nitehntr Loc: rivesville west virginia

my cousin came home on leave from the Navy when i was 13 and had a load of slides and showed me his camera a Yashica and how to use it. i was fascinated and used paper route money to buy a Pentax spotmatic with a 55mm lens (which i still have and it is in working order) in a pawn shop. actually my dad had to buy it since i wasn't old enough to be in a pawn shop alone. learned about light and zooming with my feet and a many other useful things as i went along. i still shoot Pentax to this day i use a K-1 and a K-1 mark 2 and a K-3 mark 3. my wife and i are spending our retirement traveling and just running round in general. i take pictures and she shops and we both eat different foods depending on where we are and she will carry a camera in her lap for me in the car quite bit.

Steved3604

Mules and Photography?

LOL

Steved3604

Nikon FTN-with a 55mm micro lens

First "real" camera -- still have it around here somewhere. Great camera -- great lens.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

I started with a Brownie 620 film camera in the early '60's. Moved on to 35mm with a Pentax Spotmatic. Entered the digital era with Kodak and a Sony Mavica. Many years with Canon full and crop sensor DSLR's. Then moved to Sony full frame mirrorless in 2003. Now with three Sony FF mirrorless and three in the rear view mirror.

bwa

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Phenomenal shots 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 Saw Cooper back in the day during his "I Love the Dead" tour, and he was absolutely incredible - not to mention that he is supposed to be a scratch golfer. I guess the moral of the story is: Don't let the makeup fool you

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

In 1957 our annual summer vacation took us to Minnesota and Manitoba. My dad had just gotten a new 35mm camera, so he lent me his Brownie Hawkeye for the trip. (I was 6 1/2 years old.) I actually came back with some decent and interesting shots of an open pit iron mine in Minnesota and from a boat cruise on Lake of the Woods.

Later he got another new camera (a Voightlander Vitomatic II) and his Argus C4 passed to me on a sort of semi-permanent loan basis. I used it on vacations to Yellowstone and Portland Oregon, as well as our annual trout fishing trips to the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. When I was in high school, I got the Voightlander when he ordered a Minolta SR7a. That was a pretty big deal, because now I had a built-in exposure meter. I used that camera for many years (and still have it) until later moving through a SRT201, OM-1n, OM-2n, and OM-2s.

My photography was mostly directed at vacation destination and railroad photography until we returned from a two week trip through Germany and Austria in 1990. I realized that I was pretty disappointed with most of my photography during that trip and took several really good photography classes at the local junior college. They helped some, but I treasure most what I've learned from interacting personally with a number of outstanding art teachers over the last 7 years.

As far as digital photography goes, that started reluctantly at work first with a Nikon P4, then D40. My own first digital camera was a Fuji S3 Pro, folliwed very quickly by a Nikon D200, which was my only camera for probably 11 years. I now shoot with a couple of D500s and D850s. Ive had them for 5 years and really don't envision moving to anything else anytime soon (although I came really close to buying a Z8 a couple of months ago before coning to my senses).

druthven

I began my love affair with photography circa 1952 with a Leica 111f, with a 3.5 Elmar lens that was a replacement for my mother's Foth Derby. My progression from there was a Leica M3 and Mamiyaflex two and a quarter square to a Nikon F and a Rolli 35 to a Nikon F3, to Nikon N100, to Nikon D200, to the two I now use, a D7100 and a D500. I doubt I will be transcending to mirrorless as the DSLRs are doing fine.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I saw Alice Cooper with *Flo and Eddie* (Howard Kaylan and Marc Volman, formerly with The Turtles and Frank Zappa's band The Mothers of Invention) back in the '70s. They performed in a smoky university coliseum. I remember all of it being outrageous, funny, and silly.

Not all rockers are obsessed with "sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll." Brian May of Queen has a PhD in astrophysics. Linda Ronstadt had a storied career, dating California Governor, Jerry Brown, and crossing over the genres of folk, rock, country, jazz, American popular song, and opera.

Graham Nash (Hollies, Crosby, Stills and Nash, CSNY) became a photographer and opened a high end boutique digital photo lab, Nash Editions.

Careers of musicians tend to be short, unless they keep making and selling recordings, and touring to promote them. Of course, if they hit it big, and invest wisely, they can retire early or move to Las Vegas with a show band. But that bores the good ones.

Some interviewer recently asked the three brilliant, hard-working sisters of Mexican bi-lingual rockers, *The Warning,* what they would be if they weren't in a band. "Teacher." "Writer." "Model." They've been paid to play since 2014, when they "blew up the Internet" at 9, 12, and 14 (!). They have since recorded three albums and toured the world, so they have a way to go before seeking other employment. Their adult peers in the music business consider them forces of nature to be nurtured and appreciated.

So yeah, don't let the makeup, costumes, or the music fool you.

It's always amazed me that many creative people are creative in several different disciplines. One skill leads to another and another... It all relates over time.

johnh1944 Loc: North Las Vegas

I started at Naha AB, Okinawa 1965. I don't remember what the camera was. My roommate needed $25 and let me hold his camera until payday which he never paid me.
When I returned to the USA, I purchased a SRT-101 (which I still have). Over the years I have used Canon, Oly and Sony. I currently shoot with a Sony A7iii.

Overthehill1

My somewhat meandering path to photography started in high school, when a friend who was taking pictures for the yearbook tipped me off that the school darkroom was a good place to smoke cigarettes, because the door locked and you could turn on the red light indicating that developing was in process, keeping any teachers at bay. There I learned the basics of black and white processing. After graduating college with a journalism degree, I got a job as a stringer at a daily newspaper, which involved photographing news events in additon to writing stories. My Dad purchased my first camera, a Minolta 201. Apparently I had an eye for composition, as the editors often played my photos prominently and the regular photographers, who did all the darkroom work, told me that they didn't mind developing my film, because at least the pictures were in focus and well composed, compared to many of the other reporters. Soon added a telephoto and wide angle lens to my arsenal. Worked my way into a full-time job, which also involved quite a bit of photograpy. Set up a darkroom in the attic of a house I shared with a couple of other reporter/photogs. Eventually moved on to another paper, which involved more writing and less photography, but by then I was firmly hooked. Switched to digital in 2002, retired in 2014, joined a camera club three years ago and now spend much of my free time taking photos.

Scouser Loc: British Columbia

High School in Liverpool, circa 1955. My first trip out-of-country was a vacation to Germany, led by our English teacher, who was a little wacky. He had two twin reflex cameras and he rode a Velocete Silent LE to school every day, rain or shine. Nobody liked him, he was a little too 'handsy' around young boys, but he did have one saving grace. Along with teaching English grammar, he was into photography. He had access to stale-dated B&W film, a left-over consignment from WW11, at fraction of the price of film from the chemist's shop.
We would take in rolls of exposed 120 film and he would get them developed, again at a fraction of the real cost. Then he would lay out the negatives on a light box and 'crop' them with a pencil to help us understand composition and proportion. After printing he would hold pretend photo contests just for fun.
Back to the trip to Germany. (This is sounding familiar, forgive me if I have told this before, I am 82 today!). My parents sent me off with as much speeding money as they could manage, little thinking that I would spend it all on a camera. I bought a Daci Royal box camera in Heidelberg, fixed focus, no frills.
2 years later, back in Heidelberg on our 2nd school trip, I found the store and traded the camera in for a Dacora Digna which I still have. I now had a lot more control of my exposures, but nothing quite compared with the attached photo with my first camera. Its nothing spectacular, but to me its just about the best shot I have taken, and there have been quite a few in the last 68years!

(Download)

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

Late 50's I got a camera for a present. couldnt wait for those pix to come back to our local drug store. out of a roll of 12 I got two pix rest all white or all black. Tried again, same thing almost nothing worth while. gave up. 10 years later tried again.better camera better understanding. Pix were just ok . I read and read and read, the pix never got better. bought a good nikon film camera. Pix got a LOT better .. then put it away one day. many years later we have digital. I bought a friends used camera for $100.00, Digital had been out maybe a year. he bought a better one. soon I had a better camera, and was shooting weddings etc. havent put it downsince and still dont know enough about it.

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Hey, take a hike kid, and you still are.

insman1132 Loc: Southwest Florida

1947 Kodak Brownie Hawkeye

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Bought my first camera, an Argus A-4 in preparation to joining the navy when I graduated from high school. Did some traveling but not many pictures as development was rather problematic. And then many that I took got lost.
Long story short - with long distance engagement (she in Baltimore, me in Newport, RI) camera got set aside and the batteries leaked and there went the camera. Several years before we could afford another one. Then, faced with a growing family number and aging no money for film and development. In thinking about what I wanted to do when I retired, I thought "well, why not". Bought a Minolta and then a Nikon. It's a hobby and I'm maybe a good amateur; spent more time with my scroll saw then my camera.