Why did you want a camera? (Page 3): My grandfather was Lewis W Hine and I learned about photography at an early age in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. When I decided to do some pics I...

LEWISHINE

My grandfather was Lewis W Hine and I learned about photography at an early age in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. When I decided to do some pics I discovered that my grandads 8x10 wooden camera bellows were cracked and no one wanted to work on it. So I decided to use the Asahi Pentax that I had purchased in Tokyo when I was working on a research vessel for Columbia University. Used it when I was stationed in Charleston and then pretty much lost interest in it for years as I was distracted by other things. Then I ran across an ad for Digital Days and had to have a camera to attend so bought a Nikon D5100 which I still have. It failed on a model shoot so I got a D5500 for backup. Things have progressed from there and I have many digital and film cameras that I use on a regular basis. So now I'll spend the rest of my life doing photography. I think I have enough cameras and lenses for the moment, just has to get cool enough now in the Dallas area for me to go do some more model shoots. Get out and take pictures....

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

My use of cameras goes back to flash bulbs. I am now retired (a big mistake), so I use cameras (notice I haven't said photographer) to keep me involved in the world. Or to put it another way--I have no idea. Which really means I can't remember.

dynaquest1 Loc: Austin, Texas

Not sure this is a question as much as it is an attempt to demonstrate writing skill.

Carl D Loc: Albemarle, NC.

I wanted to be rich and famous!
How'd that work out?
Not to well!---LOL---
Thank goodness for a day job.

RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

For me it all started with a Christmas gift in the early 50's my parents gave me a kit it had a 127 Kodak and development kit- chemicals, trays and a contact printer, and rest is history. oh by the way I still have that little brownie.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

I got a little Brownie box camera, no settings and found a fascination with recording friends, events and other personal things.
Had I not done this all the things I saw as a child would never have been recorded and I enjoy looking at these crappy old photos.
Here is my friends and I dressed for Halloween.

(Download)

Zone-System-Grandpa Loc: Springfield, Ohio

G Brown wrote:

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?

Can you remember why it was important to buy a cam... (show quote)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There might be some uncertainty as to why you wanted a camera, but there is no doubt whatsoever that you very much love to write and talk about, I, ME & MY ! 25 (I), 7 (ME), 1 (MY)

dead2fred Loc: Da Bronx

I started with my dads Voigtlander Bessa that he bought used back in the thirties when he was a reporter for a Norwegian newspaper here in New York. He used it thru the Pacific theater in WW2 and they both made it back. He taught me how it worked when I was 12 and gave me a Kodak Instamatic for Christmas. I used it till the 70s when I bought my Canon AE-1 in 1976. Since then, I've gone thru a few Canons that I bought used in stores in downtown Manhattan. I always had my eyes on the F-1 but way too much money for me. That changed when I found E Bay. I started out small with G-3s, replacing light seals and reselling them and ended up with enough to get my first F-1. That was almost 18 years ago and lots of Canons under the bridge. Then I hit the medium format phase, Kowa, Koni Omega, Agfa, Mamiya TLRs and Mamiya RB 67 Pro S. That was fun pulling out that monster to take a picture! My present camera is the EOS 7D mark2, 6 lenses from 10 to 400mm and I still have a few older film cameras. I sometimes take them out to fondle the heft of a brass body and think "let's shoot some film", but then that passes and I want to go fishing! I still have Dads Voightlander, the shutter is slow from lack of use but it still looks good on the shelf with my other cameras and it reminds me of Dad and I smile.

74images Loc: Los Angeles, California

It was by accident in 71, I was 10 & my cousin was in the navy stationed up in the San Francisco bay area at the time & he came to visit us relatives down here in L.A. & I saw his old Hawkeye Instanmatic 126 camera on the dresser & I fooled around with it & waisted the remaing shots of unexposed film inside camera, lied about it got punished, & had to remember what I did, sadly one year ago today he passed away on his birthday in which is today!

But I will never forget that incident from October 1971, Later that Christmas I got my own Kodak Instanmatic 44 126 camera in which I got to use for nearly 4 years till the spring of 75 when it broke!

That Christmas of 75 I got a Keystone 110 Pocket camera, & it would be the start of the long 40 year road of me taking photos! & I never looked back!

From a Kodak Instanmatic 126 to now a Canon SX 50 I shot so many images mainly of my friends from the school days, to my family & relatives, to other places & things, its just to numerous to name!

I found it, I scoped it, & I shot it!

Need I have to say more!

74 images

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

Mine was a natural progression, I started sketching when I was a kid, then drawing and eventually oil painting. I was always interest in photography for as far as I can remember, started off with a Polaroid Land camera, I wanted to draw what I captured, then my first slr and the dslrs of today. Now
at my age it is easier for me to take pictures then to draw or paint.

G Brown wrote:

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?

Can you remember why it was important to buy a cam... (show quote)

BartHx

My parents started our family backpacking when I was about five (that was at a time where you could go to the Central Sierra and if you saw anyone other than your own group on a two week trip it was crowded). I found that I was not able to describe to others the amazing things we had seen. I finally started, in the mid 1950s, with the cube-like Kodak Brownie Box camera (620 film). I went with that for several years and then a family friend turned me and my brother on to adjustable cameras and 35mm. Then another family friend (who did a lot of freelance nature 16mm for Disney) turned us on to the wonders of processing and printing our own black and white photos. Neither one of us has looked back since then, though I still have the old Brownie Box camera. Neither one of us became a professional photographer, but we always have a camera within reach.

DaveD65 Loc: Queen City, Ohio

I learned in the Army (71Q30 military photo-journalist) as soon as I was assigned that Pentax? it just felt right. Darkroom was my favorite. When digital arrived I was in heaven. It has been a great hobby/small business since 1970.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Deleted answer.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

As I read this, I paused to think and went back to read it a second time. Seems your main strength is expressing thoughts. Might the camera be a visual tool for expressing yourself. The great painters were not recording reality but interpreting it through their mind's eye.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Why did I want a camera? Simple.

G Brown wrote:

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?

Can you remember why it was important to buy a cam... (show quote)