What Got You Started

Who or what got you interested in photography? For me it was my dad. When I was a kid he used to shoot black and white slides all the time with his Nikon stuff. As far as the work that inspired me, it would have to be Ansel Adams.

My parents had a brownie from Kodak and I was always intrigued. I got my first Ansco photo development kit when I was about 13 for X-mas. The first thing I did of course was to open the paper envelope and expose it to light only to find out later when I tried to do my first contact that I had spoiled it completely. Then I think it was the film "Blowup". I just wanted to live that life… Realized later that the business was not as easy as the movie suggested.

My grandma constantly shot 110 and 126 Kodak pocket models...I have hundreds of rolls of negatives made by her. When I was 11 or 12 she bought me a Spiderman camera 126 for Christmas so that was my first camera and who got me started. My uncle had a F2...still has it...and anything he did was cool to me...in 03 my mother in law bought me a Cybershot for Christmas my second camera...in 09 I was looking at some aquarium photography and checking out microscopes...bought a Zeiss Ikon Contaflex...and then my uncle and my sister got me going on Nikon...then you guys convinced me to get a digital body and now here I am.

And yeah I can see what you mean about Blowup sir...LOL

What a cool movie...

For me it was this. My grandfather worked as a salesman for a portrait studio. He gave me this kit to sandwich a negative and photo paper between sheets of glass and you could then process it and make a picture. Now that was fun. I saved up and bought myself a used Canon FTB when I was about 13 or 14. Went to a summer camp and helped them with the slide show for the end of the camp session. We rolled our own cassettes from bulk film rolls, shot the pictures and processed our own slides in E6 chemicals. I was hooked from then on.....

So who got there start looking at National Geographic and Hugh Hefner publications? LOL

I got started with a Brownie camera I got from my mother when I was about 11 or 12...can't remember exactly. Then it was Nikon film cameras, then on to Polaroids, then the mighty Pentax K1000. (loved that camera). Got sidetracked with a lot of scuba diving and motorcycling. Near retirement, I got a Kodak Z740...compliments of the City of Calgary . And for the past 2 years, I'm the proud owner of a D200 and a D40. Who knows what the future might bring? I'm hoping for a D300 someday.....if I ever win the damn lottery! lol

For me it was my dad too. He had a Vivitar, which is now mine and he was always taking pictures of us as kids and flowers and stuff in the yard. I got a 110 film camera when I was about 8 or 9 and did the same thing. I have always loved taking photos. I've had multiple point and shoots, film and digital over the years. Until a friend of mine got his mom's D70 and let me play with it. So I realized that with an SLR I can get the shots I want and be able to control everything. So I researched Nikons and found that at the time the D90 would be best for me. Haven't looked back since. Now I want an FX camera... maybe when I win the lotto.... heh.

My grandfather was an avid photographer, he was the guy at all family gatherings that snapped the moment now I'm the guy snapping the moment. Someone had to take his place when he passed.

My first wife was wanted to get into modeling and so I naively bought a Pentax zx30 and started to help her. Sadly most of my shots in the beginning were horrible but it gave me the bug and I started to learn

My twins, and the $150 "professional" photos we took on their first birthday

When I was a Senior in HS I went on a trip through Mexico. When I returned my father saw that I had been bit by the wanderlust bug and knew I would be a traveler. A year later, as I was making my plans for my backpacking trip through Europe he handed me a used Canon A-1 with a few lenses. On the 12 hour flight I read the manual and taught myself how to use the camera manually. That camera traveled the world with me and I shot as many things as I could.