SteveW8703 Loc: Las Vegas, Nv

I'm old lol, I started in high school back in 1977 work with film and only B&W. I still have all my work. My camera back then was Minolta 101. Then moved to Canon A1. I was a lucky student, my dad was a photographer with a dark room in the garage. I sometimes finish my HS projects at home. I did take up digital photography right way. I'd love to read other members history in photography

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I started circa 1971. A friend lent me a 35mm camera for a while.
Somewhere in '72/73 I bought a Canon EX-Auto.
Then I acquired stuff for a B&W darkroom in my parent's basement.
Replaced the EX-Auto with an Ftb.
Later added an AE-1.
Went digital circa 1997 with a Sony Mavica.
Got a Sony H-1 in 2006
Bought a T1i in 2010.
Still using the T1i and H1.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

My father the doctor was into photography and stereos, typical Doctor-Dad.
He got me into photography and as we went along we converted a small bathroom into a tiny darkroom.
He was into Leica cameras and gear. He was posted to Germany at the end of WW II and collected Leica after the war during his stay in Bremerhaven at the Army Hospital along with my mother how was a camera person and Army nurse.

In California in the 60's he helped to create The Friends of Photography with Ansel Adams and the f64 group. So I got mentored by my parents and surrounded by the 'heavy's' of photography on the West Coast.

That led to my adventure in photography. I ended up at the Southwest Craft Center, then the southwest Art Center, that is now the University of Texas at San Antonio, in San Antonio Texas.

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

Bright one sunshiny morning --it was either a Monday or a Tuesday-- I applied for the #2 mule position with Carleton Watkins. The position had suddenly come open as a result of a tragic mishap deep in the Sierra Mountains during which I'd pushed the previous #2 mule off a cliff, but we won't go further into that here. That was in the winter of 1853 (or maybe it was '54; I've never been good with dates or years or even the time of day, per se, but what mule is?), but apparently, none of my braying and balking held any sway with Watkins, so he didn't hire me.

Not long afterward, I applied for similar positions (team mule to haul wagon festooned with camera & darkroom apparatus) first for Tim O'Sullivan then later for Matthew Brady, but neither of them hired me either. Which I felt was their loss more than it was mine, because I could haul a wagon like nobody's business in my younger days, and their photographic output would've been SO much better if I'd been there to advise 'em in the artful ways of hauling glass plates and noxious chemicals and what-not.

Some might've called these above referenced job refusals setbacks, but not me. Some years later, after listing my accomplishments and experience and CV on-line via the somewhat trendy (for its day) --though admittedly niche-- 'Photo Mules For Hire' app, I got contacted by Alfred Stieglitz. He didn't need a mule, per se, but he did find the melodic braying of a mule soothing to his ear, so I relocated East and became thusly employed. My lengthy association with him --I believe it was almost eight days-- provided me with many contacts and opened many doors, and before long I got a position with Paul Strand. Shortly after I got that gig, I died (of either fixer or selenium fumes, I've never been sure which it was), and got melted down for glue.

My first camera was a Polaroid Swinger. I didn't buy it; it was gifted to me.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

Hmmm, where to start...

Started with a Kodak Instamatic circa 1969 - remember those flash cubes? lol
This morphed into a Poloroid Land Camera a few years later and then there was the SX-70.
Somewhere around 1977 I bought my first "real" which was a Pentax K-1000.
After that was a Minolta X-700.
First digital was a 2.1 mp Kodak DC 290
Next was a Nikon D 5000 which I gave to my oldest son after upgrading to,
A Nikon D 7100
Currents cameras include an iPhone 12 Pro Max and a Nikon D 750.

My son still has the D5000 and I still have the D 7100 and D 750, as well as the Minolta X-700

After 50+ years I am still working on becoming a photographer. Someday...

PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

My cousin's husband was a photographer for a small catholic news paper and he got me started. He shot with Alpa cameras. I then bought a Nikon Nikkomat and then a Nikon FTN. He would get into sporting events like LSU and Saints games. He would be in the press box for one half and I would be on the field shooting and we would switch at halftime. Still shooting Nikon cameras.

Don

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

Somewhere in the early-mid ‘60s with a simple Brownie 620. By the 8th grade I had a B&W Polaroid Swinger. Shoot, pull it out, count the seconds, peel and then smear the fixer stuff over it. Then a GAF (120 film?) then Vivitar 220SL 35mm by 1977. Before the Vivitar my dad would occasionally let me use his mid-60s Zeiss Ikon. Didn’t go digital until 2003 with a Kodak point and shoot.

User ID

When - Where - How ?
You ask for ALL three ?!?
I absolutely cannot even take a wild guess at a single one of those. But I do know that gear as advanced as your early stuff was waaaaay off in some unknowable future.

I can recall a bit of "How". I do recall folding Kodaks, box cameras, flash bulbs, daylight film tanks and contact print frames. Oh, and shadowgrams on ammonia paper !

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I went to college at Baylor University in the late '60s. I planned to major in journalism, as I wanted to do something creative, and I had always been pretty good a writing. Then I took a photojournalism course, which was a lab class involving darkroom work. I had used point and shoot cameras and drugstore processing before, and I was amazed how much you could do in the darkroom to improve your photos. That was what really sold me on photography. I also went to the university library and looked at photo books by photographers like Edward Weston, Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, and Yousuf Karsh. That's when I realized photography could produce art.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

I was a poor high school grad who enlisted in the Army Security Agency during the height of the Viet Nam war '67 - went to Frankfurt Germany in late '68. Some Army colleagues got me into the Frankfurt Army base photo/darkroom craft shop. A friend lent me his Minolta 101. Later, while in Germany, I would purchase a Pentax Spotmatic and Yashica 124 TLR - and, much later CANON.

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

I received a 35mm Yashica rangerfinder camera as a birthday present and immediately fell in love with photography. Joined the Navy in 1966 & had to cross train to get into Photographer's Mate A School in 1967. Got out in 1970 as I had no intention (at that time) of making it a career. Had 5 jobs in the next 18 months. The Navy was going to take my E-4 stripe so, I joined the Air Force. New career field was working in aerial recon labs. Some you will recognize WS-430B PPIF as an air mobile film processing & intel facility. Retired in 1988 & have only used my camera as a hobby since then.

Flyerace Loc: Mt Pleasant, WI

In 1972, I bought my first "real" camera, a Nikon FTN-with a 55mm micro lens, the kit 70-300 and a couple of other lenses. The FTN was a film camera, but I loved slides. They seemed to have better colors. I also loved the world of the small. Small flowers on the side of the road, small critters climbing up the bark of a tree and small things swimming near the top of the water. I learned what I liked and shot many of them.

I still have this camera, but have switched to digital. I'm still loyal to Nikon and I think I know better technique than before, but some of my earlier photos were better because I didn't know the "rules" of photography and just shot when, where and how I wanted. Now I think a lot and miss something. Anyway, I love making pictures and share them with the people I know can appreciate them.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

My avatar shows me in about '54 with some sort of Kodak. It had flash bulbs.

I had fun with an Instamatic in the '60s.

A few cameras later came the '70s where I was traveling through Navy Exchange stores in Asia buying lots of Nikon gear. A full darkroom followed that included color capabilities. In addition to the Nikons and eight lenses were a 35mm Canonet, a Mamiya C330 with all three lenses and a Nikonos.

Early '80s was a low spot with too much work, too many kids and too little sleep. There was a Nikon Coolpix and a Canon Powershot for obligatory family photography.

The dive into digital started in 2012 with Lightroom 4 and the RAW shooting Sony RX100. That was followed by some Panasonic M4/3 bodies and lenses.

My current diversion is flying cameras (a.k.a. "drones")

I've never owned a DSLR.

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

I started as a pawn. During family gatherings, they found I was good at following instructions and quickly adapt to situations. So who ever brought a camera would pass it on to me to document the event.
That got extended to events they go to, like graduations etc. Nobody minds a little kid with a camera entering off access areas, so I tend to get close and get shots they will not be able to otherwise.

An aunt bought a video camera, and for some reason, I became the default operator on all the family & friends get together. From baptism, to marriages and to funerals, this kid lugs around a beast of a camera. Been at it long enough I learned how to swap dominant eyes and keep peripheral info while focused at shooting.

Suffice to say, because of the exposure, the love for photography grew on me as I too grew. My father who was an architect is pretty much into the classic forms of art, like painting, sculptures etc, which he tries to pass on to me but he wasn't much into photography and only own a Kodak 110, which I'd use whenever I can. My best friend, now deceased, used to say I loved photography too much, that I'd use my last coin to buy film.

My very first camera was a gift. A 110 spy camera. Getting the correct lighting for it was a gamble so i made a light meter from a cardboard box and bond paper. It was rudimentary but it worked.

During my teens, I often borrow a friends' Yashica SLR, but the very first 35mm I saved for was a Vivitar. Later, as life goes on, I managed to have other still, action & video cameras and a drone.

I've never had a hand on developing film, but to some degree was privy to the knowledge. One of my best friends family business was video rentals & photography. They have a studio and developing room. We hanged a lot in his place, sometimes helping out with sales.

Presently I'm working as an in-house Graphic Designer for a large retail store. We used to have a lot Nikon & Canon so we got good training and updates on those although presently that part of the business have mellowed out. Product photography and documentation is the majority of shoots I do at work, but other aspects like modeling also props up every now and then.

Outside, I click whenever there's an itch, and as a hobby, that would be shooting anything under the sun,
mainly running a D610 & a D7200