Your own stories - How did you start photographing?

<p>Good day to you all:)<br>

I am a newbie. My job has nothing to do with fotos or cameras, but i am interested in taking photos. Or in other word, i am interesting in taking photos of good moment. I don't have any professional camera right now. Normally when i want to take photos, i just use my Iphone. Of couse the photo quality is not that good, but at least i am able to keep the moment and share with other people:) I am not rich, so if you can suggest some devices or teach me something, that will be much appreciated.<br>

All the best,<br>

Jane</p>

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<p>When I was 12 years old a man by the name of Dr. Richard Beeching, commissioned by the government, decided to rip up our local railway line, which ran just over the fence from our garden. Now, as a child, from pretty much as soon as I could walk, I used to hang around the railway sidings watching the wagons from the local colliery being shunted. Occasionally, if work was slack, I'd be invited up into the cab of the shunting locomotive. (This was in the days before the health and safety sturmstaffel had stuck their noses in.) Happy days - and then it all came to an end.<br>

That previous Christmas my aunt had bought me a camera, an Ilford Sprite 127, which had two aperture settings (bright and dull) and a single shutter speed. Nevertheless, with this rather quaint little grey plastic camera, I took four shots of the final day of our railway line. And it was then I discovered the documentary power of the camera.</p><div></div>

<p>... and here is a link to the camera it was taken on. Note the curved film rails to compensate for the curvature of field of the lens.<br>

<br /> <a href="http://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/Ilford/Sprite_127.html">http://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/Ilford/Sprite_127.html</a></p>

<p>50 years ago in 1964 I was 7 years old and my parents gave me this camera to use on a trip to England to meet my relatives. I still have it and some of the original prints I took that summer of London's landmarks. I have owned many cameras since, have shot many weddings and events and still earn money shooting portraits, although, my love is landscape and nature work.<br>

Continue shooting with your phone while you must, it is obviously a much finer tool than those I learned with, but search out mobile photo websites for some inspiration and a broader knowledge of what can be accomplished with it. You may be surprised!</p><div></div>

<p>I've just been "brimming over" with nostalgia for my early days in photography.<br>

Starting with a Kodak Jiffy 620 ( http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00XY1P )<br>

and many other personal reminiscences such as my adventures with a Rollei 35 when my Nikon quit: http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00YZKs <br>

and too many more to list.</p>

<p>In the mid-sixties I started trying out my Dad's "folder", not sure of the name. It had settable shutter speed, aperture, and focus. The film was paper backed rolls, maybe 2"x2.5", sorry, a bit fuzzy on that. The size was 127?</p>

<p>A friend of the family had scads of dark room equipment, enlarger, trays, flasks, scales. I processed my own films, printed enlargements and so on. At the outset I mixed my own chemicals, even had a glass cased balance scale, lol.</p>

<p>I graduated quickly to 35mm, but always remember that first camera. I shot a mix, street scenes, landscape, midway, industrial, tried time exposure. Good fun.</p>

<p>My mum let me use her Franka Solida under careful supervision when I was around 7 or 8. Continual badgering got me a Kodak Starmite 127 for Christmas a few years later. My first 35mm was some kind of rangefinder, and I inherited my dad's Olympus Pen EE when I was in high school (processing and printing Tri-X in my basement). My first "real" SLR was the Nikomat FTn a friend in the merchant marine brought me back from Japan in the early 70s.</p>

<p>My kid camera was a Brownie Fiesta in the 1960s, a 127 camera with a plastic lens. It actually took not-that-bad photos, although I just got small prints. I shot one or two rolls of film a year, because processing was expensive ($1.47). For that princely sum, I got my negs back, small B & W prints, and a new roll of film.</p>

<p>I really started photographing when I got my first good job in 1978. At that time I was into day hiking, and snowshoeing, and stuff like that. I wanted a camera to shoot wildlife and flowers and stuff. I bought a used Konica which never really worked, then got a Canon AT-1 and a couple of lenses. This rapidly led to two things which changed my life considerably.</p>

<p>First was I started learning about close-up and macro, in order to do flowers. Macro is a fast way to learn composition, and a $20 set of Vivitar tubes was probably the only piece of gear I've ever had that actually made me a better photographer. I rarely shoot close-up anymore, but I still use the experience I began learning around 1980.</p>

<p>Second thing was once I started taking photos, I wanted to get deeper into the bush to where the shots were. This rapidly made a backcountry hiker out of me, and within a few years I was going on long backpacking trips in the mountains and the Arctic. Thirty-five years later, I mostly shoot black-and-white landscape, but I still do two or three multi-day backpacking photo trips a year.</p>

<p>My first photo was of the back garden, trying to get used to the settings on my Ikonta which I saved up for what seemed to be a lifetime. First 'proper' photo was of two swans on the village pond.</p>

<p>Thank you for all your responses. I didn't expect that somebody will notice my thread and reply me. You are all very kind. I love all your stories. Much appreciated. <br>

Chris, your photo is very nostalgic：） It must recall you many good memories each time you watch it. That is fantastic, right? Someone told me this sentence before, and i can't agree more with him. "You didn't forget, you just have not remembered." Many things happen in our lives, we didn't remember some events or peoples bit by bit. But one day, a piece of music, a scene, or a photo will tell you what happend before. That is the good thing of Camera too. Sorry for my shabby English. I am a Chinese indeed, you must be painful when you read my Chinglish.<br>

Here i attach some of the phone photos:) Hope your sky is peaceful and blue too.<br>

Oops, didn't know how to insert a photo. Have to use photo URL. I will ask my friend tomorrow and continue to upload the photos:)<br>

Kind regards,<br>

Jane</p>

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