PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

My cousin's husband shot for a small newspaper, he got me started. He would get press passes to shoot Saints and LSU games. One of us would be in the press box and the other on the field shooting. We would then switch at half time. It took off from there. This was in the mid 70's.

Don

Steph James

I got my first camera as 1st prize for winning my pack's Pinewood derby. Loved it until it fell out the door in our Piper Cub.

taachiinii

In a charcoal drawing class we were assigned to draw a real model. The instructor liked my use of light and shadow so he told me to get into his photography class the next semester. His office walls were covered with all kinds of cameras and I thought he would let me borrow one for the class. I knew nothing about photography. Well, a week into the class, with everyone bringing their SLRs and talk about shutter speeds, f-stops, ASA, etc., I was lost with no camera. I told the instructor I didn't have a camera and he replied, "Well, you can make one." I proceeded to build a pinhole camera using 4 x 5 black and white film. We'd go out on a photo shooting trip and everyone was going through multiple rolls of 36 exposure film and I had my one-shot pinhold camera. I learned how to expose film real quick. My first camera was an Argus C-3 rangefinder. Later graduated to a Minolta SRT-101 and ended up using Nikon FM2s, completely manual cameras.

Marg Loc: Canadian transplanted to NW Alabama

Correction: I did have a brownie at age 14. My mom bought one roll of film for me and not one picture turned out so took the camera away. Looking back at my early photos it appears I got my nerve up in January 2018, not March. Lol

skatz

I didn’t have a camera until my junior year of high school. My father had an Ansco twin lens, then a Yashica rangefinder, then a Canon AE-1 for family photos but no one else touched them. I bought a gray market Minolta SRT-101 with a 50mm 1.7 lens from a friend who imported them. The meter died 2 weeks after I got it so I learned to guess the exposure settings. I carried it everywhere I went. I took most of the photos in the yearbook but there were no photos of me in it. I took a photography class in high school but I had read so much already I could have taught the class. Since I was taking so many pictures, I bought bulk film, a Meopta enlarger, etc. and set up a darkroom in the downstairs bathroom. Some of my photos were in the local paper and on the wire services (no Pulitzer Prize though). After graduating, I was hired to be the official yearbook photographer to shoot groups, clubs, and events so I bought a used Horseman 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 kit with 4 lenses and roll film backs, a better Quikset tripod, and traded up to a Beseler enlarger. Various photo jobs paid for college. While working at a camera store I traded the Minolta for a Nikormat and 28mm, 55mm, and 85mm lenses. Also got a Graphic View 4 x 5. Later I traded in the Horseman for a Nikon FE, motor, 180 2.8, and a big Braun flash to take baby pictures. I do wish I still had the Horseman kit.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

Amazing how many of us had an Argus C-3 at some point.

WarpedWeaver

I had Kodak point and shoot as a child and was allowed occasionally to use the Polaroid and Leica cameras owned by my father (under supervision). When I got to college and my trusty point and shoot died, I had seen what a "real" camera could do and took some of my summer earnings and bought a Nikkormat N which I still use as when I want a film camera. After several other Nikons, I switched to mirrorless with a Fujifilm XT-2.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

SEX! Not that at 12 or 13 I was expecting to get laid, but was beginning to notice girls in a whole different way back then. At that age you don't ask questions like "do you frequent this bar often", or "how about having dinner by candle light with me this coming Friday". Walking up to a girl you found attractive and asking if you could take their picture was a much easier approach. While this was no doubt one aspect of my earlier photography pursuits, from 60 years ago my initial reason for buying my first camera is lost in the haze of long forgotten memories.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I still have all my negatives from my teen years, when I was the yearbook candid photographer at my school. I do have A LOT of images of female classmates. Most were willing subjects. Their boyfriends and parents bought lots of prints. But it went the other way, too. I think the first photo I sold was to a girl in my class with a crush on an older basketball player. She wanted a photo of him with his shirt off... Suddenly I was getting requests from lots of kids to take photos of them or their crushes. A certain percentage of them could not be fulfilled at any price...

Billynikon2

I almost forgot that my uncle let me have one of his Leica's when I was 12. He had two others so it didn't leave him stranded.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

It was about 68 years ago and i was stationed in Libya and the world around me REQUIRED me to go the PX and buy a Argos C3 and 10ASA slide film.

lmTrying Loc: WV Northern Panhandle

Not nearly as long a list as other's, but photography is only one of many hobbies.

Not mine, family's:
Bakelite Box Brownie
Kodak instamatic(s)

Dad's, but kind of became mine:
Ansco Regent Super

Cameras I bought:
Canon AE-1 Program + 2 zooms
Kodak "Docker" (a little digital that came with a docking unit that was a charger and printer in one)
Canon ELPH SD110HS
Canon EOS XSi + 4 zooms
Canon SX260HS
Canon SX710HS
Canon RP

petercbrandt Loc: New York City, Manhattan

In 1957, I was 10 and my parents wanted a trip to New York City. I bought my 1st camera in Times Square in a tourist shop. It's a Japanese HIT with a little pigskin carrying case. Still have in my collection. It used 8mm film. Little did I think then that I would end up as a pro photographer in NYC, and retiring there, but hey, which photographer really retires !

peterjoseph

Rightly said Peter ,a photographer never retires.

GWBELL345 Loc: Allentown PA

Bought my first camera went I was in the Army and on temporary duty at the Kilauea Military Camp in Hawaii Volcanos National Park on the Big Island in 1966. It was a fixed focal length Kodak Retinette which I paid $35. I still have it, but I no longer use it. I took pictures of the Kilauea volcano which was about 3/4 of a mile from the camp as well as all over the island. It was a basic camera which taught me a lot about photography since it had no built in smarts. Below is a picture and one of the volcano (adapted from an old slide) 56 years ago.