ghbowser Loc: Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

Had the brownie when I was a kid. My cousin (who is also in this group) was into photography and helped further my interest. Early 70's got my first SLR. Not sure of the brand but I think it was a Pentax. By 1974 I had invested in a Contax RTS and a couple of Zeiss lenses. Over time I accumulated two more CY mount cameras. One was a Yashica and another Contax (not sure of the model without looking at it) and several aftermarket lenses. I still have the C/Y mount film cameras and lenses, if someone is interested in them, let me know. Also had a couple rangefinder film cameras. First digital was small point and shoot purchased in the early 2000's. When I found out that the C/Y mount lenses would work on Canon digital with an adapter, I purchased a 20d body. Since then I have owned or own a power shot A710, 30d, 60d (is dead and won't power on) and a 5D Mark II. Looking to add another body (6d Mark II or 5d Mark III). Enjoy both taking and editing photos. Just purchased the Topaz package and what little bit I tried it on old photos and scans, I am totally amazed at the results.

frjack Loc: Boston, MA

I received notice in January that I would be able to spend six weeks working in a hospital in London. I'd had some money saved up. Consulted a classmate who is an extraordinary photographer and asked his advice about what to buy. I'd been thinking about it for a bit and decided I was not going to London without a decent camera. The Canon AE-1 quite new at the time. I dove in. Do not regret it. When I switched to digital began with Olympus E-510, progressed up the line and now use EM1 mkii.

Jennylili Loc: Florida

oh, the beauty. i want to record the glorious life

SWADE Loc: Rochester, MI

My grandfather always had his 35mm out and use to let me snap a few. 1977 I graduated from high school and worked all summer saving for my first camera. Decided to enroll in to Western Michigan University in the Fall and bought my first camera after getting to school. Canon AE-1, over the years I purchased A1, Nikon F100, D100,D700 and currently using a D850.

Jerrin1 Loc: Wolverhampton, England

I was 15 in 1970 and wanted to photograph the model soldiers and vehicles I used to build and paint. I swapped two Beatles albums for my mate's Practika Nova 1B + 50mm lens. It wasn't as easy as I had anticipated: but I did learn about exposure, etc. I have had loads of SLR's, DSLR's and mirrorless cameras since then. I purchased an Olympus OM1 in 1975 and pre ordered two OMD Solutions OM1 bodies on 15th February this year. I have come full circle.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

In 1968 at the age of 18 I bought a Konica Auto Reflex because my brother had always done darkroom work and I wanted to take images so I could do darkroom work.
A year later I traded it in for a Nikon FTN with a 105 and 35 mm lenses. A friend was getting married and asked me to take some images, this started a 35 year career as a wedding photographer, UPI photographer, school teacher and Superintendent of schools. After retirement I got into my true passion, wildlife photography.
Camera's used over that time included, Hasselblad, Kowa 6, Mamiya C33, Rolleiflex twin lens reflex, Nikon, and a Canon EOS-1DX Mark III.

Doyle Thomas Loc: Vancouver Washington ~ USA

. I first became interested in Photography while serving with the U.S.Army in the early seventies. I had received training in and was doing sound recording for training films when I realized that my ear and the microphone didn’t hear things in the same way. To achieve good results I had to teach my ear to listen like a microphone. I had to hear beyond the sounds I wanted, to the noise that the ear perceives but the brain filters. I soon realized my eye was the same way and that I could teach myself to see using the tools that mimic vision. I bought a 35 mm camera with some black and white film and started. The camera came with an operating manual and in those days Kodak included a small pamphlet detailing basic hints about exposing and developing with each roll of film. The military post had a fine darkroom so I was totally vertically integrated from the start.

chepo1956 Loc: Puerto Rico

In the mid 1960s, I saw my cousin developing film in an improvised darkroom in the bathroom. He had, at that time, a Pentax SLR. When I moved here to Puerto Rico in 1970 and during that decade, I bought my first SLR: Konica T-3. I was hooked from there on.

mvetrano2 Loc: Commack, NY

In 1955 I was 8 years old and for our class trip we went to West Point. I borrowed my dad's kodak box camera for the trip and I was hooked. That box camera went with me everywhere for a couple of years. When I was 10, I bought my first new camera, a Kodak Instamatic. Since then I have bought, collected and sold hundreds of cameras and lenses over the past 60 some odd years. Today I shoot a Canon 6D Mark II and an older Canon 30D, and still love it.

home brewer Loc: Fort Wayne, Indiana

At a tender age of around 10 my parents bought me a 120 kodak camera. From age 16 to 22 I used my dad's Pentax. At age 22 (September 1972) I was drafted. My Army experience was Basic, AIT, then training to drive an APC. While on leave in march of 1973 I got married to the woman who still puts up with me. Our first honeymoon was driving me to Fort Dix; my wife drove home by herself and I ended up at a base in Kornwesthiem Germany as a driver for 2nd and 4th infantry battalion supply captain. Some of the first or second pay check went to buy a Pentax Spotamic and a lens. Soon after I bought a 1966 VW type 2, I moved off base Then my wife arrive in June of 1973 to start our second honeymoon. During the time in Germany I bought another Pentax, more lenses, a flash, filters and a changing bag, and dark room equipment where I developed black and white and Ektacrome film. Over two years we drove 60,000 km seeing old towns, castles, people, old buildings vistas, numerus auto and motorcycle races in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and many other places and events.

So my photo taking really took off because I was drafted.

daldds Loc: NYC

In 1948, one of my bar mitzvah presents was a Kodak Duaflex II and basic dark room kit. Paper route and caddy money bought a used baby Busch Pressman so that I could shoot high school sports, which enabled me to sell 8 x 10 prints to the athletes themselves for $.35, and $3.50 to the local newspaper. In college I had a Canon (A1?) I used for the school newspaper.
After college, life, children and work kept my shooting to a minimum, but I did build a darkroom, even working with color. In 2002, I bought my first digital camera, an Oly with a huge 2.1 megapixels, which went on my second honeymoon to Alaska. A Nikon or two, then a Canon D90, then Oly micro 4/3s and back to full frame, selling and
downsizing to a big and pocket Sony & a Leica.
Since my retirement at age 71, I have seen a lot of this world in photo workshops. A couple of favorites are included.
Every day of my retirement I am thankful for that bar mitzvah gift. I am never ever bored.

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achesley Loc: SW Louisiana

Developing friendship with a family that owned a photoshop place in town after I got out of the Corps in '66. I was taking my mom's film there to be developed. They even taught me to develop my own film. Still have that camera and lens in the garage put away. Now , 7 cameras own but only 4 used.

ronpier Loc: Poland Ohio

I received my first camera as a Christmas gift in 1965. It was a Kodak Instamatic. Then there was a GAF 110. My first purchase by myself was a 35mm Yashica Electro 35 rangefinder in the 70s followed by a Mamya NC1000. I officially got into Digital in 2005 with the purchase of the Nikon D50.Still use it regularly today. Going from film to digital was a high point in my hobby.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I was walking home from school when I was about nine years old, and I saw a camera in the window of Whalens drug store. The price was $0.98, so I knew I could afford it. Unbeknownst to me, it was a split frame camera. Push the shutter button down, and it would take a picture. Push the button back up, and it would take a picture on the other half of the frame. I took loads of pictures with that camera until the shutter failed. I didn't keep track of shutter actuations, but I suspect it was under 200,000.

Celtis87

Reading “The Family of Man” and learning more about Steichen, Ansel Adams, and Stieglitz.