The moment I decided to get into photography - To go from snap-shooter to Photographer (amater or pro) - for me it was when I saw this picture as a child:



When I saw this picture by Alfred Stieglitz I was mesmerized. My father showed me this picture (he was a big 4x5 Crown Graphic user) and after about 30 minutes of scrutinizing it, I asked him to teach me photography. I have never looked back.

If you are not familiar with this photographer, watch this:


Another big influence for me was Diane Arbus:


What made you pick up the camera?

I always had a little Kodak 110, for as far back as I remember. If I had beat one up I would get a new one for my birthday. Mom has all the pics I took of fishing trips and state park vacations. I took pics of my friends on the first day of kindergarten. It was always just that way.

When I was 9 or 10 my dad got the bug and went out and bought a bunch of gear he didn't know how to use. I was a voracious reader, so when he bought a book on photography, I read it while he was at work. I also read the manual for his brand new Nikon FE.

I'll never forget the look on his face when he came home one day and I started explaining aperture/depth of field and the advantages and disadvantages of different film speeds. I showed him what all the buttons and levers did on his new camera. Reading that book really inspired me to get deeper into photography.

He went out and bought me an SLR. I think I was 10. I still have it. (It's actually sitting right here on my desk) A Nikon EM. Super simple, easy for a kid but still took amazing photos. He put a 50mm f1.8 on it and sent me on my way. I'll never forget loading that first roll of 35mm film into my brand new "grown up" camera. No more 110 Kodak point and click cameras adorned with kid stickers for me.

He sent me all his other SLR gear last year. We didn't talk for a long time, so he had no idea I was still into photography until I told him I bought a new Nikon DSLR last year. He assumed that his old stuff was all museum bound, but the lenses fit on my new camera, and now I'm shooting film through that old FE as much as I am digital.

For me it was this disturbing, powerful image:



I'll just let it speak for itself.

That's it, I guess. I found out that photos could be more, far more than us kids lined up in the front yard on our way to Aunt Betty's for Easter dinner.

I was never into photography at all. My step father did some pro photography but I thought it was nerdy and boring and used to mock him carrying around his camera bag with all the bodies and lenses.

I had a 110 camera but the photos I took were never anything other than true and literal point and shoot. I wanted to take the photo but had no idea what I wanted it to look like, just look through the lens, press the button and go.

The most fun I had with that 110 camera was licking the 9v battery and occasionally convincing my twin brother to hold the flash up to his eye and I would set it off.

I had a film camera of some description, just a P&S APS. Same thing, just look and press the button.

Then I was a few years without a camera until digital cameras came down. I bought a Kodak digital camera and it was one of the early ones where the colour representation was not too hot. I still see photos on here that came from Kodak cameras of the same sort of time. KP has (or had one) and I think OneHippie uses one too. Then I bought a new Kodak camera which had their newer colour processing technology in it so I did some trial shots with both cameras. In various situations I took the same shot with both cameras and then analyzed them to compare the differences in resolution and colour. That was when I started to suddenly get more interested, mainly because I realized how awesome digital was when it comes to trial and error. You can just go nuts and take pictures!

That was when I wanted to try something slightly more clever. This first real photo I took where I composed it in my head and figured out how I wanted it to end up and how I was going to get there was this one:



That was still a crappy P&S but I was really impressed with myself for nailing that shot. I was actually embarrassed though about taking the picture, I felt like such a nerd I went to an isolated park and made sure I was alone!

That was in 2005.

I pretty quickly realized that the P&S did not give me the control I wanted, nor did it have the capabilities I wanted. So I picked up a Panasonic FZ-50 bridge camera. Non-interchangable lens but many SLR type features. With this camera I really learned about Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed and how they affect the end product. Then work was sending me to Dubai a few years ago and I figured that this was the perfect catalyst to pick up an SLR. So I picked up a Pentax SLR a few years ago and I think now I am in the 30,000 shot range on the camera.

So no real influences really, I just stumbled into it as a hobby.

I love that pic, Howard. VERY nice!