as a fun habit, and with the help of the whole lack of friends thing (later remedied) I spent so much time doing photo-related stuff that it just grew into an obsession.

When I was 15 I bought a Mamiya C220f and started shooting MF. That winter I built a Bender 4x5 and started shooting LF when I was 16, at the end of that summer (1998?) bought a Linhof monorail with the money I had made while doing an internship at CWRU. When I was a senior in high school I saved up and bought my Deardorff 8x10 and had Mr Grimes mount a 240 f/10 Process Nikkor into a shutter for me.

At this point I've gone from the Minolta 35mm to Nikon to Leica and back to Nikon. I've gone through no fewer than 4 MF systems and 3 LF cameras. I've been doing digital in some capacity for about 4 years now and have gotten thoroughly excited about its possibilities.

I've been doing photography for about the last decade now and I love it more now than I ever have. I wonder if my father ever had any idea what he was starting when he let me use his cameras back in the day...

[e]

Boy that brings back memories. First camera was a Kodak instamatic w/flash cubes (liked to watch them sizzle), soon after, a Poloroid too as a young kid in the sixties. Then someone loaned me a Beseler Topcon in the late 60's. Even though I lost those photos I still remember them. My Dad was a photographer in NYC with a Leica, Rollieflex and Speed Graphic. He gave me the Speed Graphic when he stopped using it in 1969 or so. Then he left me a Yashica tlr. I had to have a Nikon FM and then a Leica m6 (later in life) before I got around to using the TLR and the Speed Graphic. I'm pretty much self taught. Seems there were always pro photogs around or living in the building we were at in the 60's in midtown Manhatten. My mom was in the art/music community in NYC as a working musician, she was friends with Gene Smith and other Life photogs. I think I really got serious about photography at 33 when I started working with the Leica M3, just something about it. The idea that Ralph Gibson could have such a well developed vision and philosophy in regards to the camera I really took to. Minor White was also an attraction in this regard. Many cameras and clicks later I'm now into ULF selling Wisner cameras as a sideline and working with the big cams and negs myself. I feel like a beginner again.

[Tadge Dryja]

I always thought photography was dumb through high school. "Cmon, you just press the button! Whatever."

Then during the summer after senior year, 4 years ago, I was biking around, and saw a fence in an empty parking lot. There must have been trees that had grown there and then been cut down, because meshed in with the rusty fencing were cut up cross sections of weathered wood. I crouched down to inspect it, and decided, "OK, I need to take artsy black and white photos of this."

That I had no idea what I was doing seemed of little importance. I went home, rummaged through the basement, and found my dad's Canon A-1. I then went to CVS and bough some "Black and White" film (some c-41 stuff). I couldn't figure out how to open the back of the camera so I tried going at it with pliers and a screwdirver. Then I finally figured it out and felt stupid.

Needless to say, those first two rolls didn't come out very well. Neither did the next, oh, 20 or so. I finally got some tri-x and went to the colleges photo club darkroom. Unfortunately they neglected to say that the D-76 in the bottles there was ALREADY diluted 1:1, so I never got a neg that printed on anything less than a grade 5.

Considering what a mess the first year was, it's kindof amazing I stuck with it. Then I got all this other junk, started printing bigger, then used the schools 4x5 camera... big mistake! There goes everything. Now every spare dollar goes to film or printing or lenses or whatnot. Now if I don't shoot film for a couple days I get jittery and start to go into withdrawl. I've been doing a lot of digital stuff for color (imacon, inkjets), but I think I'll stick to chemical for black & white. Also, I can shoot black & white for about 1/10th the price, so I try to stick to that even though I love color.

[Andrew O'Neill]

I am a visual artist with a background in drawing and printmaking (lithography, intaglio, silkscreening). I used to be anti-photography. I used to scoff at all the photo students when I went to university. I really thought they were wasting their time. How could one make art with a mechanical contraption? Of course I was just showing my ignorance. I knew nothing about photography. I loved lithography because I could incorporate drawing and painting into it. I loved it's reproducibility. I could also incorporate photography. This forced me to learn more about photography. Eventually I was doing all photo-litho. Then eventually all photo, bye bye litho. I first used 35mm (Pentax K1000) I bought for $100 (Canadian) at a pawn shop, then quickly switched to medium format (Mamiya RB67, by this time I was living in Japan and making tons of $$) and even quicker to 4x5 (beat up old Cambo) for quite a while and finally and for a few years now, 8x10 (a really nice Canham). Black and white. I love black and white. I've been drawing with pencils since I was a kid so it felt natural. I think that really helped me to see the world in gray tones. I had very strict printmaking masters who instilled in me attention to fine detail and print quality. I have no formal training in photography. If I could think of one thing that really attracted me to photography it was the rich blacks that one could obtain. I was never able to get that beautiful rich black or smooth gray tones in litho or even intaglio....or even my drawings. I've got to go now...yes, that's right the darkroom awaits! Cheers!

[Salty]

I got started in LF because I had a stack of 4x5 negatives that I had been buying from the National Archives. The lab that I had been getting the prints done at went digital, so I got some books, bought an enlarger and started doing the work myself. From there it was a view camera, lens, field camera, lens, better enlarger.........

[Bob Fowler]

I first got interested in photography in 1966 when I was 8. My Dad let me use his old Practiflex (under his supervision). Looking back, that Practiflex was a nightmare! It had a horrible, dark, waist level finder, and was as uncomfortable as chewing on broken glass - YUCK!

Things really took off for me at about 14 or so when I was given a Kowa SET-R2 leaf shuttered 35mm SLR. If the price of Kodak stock went up steeply in 1972, it was partially because I was going through 100' rolls of Tri-X like a madman. A Yashica Mat 124G was my introduction to medium format, and by the time I was a senior in High School, I was shooting 4X5 with a used Pacemaker Speed Graphic I bought with money earned from selling B&W portraits.

I was very lucky that I learned about shooting and darkroom work at the same time. My Dad taught me B&W processing and printing and his older brother taught us both about color processing and printing (this was back in the C-22 and E-4 days).

[jnantz]

i guess i can say i got started when my mom gave me her kodak flashfun camera - it was one of those 127 roll film cameras that took funky bulbs. i was in first or second grade and took snapshots of everything - the dog, friends & family, the shrubs around the house, you name it. it wasn't until i was in high school that i began my formal photographic education. and my camera was upgraded to a pentax k1000. still have it, although it is kind of held together with duct tape

i was bitten by the LF bug when i took photo courses in college, and later when i was working for a large format portraitist. she worked in 5x7 and lent me her pre-aniversary speed graphic to have a little fun on my lunch breaks. when i saw her 5x7 speed graphic it made me drool, and after that it was all downhill.