n3eg Loc: West coast USA

And shot burrowing owls?

JPL

It is difficult to say why I got hooked. It started when I was 13-14 y.o. Then I got interested, bought the first book and had read it many times before I got a camera. I think it was a mixture of the technology, math, socializing and to create something nice. Anyway this has followed me the whole life, with some pauses but generally growing stronger as my hobby.

Pochon53

I was in Korea at HQ 3rd Infantry Division Adjutant General section 1953/4 and I was able to buy a Ricoh 35mm camera for $16 at the PX. Also at the PX you could buy film and processing in one package and the PX sent it somewhere for the processing and the result was Kodachrome slides, which I still have in spite of living in the heat and humidity in NYC, Philadelphia, and Wash. DC. Just can't kill Kodachrome.

terry44 Loc: Tuolumne County California, Maui Hawaii

My aunt and godmother gave me a Pentax for my 10th birthday I loved going my mom and dads friends farm in North Saint Paul and taking photos of the animals and the railroad cars they had on their property I went to college as a Graphic Artist and into the Navy as a photographer. After Vietnam it took me a couple years to be willing to pick up a camera again but when I did photography became part of my therapy. Now digital has become my way of getting out of the house and getting some exercise in the outdoors which I love so much being disabled I have had to learn to see in a different way as I cannot walk and hike around rough terrain I love the challenge.

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

I am self-employed. Enjoy walking around the local countryside and had 'an idea'! I could branch out and become a photographer!!!!!! Yeah right.....that worked!!!

It is the only hobby I have that I haven't turned into a job...yet.

But there's time

kdogg Loc: Gallipolis Ferry WV

My Dad taught radio and television production and The University of Detroit in the 60's and 70's.
When I got to go work with him I hung out with all the staff there. They had a full woodworking shop and a very extensive darkroom setup. Those were th places I hung out mostly. MY Dads students helped me do woodworking and photography. I think they were making points with the old man. Anyway I started taking pictures and in 1969 as a freshmen my Dad encouraged me to enter a photo contest at the university and I won first place. From then on I was hooked. The winning photos were published in the student newspaper, what a thrill for someone who didn't think he had a chance to win. After that I had the help of some of the professors at the university. Been going strong ever since!

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Lived in West Sussex for a time ... Selsey (on the beach) just south of Chichester. I remember, back then, I had something called a Paulette (35mm Rangefinder.) Not a smashing piece of work, technology-wise, but adequate for most needs. Then, I decided to buy a Zenit-E in London - my first 35mm SLR ... and I haven't looked back, since. (I still have it!) ... Returned Stateside ... and started buying, first Nikon Fs, and then Canon F1s. Really got into it, in a big way. Darkroom - enlargers, one for each format I was using by then - 4x5, 6x7 (RB) 35mm ... still have 'em all, but not all of the cameras, but, that's another story. My first dig cam was a Fuji Finepix HS-10 (AAs) ... could not believe the quality I was getting ... with a micro-sensor, no less. Finally bought my first DSLR - a Canon EOS Rebel T3 - in 2011. Now, many other DSLRs later, (and a few other bridges) am really enjoying my output with them all. But, the biggest thrill, now - is not seeing them come up in the developer, but seeing them come up on a 24" wide LCD after uploading them onto the PC! ... It's a whole different world!!! ... Love the difference!!!!

ewforbess Loc: San Antonio, TX

I was on my junior high school yearbook staff in the mid '60s, and I ended up being the one with the camera most of the time. I used manual mode 100% of the time because there were no auto modes! We developed and printed our own, and I've been hooked ever since then!

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

It wasn't one incident or any kind of epiphany- there was an accumulation of impressions that started very early in my childhood. There were always cameras around the house- my dad was an avid snap-shooter and my mom loved her photo albums with black pages, deckled edged glossy prints held in place by photo corners. There was an old German-made folding camera with a ground glass screen and I remember playing with it for hours- working the shutter and diaphragm and observing the upside-down and reversed images- I was fascinated. At the age of 7, I was given a Kodak Baby Brownie Special- it was made of black Bakelite and had a white ornamental ring around the lens and used !27 Verichrome film- 8 exposures. I started shooting pictures of things that interested me- the cat, the ironwork on the banisters in front of out house, the fire hydrant across the street. etc. My dad bough the film to the drugstore, examined the results and advised me to take picture of people rather than things. So- I took a picture of my little "girlfriend" Arlene, standing on the handball court. I gave it to her and she hugged and kissed me! WOW! Then I graduated to a Brownie Halkeye with a flash- #5 flashbulbs- "Blue Dot for Sure Shot"! Now I could work indoors so I made a "candid" shot of Aunt Celia- in the morning- with her hair in giant curlers and her face covered with white facial cream! I showed it to her date a week later and she threatened to kill me! To a kid, this is POWER- I could get folks to love me or hate me with my images! Grandma framed a shot I made of my newborn cousin and displayed it in a prominent place in in the living room! Good PR for an ordinarily bad boy!

When I was taken to parades and baseball games, I was in awe of the press photographers- watching them as they worked- same thing at weddings and family events! I could spend hours admiring the portraits in the windows of local photo studios and I yearned to find out how they were made. Our family friend and auto mechanic, Nick was an advanced amateur photographer. He encouraged me and introduced me to the darkroom. By the age of 12, i knew I wanted to become a professional photographer. At the age of 14, I got a part-time after school job as the darkroom cleaner, chemical mixer and gofer at a photo studio- I never looked back!

hassighedgehog Loc: Corona, CA

Attached is a picture my mother took of me and my brother with our first cameras in Dec 1958.

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Neat, Hassig ...

Which one's you?

What WERE the cameras?

hassighedgehog Loc: Corona, CA

I'm the taller looking one. Not my favorite hair style. Forget the brand of camera, was a Kodak knockoff. Fixed lens. Think were glass as plastic was not that clear at that date. I was 11 at the time, so my brother was 10. I still have some prints from that camera. Could only develop film when my parents would pay for it, or had enough allowance saved. I don't remember what camera my parents were using, but was better than that one.

AlfredU Loc: Mooresville, NC

That's what did it for me too, but I was 14. I made my living with a camera in my 20s and now I do something with photography every day in retirement. I still like to watch prints come alive in a tray of developer.

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Of course, Hassig .... parents always give their kids the junkiest things they can find ... didn't you know that, Hassig?

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Fun, isn't it, Al ...

And - to get down in the stuff, and rub in the highlights ... that was always MY favorite part ....