rleonetti Loc: Portland, Oregon

Like others here, Dad took photos and processed them in a basement darkroom starting about 1938. He must have given me a 35 mm camera (probably used) about Christmas, 1959 and I began by shooting slides.

The reason this is so fresh in my mind is my #1 son has been “bugging” me for over a year to digitize this old box of slides for him. I finally broke down and sent them out for scanning, at 6000 dpi last summer, knowing that they didn’t age well in the box. Some were faded and the Kodachrome, Extachrome and Fugichrome colors sometimes shifted over time. I loaded them into Lightroom and just finished 10 days ago, dating and saving what I could. I ended up with 2462 photos from the Spring of 1960 through 1986.

It was a lot of work but rewarding living through the family, people and places from all these years. If others have an old box I recommend the work for yourself and family members like my four children who are receiving thumb drives of photos from their birthdays on.

Photo Madman

1957 with my dads Argus C3. Still have those first images of the Tacoma Soap Box derby. Continued photography as a hobby throughout my carrier as a firefighter-medic with Tumwater Fire Dept and Thurston county Washington Medic I.
After retiring from fire service due an injury I started a film and video production company and traveled the world doing both still photography and video for 21 years. Now at nearly 80 I indulge my photographic passion by doing personal play with my Nikon Z9. I will stop when I can no longer trip a shutter.

EJMcD

I'm much older. My very first camera was a humble Kodak Hawkeye Fun Flash camera.

Tom W Loc: Lincoln Co, WA

In 1957, I was 10 years old when I received a much dreamed of gift from "Santa"- a Kodak Brownie Star Flash. I took many photos with that camera and a few still exist. But as near as I can figure I gave it to my grandkids to play with. Some years later I had an Argus C-3 that got me through four years in the USCG. Not long after that I met the lady who would become my wife. Her father was very much into photography and got me started with Exakta equipment in 1970. He was a great teacher and mentor. Just prior to my daughter's birth in 1972, I took a photography course at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake. I began to realize how much I was learning from Eldon was fact and how much was his opinion as a photographer. Our photo outings changed from being teacher/student to being two photographers with varying viewpoints but our subjects remained fairly much the same. That was the most enjoyable time I spent with him. I wish often that he'd have survived to see the digital age become reality. We are living in the future! And the clock keeps ticking.

Daryls Loc: Waco, TX

I started with a used Brownie and moved "up" to a 110 Instamatic in 8th grade to shoot photos of my friends. During high school in Chicago (Lane Tech), I worked in the print shop for three years setting type and plates for the color presses as well as foreman of the Platten Press section. I then enlisted in the Army Security Agency right out of high school as soon as I turned 18 and volunteered for Viet Nam. In 1973, the Army decided I should go to Shemya Air Force Base in the Aleutian Islands instead of Viet Nam. There I bought a Mamiya Sekor 500 SLR and spent a lot of time with my buddies in the photo lab developing and printing slides. Later on, I purchased an Olympus OM1 and continued taking slide photos in Europe and the USA. Eventually, around 2017 or so, I bought a Nikon 7200 DSLR. I find myself still using the DSLR the same way I did with my film cameras - I am conservative with pressing the shutter button. I find it very difficult to just "shoot and spray". Maybe one day...

Daryl

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I learned to print and use an enlarger before I got serious about cameras and using them. Sometime during the mid-seventies after 1973 a close friend had a darkroom set up in his parents "extra" bathroom. We had fun in there. Later in College in 1977 my girlfriend (now wife) took a Photography Class. I kinda helped her with some assignments and got hooked! I started taking Photo Classes too. In 1978 I bought my first serious camera (moving up from a childhood Kodak Instamatic 104 or Argus 6x6cm fixed focus TLR), a Pentax KM and smc-Pentax-M 50mm ƒ/1.7 lens. I very soon also bought a smc-Pentax-M 135mm ƒ/135mm lens. By this time new Pentax Spotmatic or Spotmatic F cameras were no longer available. My "darkroom" friend had been using a (Honeywell/Asahi) Pentax Spotmatic for years. In classes I was able to use on loan from the college many different cameras. Among them: Asahi-Pentax Spotmatic F, Asahi-Pentax K1000, Rolliechord, Yashica MAT 124G, 4x5" Calumet View Camera, 4x5" Kodak View Camera, B&J 4x5" View Camera, and other 4x5" View Cameras. The college had a good number of lenses available too.

In Spring 1980 my parents booted me out of the house at age 25. I needed a job. With a recommendation from one of my instructors I found a temporary position doing photography at a famous museum! I spent nearly four years doing copy work. Photographing Watercolor Paintings, Pencil and Charcoal Drawings, and similar with an 8X10" Berk & James View Camera and vintage 10" Lens. They also had me use a converted (to 8x10") Agfa (don't for sure remember the name?) 20x24" vertical lithography graphic arts copy camera. And as well I learned more about camera use and lighting, I learned a bit about art history and other than photography graphic arts! I shot over 10,000 sheets of 8x10" Plus-X Professional & Contrast Process Ortho film!

Over the years I accumulated more cameras, lens and other gear. In 1984 I set up a make shift darkroom in my parents garage. I had to drive some distance to visit them and use my "darkroom". To end this, a few decades later I bought my pal's Spotmatic and all his (Asahi/Honeywell) Pentax Takumar M-42 Screw Mount Lenses. So today I have four systems of cameras and lenses: Screw mount Pentax, Bayonet mount Pentax, digital Pentax K, and 4x5" View Camera. But I have not shot film in years, but I could at any time!

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

No Spray and Pray for me either. I'll shoot maybe 200 exposures in a day perhaps only 20, never 2000.

Daryls Loc: Waco, TX

I seldom take 2000 photos in a year let alone in one day! Wow.

Daryl

clickety

👍😉😉

revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

I don't remember. I only hit 90 in January. My father was quite a photographer with his "postcard sized Kodak" which he took with him in his 1927 European trip and used to photo graph his children and grandchildren. I had a color Kodak in the 1960s which I did use .to record family visits. But I really started in 1970 (age 36) for our trip to Europe loaded with lovely Kodachrome. I switched to digital in the early 90s starting with a pocket Olympus with a "huge" 2mp ability. It did take good pics, one of which is still impressive. Then on to Canon now with an 80D.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Ditto!

Even a week in Acadia I shoot less that 500.

jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

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I started into photography in late Fall in 1963 when I was 14. I only had a box camera when I started out and I built a darkroom in the basement. I started out in B&W developing my film and printing. At that time I didn't have an enlarger and used a print frame and print box for printing. In 1973 I started processing color film and slides and printing them.

In 1964 my grandfather helped me out by buying my neighbor's photography equipment for me. That gave me a complete darkroom including an enlarger, heated print drum, trays, etc. The equipmemt also included a Graflex Speed Graphic Press camera with the cut sheet film holders and the flash for it. It also included 2 light meters a tripod and an electronic flash.

In 1965 I bought my first 35mm camera, an Argus C3 (the brick). Over time I added more cameras, Rolleiflex and Yashica twin lens reflex cameras, Petri, Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL, Asahi Pentax Spotmatic SP2 and another 5 or 6 35mm cameras. I boight my first digital camera in Jan 2002, a Sony Mavica FD73. Later I bought several point and shoots and after I retired I bought a Canon PowerShot SX50 hs, a Nikon D3100, a Nikon D7100 a d then a Nikon D500.

Judy795

My father had a darkroom in the only house we owned. When we moved when I was 7, he didn’t touch a camera again until he was in his 60s. He didn’t help me ever.
So I had a Brownie and an Instamatic, then an old Olympus of his. Then he gave me a Canon AE 1 and a Canon A1 which I didn’t touch cause I was too overwhelmed with work, horses, and kids.
Finally got a bridge camera and learned how to use it on manual. My late BIL shot Nikons, worked for Ritz. And captured a great photo of Secretariat crossing the finish line in the Preakness that made the Baltimore Sunpapers. He got all my film printed at cost at Ritz until he died early and my sister never offered to give or sell me his cameras.
At some point I gave the Canons and Olympus away to high school and college students.
When I stopped working and buried the horses I bought current Nikon DSLRs and thru myself into catching up to the digital world. I now do mostly wildlife photography and enter competitions. Occasionally successfully.

texasdigital Loc: Conroe, Texas

Oh, Lord! We ole farts love to pontificate about our life experiences, and you have certainly opened the door. My first real experience with buying my own camera was in 1969, just before shipping out overseas. I came across a camera store on 42nd Street in New York City. I don't believe it is still in business, and I don't recall the name. As a young sailor, I didn't have much money, so the clerk sold me a used camera. I also don't remember the name, but it had a mount that was compatible with Canon. No meter, no frills. I purchased a 35mm and 150mm zoom lens and a manual flash. I knew nothing about adjusting the settings, but the clerk told me to keep the film box because something called the sunny-16 rule was printed on the inside.

I took the camera overseas and shot many rolls of film, even though I still didn't understand the technical aspects of photography, and many shots did not turn out well. When I shipped back to the States, I had the camera stolen from me while asleep on the bus that took me back to the base. Some miscreants cut the strap and removed the camera. There was a lady who saw it happening, and when I asked why she didn't say something, she told me the guy had a knife. Sigh ... life in the big city.

Fast forward to when I got serious about photography, which happened after I was discharged from the Navy and went to work for a Texas Sheriff's Department as the Identification Officer, now more commonly known as the Crime Scene Investigator. My primary camera was a 4x5 Speed Graphics, which I used for mug shots and the occasional crime scene. I know, lugging the camera around with the wood tripod and a bag full of film cassettes was only something a young and naive person could be convinced to do. When I asked for a 35mm camera, my cheap Sheriff offered me an Instamatic, which I politely declined.

Then, in the late 1980s, I bought a Canon AE1, which was light years ahead of my previous cameras. It had an electronic meter, and it was compatible with a motor drive that I later purchased. I think I still have it somewhere in my closet.

When Canon switched to the EOS system, which required buying new lenses, I decided to go with Nikon. I believe the model was N90, which was an excellent camera. It took me a long time to switch to digital because the quality was not as good as that of film. But eventually, I came around.

My first digital was a Fuji mirrorless. I hated the viewfinder because, at that time, mirrorless was not very good. But the camera fit my budget. While at a Crime Scene photography school, the instructor promoted the Fujifilm Fuji Fine Finepix S2, which was advertised as a Nikon D80 in a Fuji body. It was a good camera for someone just learning to navigate digital, but certainly not as good as the Nikon D90 I eventually bought.

Since then, I have progressed through the Nikon D300s and D610, all good cameras. I currently have the camera I dreamed about, the Nikon D850; in fact, I have two of them. I know they are heavy and lack some features of the new mirrorless, but I love them, and I see no reason to get rid of them, as they have more features than I can use.

Canon cameras are good, although I think Sony has overtaken them. Their biggest genius wasn't in the feature sets but their marketing skills. Plus, they came up with the idea of their professional lens being white, so any time you open a National Geographic, you found an advertisement telling you that Canon was the professional's choice, and this was reinforced when you saw most of the professional sports photographers carrying their very prominent white telephotos. Yet, I don't think Canon would be wise to rest on its laurels, as Sony has taken the photography world by storm.

There is much more to say, but I'll have to expound later.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

My uncle gave me an Argus Seventy-Five 620 roll film camera and flash when I was five. I somehow accumulated a Brownie Hawkeye 127, Instamatic 104, and a couple of mystery 620 box cameras before I was ten. I started doing darkroom work making contact prints that year, 1965. Three years later, I got an enlarger and borrowed a family friend's Canon FX. I photographed all my classmates at school.

A few months later, the yearbook advisor at our Jr.-Sr. high school grabbed me by the shirt collar as I was passing her office. She pointed to the camera around my neck and said, "You're going to take pictures for the yearbook and newspaper, aren't you?" "Uh... Yes ma'am?" "Bring me some prints or contact sheets of whatever you have from school."

After viewing my work the next day, she offered to pay me for about 70 prints, and gave me several assignments. She also started mercilessly suggesting ways I could improve my work. I spent the next 4-1/2 years covering events for our publications. I took all the journalism and creative writing courses that lady taught, and joined the newspaper and yearbook staffs as a writer, too. Along the way, the school paid me enough to buy a Nikkormat FTn and three lenses, two flashes, and lots of darkroom gear.

My senior year, I got an offer to work on a project for a classmate's mom, making hundreds of slides for a civic awards banquet show that the local technical college PR staff threw for various community leaders who had raised millions for their new building projects. It was my first major use of color slide film. I never got to see the show, but it was a raving success, according to the lady I worked for.

That summer, I saw a big multi-image slide show at a church retreat. The subject matter was forgettable, but the technology was not. I immediately asked the guy from Massachusetts all about it. Little did I know that eight years later, I would be using the latest models of their equipment.

I spent my college years away from the camera, busy getting a degree in economics with concentrations in English, psychology, and humanities. My spare time was dedicated to running operations at the then student-run FM radio station.

I worked as a radio announcer/commercial advertising producer for a couple of years after college. I toured the USA for the summer of 1978, something I highly recommend to young people. Along the way, I stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, because it was a weird museum of prairie life. They had another multi-image show. THAT got me thinking seriously that I wanted to make shows like it.

After another radio job, I decided it was time to do more than run my mouth and listen to the bored alcoholic housewives who called radio stations while their kids were at school and their husbands worked. I got a job at a yearbook and school portrait company as an audiovisual producer. For the next eight years, I wrote, photographed, edited, narrated, and presented slide shows, filmstrips, videos, and multi-image extravaganzas for sales meetings and training workshops. I had several assistants along the way, one of whom took over my role when I moved into the photo lab as a systems manager.

The rest of my 33-year career in the photo industry was spent mostly at the same companies and later iterations of them, in various management roles.

One highlight of my time there was guiding the production teams as we transitioned from an all-optical, film-based lab to an all-digital, data-based lab. I ran film scanning, CD-ROM production, color correction, school service item printing (ID cards, rotary cards, class composites, file prints...), and portrait package printing areas, along with memory book pre-press preparation (memory books are elementary school soft cover yearbooks).

It was a great ride. I saw the imaging industries from the inside out, attended photo marketing conventions, graphic arts technology expositions, trained people all over the country, and had a blast doing it.

Oh, and all those images from high school? I still have them. I made a long video of the best frames from 61 rolls of film I exposed my senior year, digitized from the original negatives. I presented it at our 50th reunion back in October.