G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

Can you remember why it was important to buy a camera? Does it still satisfy that particular need or has it just become a part of 'what you now do'?

I took up photography when I discovered that my sketching skills were lacking. I love the way that a simple line can convey 'the whole look' of a person's face. Anyone who has sat in Montmartre will know the speed and yet delicacy of capturing an image in chalk or pencil. However I still can't get that right. My portraits do not satisfy ME... The camera captures too much detail. My best shot was a high key accident where only the most contrasting areas showed . I need to work harder both in B&W to see how this achieves my aim.

Book illustrations are masters at creating a cameo view. The lonely cottage by the stream on the hill side and a single shade tree. It is composition at its finest. Now this I look for, It is why I bought a camera. I have images of castles ruins. Cottages and bridges etc. My mind sees the illustration of Poplar Trees at dusk, fields fading into a patchwork of hedges against defined cloud formations and I rejoice when that translates into a print. 'Nice view' is what people call them. 'But what were you photographing?' ask others. I care not...To Be There and get exactly what I wanted is reward enough. To look for , is inspirational and makes any walk or drive in the countryside a quest in itself.

Do you recall the Plant Folio books that libraries had. The large folio's of Victorian watercolours of single specimens. I cannot watercolour to save my life. However, I can capture 'copies' that I can print A3. The nuances of shading that I admired in print I can control with light . The backgrounds that 'made or age the picture' I can reproduce. I even get the joy of actually growing or buying the plants I photograph. It is fantastic to re-look at the watercolour images in a book and then go home and reproduce them or create an amalgam of elements that please with the flowers that I have. Once again the rules of composition and light transcend art into photography. It may be simplistic, but it satisfies my needs.

I 'forget' my good camera at weddings and parties I attend. Birds in Flight seems to me like stamp collecting. Even holiday snaps are a chore, it seems. I am probably not a good all round photographer, but I do get, with my camera, what I paid for.

What inspired you? Does it still make you happy?

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Why?

I have been asking me this question ever since I picked one up (1979). I still have no clue.

Let's see the other answers.

tramsey Loc: Texas

Sounds like you are a candidate for a good photography school/class

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

Your question provides excellent insight into why I have, to some extent, drifted back to film photography and a Leica M6.

Murray Loc: New Westminster

Mine is boring....

1st year biology required us to take photos. I enquired of my future wife's dad, the city editor of the local daily, and he took the time to teach me (1969), loaned me a camera, (Ricoh as I recall), and away I went

Been at it ever since.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Who says I need a reason!

I just like gadgets and pretty pictures!!!!

And I am too lazy to develop sketching and or painting skills. I tried when I was in high school and I got bored with all the repetition etc. and the huge amount of time it took. I have too many interests/hobbies to spend excessive time on one, except reading, I can kill a lot of time with a book or two. Then my wife wants to know why I didn't come to bed until 2 or 3.

oldart Loc: Dallas, Texas

While I occasionally take a picture that's pleasing to me, and fiddle with others to make them "better," for me it's the mechanical aspects: setting aperture or shutter speed, fiddling with settings, etc. I guess that also explains why I like to work on old cars, starting with my first - a '55 Chevy.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

The camera is a voice that helps tell the story of how you see life! S-

tramsey Loc: Texas

Now that is a quote that I have to remember.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

I just made it up, but you're welcome to use it! S-

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

While we all want to have the best gear that money can buy, to take excellent good photos. Sometimes that doesn't matter. I have family photos that were taken with cheap film cameras of their day. When I look at them, some are not good quality. Underexposed are some. But they never take away the memories. Photos of such would be unacceptable in today's digital cameras. Even the cheap ones.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

This does not answer why you wanted a camera but why you keep the memories created with one... Good reasons indeed but...

What made you pick-up a camera in the first place?

I know what made want to further my discovery in the field of photography but not why I picked one up in the first place. I just know my first camera was a Canon AE-1, that it was built like a tank and survived 'horrific' accidents... For a camera that is...


I do not quite understand your statement here. Good or bad, DSLR or not, what makes the quality an over ride to the memories?

Grand ma eating her veggies from the roots is still grand ma, That she could have been 'captured' by a sensor or a chemical process makes no difference... Both can be atrocious but her grumpiness still exists...*

(My grand ma was a mean person toward the end of her life, hitting the staff trying to help her... So I am biased here, I describe her, no one else...)

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

Perhaps I should have said that the family photos encouraged me to pick up a camera. My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic film/cartridge type. A lot of family photos of the past were shot in black and white. Photos are now filed in computers, and are quality photos, that can be improved with PP. If desired.

jim quist Loc: Missouri

My first camera was a kodak X15 and used magicubes for the flash. I don't remember why I wanted it, but it is what I asked for and received as an 8th grade graduation gift.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

My Kodak Instamatic was the model 104 with the same magic cubes for the flash. And if I can remember, I used 126 Kodak cartridge film.