Why and how did you get started?

King Damager

King Damager

King Damager

Soldato
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Ok, so photographers of OcUK, just a bit curious really, and hopefully this'll be useful for people in future who are new :)

A couple of questions:
Why'd you start out with photography, what got you excited?
How did you develop your skills? What books, courses, or the such like did you use?

I guess as an extra question, if you now have a 'specialist field' how and why did you choose that one? :)

Guess I'll start:
I've only just started really getting into it. This really is because I've always liked phototography and taking photos, and have always appreciated nice images, that said I've spent most of my child life with just a point and shoot. Last year my parents bought me a Bridge camera for our trip across Europe, this has more so given me the ability to take decent photos.

So how I've started: so far, I've bought understanding exposure (Bryan Peterson), and have started this thread :) I've also moved over to shooting in manual, and RAW :)

kd
 
I bought a DSLR to take pictures of my daughter. It is one of my biggest regrets that I didn't have a decent camera until she was one year old. It was only since I bought the DSLR that I began to appreciate photography. I used an SLR back in the film days, but I was young and using my grandads camera on basically auto didn't teach me much!

After I bought the camera I got into shooting sports which I really enjoyed, started shooting for an event company but you only make the money there if you are running the show! Sadly I'm too far down a career path and old, to make a start of things in sports photography so I've settled back down to being a happy snapper. I don't consider myself much of a photographer as I rarely go anywhere specifically for photography, I just photograph places that I go to. Once my daughter is older I'll probably get into photography more, such as landscapes and wildlife.

I've been bought books, and bought magazines. To be honest it doesn't take long to find them a bit lacking in more advanced info, I usually find the net more useful as you can search for specific stuff. I don't really follow other photographers, not current ones anyway! I like a lot of the older street photography stuff, not that I do any myself.

I just enjoy doing what I do, and try to keep gear obsession to a minimum! :)
 
When I was a kid saved up my pocket money and bought a second hand Yashica Minister III...... Once into my teens started to use the school darkroom, then later joined the local camera club run out of the school science lab and darkroom... Did a few "Adult evening classes" through the club. So started with B&W film and the darkroom..... a lost era...
 
I have always enjoyed looking at awesome photography. I think the thing that pushed me over the edge were Terje Sørgjerd's timelapses. They were incredible. Each frame of each clip were absolutely immaculate. I had a Macbook Pro so I was already half-way to being a creative. I thought I might as well do some photo editing and bought a camera. Lightroom really opened my eyes to this world. If I could edit my awful pictures into something reasonable, that's what other people must be doing. I saw it as cheating and I actually got quite worked up about it. It wasn't real photography. I'm basically painting colours on top of my photo. In the end, I just resigned myself to the fact that this is just what is done in photography. If I couldn't beat them, I had to join them. I also enjoy driving around randomly. The other forum I pay attention to here is the Motors one. Photography gives me a very good reason to go somewhere and try and capture what I see.

I think, first and foremost, this will remain a hobby to me. I do it to escape boredom. I'm not doing it for any acclaim or recognition. I'm doing it for myself. That said, I absolutely love that people enjoy my work. Not every picture gets the same amount of attention. I am chuffed even if just one person likes a photo. You can see my progress on Flickr. My first photo outing was in Canary Wharf, around the corner from work. I walked around and took pictures of anything I liked the look of. Living in London, the main things you take photos of are architecture and street candids. This is basically how I started.

I didn't have any formal training. I started off in aperture priority mode and got to learn what each setting did. Eventually I moved to manual mode where I still spray and pray. I did attend a cheap course via Groupon but it was mainly because my friend was going and because they had a model. Even then, I didn't listen to the person running the show. I ended up doing my own thing and taking candid shots of the day but used the opportunity to try taking portrait shots. I still suck at them. I'd like to take more though because I find people infinitely more fascinating than buildings.

I haven't bothered to learn about this craft properly. I don't know anything about other artists. I don't know about any history. I have never read any photography books and I've never even been to a gallery. I am mostly self-taught myself via Youtube and I remember bugging my friend before I even had a camera, asking him about various settings and what changing each thing meant for the picture. Even now, I still hardly talk in technical terms. I just do it and press the button. My pictures turn out well sometimes, so that's fine by me.
 
I have always loved taking pictures, It was almost two years ago I posted on here asking about cameras and picked up a 500D thanks to my nan who helped me out.. Having Autism I find it hard to talk to people and learn I also had trouble going outside with anxiety because of some events in my life.. I now own a 7D after saving for ages and thinking about studying photography in a college or something (as hard as it is for me to meet people) as I find that it relaxes me and I truly enjoy it.. It helps me and my anxiety.

I learnt via youtube, and forums and posts and get inspired and motivated every time I see peoples pictures in posts on here (there amazing) and some of the pictures I find on flickr, I just wish i had friends who was into it as well.
 
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Dad was a tog until he retired so I had a passing interest but the idea of film and waiting until it was exposed to see if the shots were any good was wasted on a lad who thought computers were the best thing since sliced bed.

Fast forward to around 2002 and the Fuji Finepix 6900 came out and I was away.
I was more a happy snapper than anything and took around 1,200 pics in the 4 1/2 years I owned it until I upgraded to the Canon IXUS 750 (which I still own) and I started to get creative, but knowing nothing about aperture and ISO I just left the camera on auto and did the best I could. At this stage I would not say I'm into photography it's just one of those things I did occasionally to pass the time. I took approx 5,500 pics with this in the 4 years or so I owned it.

Fast forward again to 2010 - My wedding. I got married abroad and it just so happened that my wedding planner was also a photographer who had her own studio and everything and she agreed to be the primary and she'd get a 2nd shooter in.
Looking back now I should have known that when she turned up with a Canon 350D with a kit lens that it would not end well...... and I was right. 700 photos of pure rubbish. Large numbers of photos with eyes closed, bad framing, crappy backgrounds and they all look like they were taken on auto. Even the "touched up" photos were a joke, for example, we launched chinese lanterns with message on, but we all struggled to get them in the air at the same so there is no shot more than 2 so they photoshopped it. They simply cut a square around one lantern and pasted it into the sky several times, without even matching the sky up so you can see the darker squares on the slightly lighter sky.

We have just 2 photos we managed to make something OK of, one of those were are looking at the floor then the other we are looking at either the other tog or someone in the family taking a pic - we were devastated and I said I could do much better.

I bought a DSLR off the MM about 2 years ago and I tried to get into it, but I found it a little difficult due to work and I took about 800 pics in the first year, but I changed jobs and this year I work from home and I found it a lot easier to get into it.
Even at this stage I think I could have taken better shots than my wedding.

In the next 8 months I took about 1,000 shots and I decided I wanted a 24-70 f2.8l as an upgrade to the kit lens and Tamron zoom I had. Since purchasing that in May I've taken a further 4,000 pics and I've just bought a 70-200 f2.8 IS II to go with it and I'm looking to upgrade the body shortly.

I prefer shooting events and some sports, I'm hoping to do a fair bit more of both over the coming 12 months. I tend to find it easier to see what's happening and make it look OK and this is why I don't do any portrait or landscapes - I find it hard to direct people to look good and I find it hard to see anything interesting in landscapes.... if that make any sense.

I rarely post pics on here but I went to a friends wedding a couple of weeks ago and I'm quite proud of the shots I got. It's hard to have a gripped DSLR and a 24-70 whilst not trying to look like you are competing with the pro tog whilst getting into a decent position....which is usually where the pro tog is too!!

These are my fav pics from the wedding. There are leagues away from the most of the pics you tend to see on here from the likes of Raymond and co, but we all started out somewhere!! First one I tried a little different processing than normal and I liked the way it came out. It was actually a quite dark so I had to push the ISO up which is bad news on my 450D. Shame someone stepped in to the bottom of shot and threw confetti as I hit the shutter on the second one. I could have cropped it out but you'd lose the the sense of the people around them. I could try photoshopping, but I need to buy another copy as I've not had one since pre CS days :-(

If my wedding photos has been anywhere to this level I'd have been over the moon, but sadly that's not the case.

1.
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2.
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I enjoyed photography from an aesthetical and technical point of view and so before A-Levels I moved away from my school to a dedicated college in order to do Photography at A-Level.

From them, combined with my Computing, Maths and Graphic Design A-Levels I studied Animation at university. Hated it so switched to Film & Video. Now run my own wedding videography and corporate film production companies as well as the odd photography project.

Shoot 100% of our corporate film projects and 60% of our wedding films on DSLRs so use them on a daily basis for that. Aside from that it's just the odd commercial photography and a bit of hobbyist.

EDIT: I know you weren't asking for it, but my initial C&C on the above photos is the saturation is WAY too high. Try playing around with a slight B&W filter/layer to reduce that, almost a bleach-bypass for film.
 
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I always enjoyed taking pictures, be it with 110 film or 35mm. Cheap and cheerful stuff. I then got into digital when the canon ixus range came out. I stuck with them until my son was born in 2009.

It was at that point I realised how lacking my images where. I bought a 1000D and literally haven't looked back.

I've learnt a lot from forums/web, but bought the woeful but highly recommended Understanding exposure. Luckily I found Freemans books on exposure and composition so I could leave behind the lady bird book by Peterson, but that's a whole other rant ;)

Early on I became obsessed with having to use manual mode. That unless I was using it I wasn't getting the best from my gear or I was good enough. I came to realise this is stupid and I was making things harder for myself than I needed and the only reason to use manual is to get a style that I'm not able to achieve with AV or TV. When I look back at some of my old pics with my old camera, the 1000D some of them are shocking compared to my mrs on auto because I tried to hard too early with manual mode :D

Speedlite use I regularly fall back on the frankly awesome NK guy book on Canon speedlites. I intend to get Syl's book as well.

I recently joined a camera club with a few pros purely to learn more and hopefully get some second shooting action. Also my photography was mainly portrait and slow moving, so joining a club with assignments has helped me think about what I want from a photo and take pictures of stuff I wouldn't normally.

Also I photograph my nephews U13 matches when I can, a bit for memories for him and bit to improve my AI servo skills. I adore OCF these days and would love more room to have my own studio lighting. I detest 1.2 or 1.4 for the sake of using it.

I get loads of mags, purely because I get the 5 issues for a £5 deals and rotate the deals around my work colleagues, they aren't great past basics but I get some inspiration from them sometimes. :)

I do wish I'd got into it earlier and could have used it to earn money instead of doing something I'm not into. :)
 
Russinating said:
EDIT: I know you weren't asking for it, but my initial C&C on the above photos is the saturation is WAY too high.
Click to expand...

Thanks - that maybe due to my laptop. I only have Lightroom on there at the moment and the screen isn't great.
Edit: WHOA.. Just had a look on my mobile at those pics and they are just a tad over the top :-/
 
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Russinating said:
EDIT: I know you weren't asking for it, but my initial C&C on the above photos is the saturation is WAY too high. Try playing around with a slight B&W filter/layer to reduce that, almost a bleach-bypass for film.
Click to expand...

Yes on the red (especially his button hole) is noticable most to me on my monitor but he's re-sized the images and before he did I thought they looked much better. I like both a lot. :)

Nice work and you will love the 70-200 pete :)
 
When my dad died, I started walking his dog. Quite nice scenery around here, so I bought a compact camera...then a DSLR, then another DSLR, then another and finally full frame. Its been expensive but very enjoyable.
 
Father Gave me a OM20 for my 8th Birthday, My father was a Pro, So i got into that way, Although i've only been doing DSLR for about 4 months, I've learn't very quickly, Just need abit more gear yet.
 
Walking home one day I held up my hands, thumb and index finger one each to make an L shape at something on the street, together you make a frame, squinted one eye and found myself thinking..."if i had a camera this would look good".

After my degree, working in my first job I bought a film SLR camera with my first pay cheque, a 28-105/3.5-4.5 and signed up to a B&W photography course in the local Tech College. Wanted to develop my own B&W more than anything.

Then I went back to uni to complete my post grad, I couldn't afford the running cost of a film camera, it works out about £12 a roll of 36 and it was not economical. I bought a Canon A60 due to the advice of Pete Carr (who remember him?), he had a A75. The A60 is basically lower pixel count version of the A75, still has all the manual controls.

Spent the next few of years taking photos of friends with that. That A60 served me well. Really well in fact, I didn't know it then but looking back it is where I learn not only how to balance the aperture/shutter speed etc, it also taught me to make the best of what you have, work the limitation of the camera to your advantage. It taught me when a shot is possible, when it is not and if not, what else can you do then to get something different.

I also didn't used the zoom much and used my feet.

It also had a really slow lag from shutter to shoot, and to capture my friends in their element without them noticing I had to pre-focus (it had that stupid red light), this is where I picked up on how to spot moments. I basically spent like 3 years with this camera with this problem, I had to see what i want to shoot, pre-focus and wait then quickly hold it up and snap. The world of DSLR with its instant shutter and quick focusing is a world apart and much easier in comparison.

Although I can't say many of these photos are of any artistic merit, I bought it merely to get me through uni to capture the memories. It is however where I found out one truth, I like photographing people more than any other subjects.

Then after that I bought my 30D and the all familiar line inevitably pop up from a friend.

"Ray, you have a camera, could you shoot our wedding?"

The rest as they say is history.
 
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Was born into a somewhat photo-minded family, started with film compacts as a kid and always seemed to have a good eye for it. I got my first digital compact when I was a teenager and used that religiously for years, when I started working I decided to buy an SLR as I figured it's not something I'm just going to grow out of. Less than 2 years down the line from my first SLR I've spent about £15,000 on gear (would have been less but my kit sprouted little legs and ran out my flat one night... had to rebuy everything...).

My uncle has been a long time Olympus user, I guess I kind of hero worshipped as a kid seeing him taking photos with his SLR, these days we seem to be constantly causing the other serious lens envy! He stuck with Olympus when he went digital, but I've recently convinced him to ditch the toy cameras and move to Nikon :p



 
Back in school I studied photography GCSE and AS level doing both B&W film and DLSR photography.


I enjoyed it, but unfortunately don't own a camera of my own apart from my phone.
My plan is to buy a DSLR after my masters, and start the hobby up again :)

I like doing landscapes/cityscapes, and digitally creating abstract landscapes/collages using macro shots of everyday items and nature
 
Was in 6th Form years ago. Every so often the entire college did an entire afternoon of 'something different' - people who had never used Computers (bear in mind this was the 1980's :) ) went to the Computer Labs, History Students did some Metalwork etc.

I found myself attending to a Photography class. After a little bit of explaination we were let loose with a mechanical Pentax - took some shots and then got to Develop and print the film - it was like Magic :)

Begged my parents for a SLR Camera for that Christmas and saved like hell to pay 50% of it as a compromise and that was it.

First Camera was an Olympus OM30, kept that for a few years - then I sold it and with some of my first pay packet bought a Canon T90, which I still have and still works perfectly. Used it for about 5 years and then put it away and really didn't mess with Cameras of my own for about 15 years.

When I hit 40ish I thought what the hell, lets go and get a Digital SLR - One Canon 50D and few lenses later, here I am.

Everthing is self taught, no formal qualifications in Photography or Art.

Bookwise, I did purchase Understanding Photography to brush up on the technical aspects. but using Film Cameras years ago I had a good understanding of ISO/Shutter/Aperture relationships anyway. Also I think using Film (and the cost) made you stop and think about what you were trying to achieve, so I've never been one that sticks the Camera on the highest FPS.

Specialist field? Well firstly I'm definately not a specialist in anything photography-wise, but I enjoy Macro Photography / Wildlife / Landscape Photography. Macro Photography is probably the one that you could say I'm the most specialised in, since I've got a Macro Lens, Ring Flash, Extenders and Right Angle Eyepiece adaptors and I like to take shots of Butterflies and Beetles.
 
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Use to sell cameras at a well known electrical store for 6 years from 2001 before I had a large life reshuffle and went into the NHS, then uni! I loved the sony alpha DSLR's that we use to get in and the reps spent hours with us talking about everything about them. I'd spent £200 in a 4mp kodak "compact" (which is like a small dslr in comparison to todays compacts! Still got it also and it still works :D) that could take a really nice photo. The price of memory cards though for it back then was awful, as where the CR2 batteries it needed to run. Ended up taking a break for a few years from it whilst working on my career and came back to it around june last year where I jumped into using a DSLR and went from there.
 
I was given tickets for the British Grand Prix and knew my little Ixus wasn't going to cut it to remember the day by so I decided to invest in a Canon 550D and a 70-300mm lens to get me started. I was also looking for some sort of hobby to get me away from the computer and I've always been keen on trying to get in to photography when finances allowed so it seemed like an ideal opportunity.

That was only the summer of 2011.

I'm still very much a beginner and being a scientist by trade I was interested in a bit of macro insect work so I treated myself to a 100mm macro in the spring which has hardly been off my camera.

I've done huge amounts of reading online, started buying Digital Camera magazine and watched a lot of AdoramaTV youtube clips. I think I'm getting better!! Also google maps is great because you can look around your region and find great places to go and investigate.

I'd like to get full frame body and a landscape lens next. Although a lot of people are rubbishing the new Canon 6D, as a step up from my 550D it might be just what I'm after but I'll wait for some reviews first.
 
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