What Was Your First Photography Experience?
This week’s reader question is - What Was Your First Photography Experience?
Think back to the first time that you held a camera.
- What was the camera?
- What were you photographing?
- Was it film or digital?
- What lessons were you taught in the early days?
Looking forward to reading your stories!
PS: I’ll kick us off. My first experience with a camera was when I was in primary school. I remember my parents entrusted me with the family camera (it was a film camera, I think it was a Kodak one) for a day because my class was going on an excursion.
The destination of the excursion (and the subjects of my first ’shoot’) was to see the Prince and Princess of Wales (Charles and Diana) who were visiting Melbourne. They were going to be driving down the freeway near our school.
My parents handed over the camera with the advice to ‘get close’ and ‘don’t take too many photos’.
My results were pretty average. I got two shots of the limousine as it drove past. One of them was framed by Australian flags which I was quite proud of at the time.
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* What was the camera?
Polaroid (i do not know to model).
* What were you photographing?
My dad’s i think.
* Was it film or digital?
Polaroid Film.
I took my first shots with an analog film camera.
It must be around 1997 or so, I was going on an class holiday for 1 week and told my parents that I want to take pictures.
The first thing i learned was to look close what to photograph and not to shoot to many pictures cause all that will cost money.
Nowadays I have a DSLR (the Canon 30D) and doesn’t think about how many pictures I’m taking but I think I should think about it cause sitting in front of my computer, sorting the pictures is a lot of work:D
The first time I remember taking a picture was with Nikon point and shoot camera. It was a film camera, in those days I don’t remember hearing about digital cameras…
It was my parents camera and it was a neat camera with auto rewind and forward on the roll, I bet it was expensive…
I remember they telling me not to drop it and not to put my fingers in front of the flash. They also told me the floor and my feet weren’t the most interesting subjects…
I don’t remember much more as it was 15 years ago and I was only seven years old!
* What was the camera?
* What were you photographing?
* Was it film or digital?
* What lessons were you taught in the early days?
- My Nokia N73 (3MP) which I bought myself (kinda proud of myself to think back, hehe).
- Random landscapes, some macro, food, buildings, even islands when I went travelling. It was mostly for my blog, and I am still impressed by some of the shots I took back then.
- Digital.
- I learned more of the “serious” stuff in my photography unit in uni early last year, but the ones that really inspired me to take up photography are probably the local photo-bloggers from Malaysia which I read.
My dad’s big lesson for me as a kid was the rule of thirds, which is now automatic in my composition (except when I want to break it). My first photography experience was when I was about 7 years old in Auckland, New Zealand. I had just received a little red 110-film camera for Christmas. I took a photo of a seaside fountain and promptly opened the camera up to see the photo!
The first camera that I can remember holding was my dad’s Polaroid back in the early 70’s. It was so cool to see the pictures come to life in about 5 minutes.
Well, my first photography experience was when I was five years old, so I’m not 100% sure on the answers to these. I would answer it when I became interested in photography as an art, but I honestly am not sure when that was, and as far as I remember I tried to be ‘artistic.’
-The camera was a plastic film point and shoot that was specifically for small children who would typically have more fun throwing it on the floor than use it for how it’s made.
-Mostly I was photographing things around my yard so I guess you could consider it landscape photography, and also my dog was one of my favorite subjects.
-It was a film camera.
-I didn’t really have any actual lessons, just little things taught by my dad as I got older. I mean, who gives a five year old photography lessons. =P I took some photography classes on high school and in the past year or so I’ve learned a lot more on sites like this one.
I got a Brownie camera for my 7th birthday. Took it to Girl Scout camp with 12 exposures. I took 12 shots of a chipmunk from about 30 feet away. Couldn’t figure out where that chipmunk had disappeared to when the photos were developed though - all I could see was the grass. :-)
I shot my first own film when I was about seven years old, on a school excursion to the zoo. I had an ancient manual Agfa camera my father had got when he was a kid. The photos came out pretty bad, but not because of my photographic eye or something, but because I had always seen my parents use their Pentax SLR, and I figured that since my Agfa had no mirror that let me look through the lens like on the Pentax and my viewfinder was *above* the lens, I’d probably not quite see through the viewfinder what then lens sees. So I always composed my shots to look right and then moved the camera up a bit to compensate for the viewfinder being higher than the lens. Turned out to be a bad idea…
Oop, sorry, I hit the submit button a little too early. The Polaroid may have been the first camera I got to handle, but it was not the first camera I got to use. The first camera was a really cheap disposable type camera. While in the military serving in Germany, I loved going out into the German country side to take pictures of what ever I saw. The pictures were really terrible. I learned that you get what you pay for…because I was paying for a disposable camera, the pictures were really grainy, and often times I was unable to capture the image that I was pointing the camera. I also learned that while taking them, you often get very lucky.
I remember occasionally getting a junky 110 camera when I was a kid. My parents had a canon point and shoot that they used for family stuff, which i always wanted to use. My father took a photography correspondence course when I was a kid, he bought himself a Minolta x370 and he sometimes used me as a subject.
In middle school I shot some memorable staged photos of my friend blowing a finger off with a firecracker.
Later in high school, I bought a Anscosette rangefinder from a thrift and started taking photos for the sake of taking photos. Nothing too impressive. I did a little dark room work in high school art classes.
It wasn’t until half way through college that I realized that photo was going to pretty much become my primary means of production. I took an intro class, and the rest is history. Advanced classes, documentation projects, weddings, daguerreotypes, alt processes, view cameras, digital, grad school. Photography is what I do, it has become a facet of my identity.
-Older than I am Canon camera. It was my mom’s camera and was fully manual. I was about 11 or 12 at the time and didn’t pay attention to the model.
-Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Hollywood. We were vacationing in California and got lost. We ended up in a stream of traffic all headed to some unknown destination so we followed. As it turned out, Tom Cruise was going to Grauman’s Chinese Theater to put his hands in the wet cement. We were alongside the road in front of the theater in the back of a huge crowd. I scrambled up the nearest light post and mom handed me the camera. I got a pretty excellent shot (it was actually in focus and that was a big deal at that age) of Mr. Cruise waving to the fans.
-Film - It seemed that it took forever to get that film processed!
-I learned to keep your subject in focus and in frame. Very basic but still holds true - unless you’re breaking the rules… :-)
* What was the camera?
Canon 35mm - belonged to my Dad.
* What were you photographing?
Church event, while Dad was busy signing.
* Was it film or digital?
Film
* What lessons were you taught in the early days?
To have fun when I shoot.
The first time i really shot was at a church event, dad was the photographer. On his way past me to go sing his solo he shoved the camera in my hand and told me to take some pictures of he event while he sang. As he started to step away he smiled and told me to have fun while I did it. I shot the entire roll of file before he was done. After that he loaned me his extra camera a Nikon he bought and didn’t like that much. I shot with that rig for years.
I think I was about four when I got my first camera. I know it was prior to my starting school. It was one of those thin flat 110 cartridge cameras and it was bright purple.
Mostly I think I took pictures of my fingers in front of other things. Primarily my fingers in front of family members.
I too can recall taking it with me to Girl Scout Camp, but I’m pretty sure I suckered someone else into taking a picture of me with all my little girl scout friends.
Lessons? How to put the batteries and film in. End of story.
My first camera was an old 110 film camera. I can’t remember when I got it but I believe I had bought it at a yard sale. Saved up all my money to buy film for that thing then took a bunch of pictures that I don’t remember. I then had to save up all my money again to mail it somewhere to get it developed because it was cheaper than having it developed in town.
I kind of wish I still had the pictures that I had taken back then just to see what I was looking at back then. Oh well, c’est la vie.
It was my dad’s old black an white film camera. He did a lot of photography when i was kid, mainly of my family.
I was using one of his cameras, which was all manual, so i remember setting the focal length on it, and then chasing my cousin to get them into the focal range. I was probably 7 or 8 years old.
My dad had a Canon AT-1 full manual 35mm camera & my mom had a 110mm. This was in the mid 70’s. I remember holding the 110mm camera and I eventually got the AT-1 from my sister to use in photography class in high school.
http://www.petelanglois.net
The first camera I had was a blue and yellow plastic monstrosity with two viewfinders, one per eye.
I only really took photos on holiday, and they were nothing artistic, unless wonky, blurry pictures of a paper plate with BBQ food on count. Other pictures are of the beach, the scenery and my family.
I’m 17 now, and I’ve still got all the photos from when I was about 4/5 onwards.
And film, there was no question back then.
I wasn’t taught any lessons back then, but my granddad let me take a shot on his SLR once when I was young, so he told me what to do.
I was probably around 7 yrs old when I was given my first camera in the mid 70s. I’m not sure what kind it was, but the prints were square format. I spent my time taking pictures of family and things around our neighborhood. One I really remember was of a hot air balloon that flew over the appartments next to our house and landed in the field behind us. I wish I still lived in an area where things like that happened. I didn’t pick up a camera again until around 1998. Now I can’t put it down.
I built a ‘film can’ pinhole camera because my parents gave away the TV when I was about 10yrs old. We read a lot and I did a lot of DIY craft stuff.
My parents ‘Killed’ the TV because Dad got so mad that Mom had to stand in front of the TV to get any of us to look at her. When we started to ‘watch tv’ even with Mom standing in front of it, that was the straw that broke the camels back.
Anyway.. the ‘film can’ pinhole camera film didn’t get developed for a whole year. But it was pretty cool stuff.
Sadly the images got left behind after a move… Maybe some other family in our old house is enjoying them. :D
My parents would find random pictures of the dog. I often took the camera starting about 3-4 years and took random shots. Also, My dad had a darkroom, so, I’ve always been around photography.
Rosh
http://www.newmediaphotographer.com
* What was the camera?
It was a little 110 camera that I had gotten in my Easter basket. I was about 4 years old. I still have the pictures in an album from that day :)
* What were you photographing?
I was taking a picture of my aunt and uncle. I chopped off their heads in most of the pictures.
* Was it film or digital?
110 Film!
* What lessons were you taught in the early days?
To make sure I could see my subject in the viewfinder before I clicked the button.
I always remember my mom having a camera around when I was a kid. The first time I can remember have the camera myself was for the last day of 6th grade. They made sure to make it really fun as we were advancing to Jr. High the next year. The last day was about three hours long (just long enough for us to play on the playground together, have breakfast and play some more) and I remember taking three rolls of film on a point and shoot 35mm. Mostly I liked to take candids of people and some artsy landscapes. I didn’t seriously consider photography a career option till half way through college.
Well, I was probably 6 or 7 and it must have been with my mums old camera (which I still have and cherish). It is a Zenith SLR commemorating the 1980 Moscow Olympics (I wasn’t even thought of at the time, much less born…), of course a fully manual film cam with an optically excellent 50mm prime lens.
Ahhhh… These were the days! ;)
My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, film of course. The only things digital then were fingers. Film and Developing being expensive at the drug-store limited me to a roll of 620 every now and then. My parents had a Kodak Retina (35mm) but none of us kids (4 in all) were allowed to touch it, and they bought film about as infrequently as my sisters, brother and I did.
We did a lot of sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, so lots of the shots were of other boats, boat yards, and some of the shoreline. Darn, that camera didn’t have a zoom or some of those shots would have been good, not terrific, just good.
Ooops, I forgot about the lessons (shame on me!)
OK, so since the camera was manual, I had to learn to fiddle with the shutter/aperture settings. Of course I didn’t understand what they meant for quite a few more years but at least I got a grasp at the basic concepts. So when it got dark we “picked a smaller number at the twisty knob” (shutter) and we “opened up the eye of the camera” and so on and so forth.
Which, in retrospect really helps me now that I own a DSLR and try to experiment with it…
I had just purchased my Canon XTi (digital SLR) in preparation for a trip to China to get our adopted daughter. There’s special memories attached to that camera.
Now that I’m more proficient as a photographer, I’d love to go back to China.
– I would shoot a whole lot more photos. I came back with about 1400 shot over three weeks. Seemed like a lot then, but not now.
– I’d splurge and get a decent lens in the 28-200mm range. So many shots I missed not having that.
– I would be braver when it came to getting portraits. I’m always so timid about intruding in people’s space.
If my memory does not fail my first shot was with a Nikon FE with color film during our holidays when I was five. It was my father’s fault to get me into photography. The subject probably were the garden or the town square. Sadly, those negatives are lost so I cannot confirm.
Since there was enough light and the camera was smarter (it still is) than me the first lessons there to hold it steady, how to breathe when shotting, quarters rule, harmony and composition.
I was about 13 or 14. My mom and I were taking the train to her parent’s in a small village of Kadamhata, Sylhet, Bangladesh.
The train, for some unknown reason, stopped dead in the middle of a field where all you could see on both sides was green and green. Cows, trees, birds, rice field vibrant with health - the gamut. The sun was going down and the sky had colors I didn’t know existed. In short, it was picture perfect! And the train, I told myself, stopped just so I would capture this moment.
Had my dad’s Yashica film camera. Had a roll of film in it. I snapped away happy and in my mind had already won major accolades and praise for redefining beauty. Puberty!
Weeks later, photos came back developed. I was crushed. Plain pictures devoid of all the elements that made it beautiful. None of what I saw with my eyes made it to the pictures.
I didn’t understand exposure, shutter speed, or ISO. All I knew was my eyes saw it, the camera should too. To this day I remember exactly what the ‘picture’ looked like. Until my memory fails me it will be there but I wished others could’ve seen what I had.
I guess this could go in the ‘best picture I never took’ category.
I remember my first “this photography stuff is cool” moment. I had saved up to buy a Minolta P&S camera - don’t remember what model. I think I paid 1/2 and one of my grandparents paid the other 1/2 for me. I was somewhere in the 10-13 range I imagine.
We were visiting St. Louis, and I remember while waiting for a train I spotted the gateway arch framed in an arch of the brick architecture of the train station. I snapped a few pics, and then wanted to burn through the rest of the roll pretty quick to get them developed to see how it turned out!
They ultimately turned out OK but kind of grainy. I shot with only 400 film back then because someone told me ISO 400 was “the best”…
My first camera was a 110 mm Vivatar when I graduated 8th grade. Funny now that I think back on it. I wasn’t taught any lessons, just point and shoot.
* What was the camera?
* What were you photographing?
* Was it film or digital?
* What lessons were you taught in the early days?
The camera was my mom’s el cheapo Kodak Instamatic with a flash cube stuck to the top of it. Definitely film.
I was 4 years old. I took a picture of myself after climbing up on the kitchen counter to play with the camera. The flash surprised me so badly that I fell off.
I was still curious about cameras, but my mom wouldn’t let me touch hers. My grandmother finally gave me an old beater camera when I was ten.
Today, I won’t let my mom touch MY camera (DSLR)!
My very first camera was an Olympus OM10 35MM (remember the Cheryl Tieg commercials?) I was 12 and begged for this camera. I loved it and I took pictures of my family and friend. I learned a lot about composition with that camera, as well as ISO (I loved playing around with different films.) There was no one hour photo back then and I remember the agony of leaving my film at the drug store and having to wait a week or more to see the prints!
The first camera I was ‘allowed’ to use was my Dad’s Click III - film based. If I remember right, I tried capturing a few shots of the open sky and nothing really came out :) A royal waste of costly film. Lesson learnt - know the camera before clicking.
Found an image of the click III
http://www.flickr.com/photos/biet/2176347837/
I got a camera for Christmas when I was about 7 or 8. It was a small rectangular black that takes the weird rolls of film. I took lots of pictures. I just learned at that time to point and shoot. :D
My first photos were taken on a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. It was the black, cube model with a prism view finder on top. There was a control that you’d pull up to change the shutter speed to “B”. Considering the fact that the model was discontinued in 1961 it’s understandable if my recollections are dim. I expect that I took pictures of my friends at summer camp. Wearing their Davy Crocket caps, no doubt. It was film (120), naturally.
My first real photography was done with a folding Voightlander Vitessa (35mm film) that I got used when I started high school. It had a pair of clamshell doors that opened for the bellows and lens. There was a selenium meter on top and the film advance was a tall plunger. It fit into a back pocket and was a kick to use. I still have it.
What was the camera?
Kodak Instamatic. I think I was six years old.
What were you photographing?
Anybody and anything.
Was it film or digital?
Film. Digital didn’t exist in the stone age.
What lessons were you taught in the early days?
“If you break it, you’re not getting another one”
First experience was about 8 years old with a brownie box camera made in 1912. It used 126 (2″x2″) (or equiv) film. No exposure, you push the button, the shutter goes.
Black and white film. It teaches you a lot about what you can see and the camera can’t. It also taught me to be careful about what I did with the camera, as film and developing were expensive.
I upgraded to an Argus, with the ability to focus and set some basic exposure information. This was 35mm and again more b&w photography.
Composition is king, and what I learned from these 2 cameras (which I still have) is something that can’t be over-emphasized.
My first camera was a russian film camera called «Smena» which my dad presented to me when i was 7. It has a non-interchangeable 50mm prime lens. It served me for ten years.
My first picture was a portrait of some old lady with a cat. The cat had a collar and a lead, that attracted my attention and i asked to take a picture. I think my parents still have this photo somewhere.
I’ve been taking a course in photography and learned to develop my films and to print my photos in a dark room as well as basics of exposure and composition.
The first camera I experienced was my father’s Kodak Hawkeye, a film camera although I don’t remember the format (definitely not 35mm). I was permitted to take it to grade school one day because my 6th grade teacher - also a farmer - was bringing in some sheep. The only tips I received back in those days was 1) have the sun over your shoulder (i.e., the subject would be staring directly at sun), and 2) make your subject take off their glasses if you’re using flashbulbs. This from nearly 50 years ago.
Hm…this is hard to remember . I know the first photograph I’ve made , but I can’t remember exactly when I took it . It was somewhere around when I was 3-4 years old , at a walk , my father gave me his camera(can’t remember which model , but it was on film). It was funny because my parents had to bend down so as to help me get a good frame :D .
Also , I think I still have a Polaroid which my father also bought befor 1995.
a film Canon Ae-1 and butched the whole roll of film, but I was hooked.
When I was young cameras were delicate mystical instruments not to be touched by kids. Then came Jr. High School General Science Class. One day the teacher handed each of us a shiny piece of paper. We were instructed to place it in the window sill with our hand on the paper for one minute. Then go shake the paper around in a pan of “water” . Mystically an image of my hand started appearing, I have been hooked now for over 60 years. I mowed a lot of grass after that to save enough to buy a camera. Then there was film and darkroom stuff to buy. It still stretches my budget.
My first camera was a pink “Le Clic” camera that used 110 film. I remember I was about 9 or so and took a lot of pictures of my brother and dog with that first roll of film. I still have all the pictures I took and love to see how everyone has changed in the 20 years since. Makes me remember when things were simpler, slower.
My daughters are now 11 and 8 and their first cameras are digital P&S. I love watching them take pictures of each other and our camera-shy cat. I see the same spirit of accomplishment and discovery in them as I once experienced!
the camera was a Pentex, not sure the model, why does fx sound right? It was film and many many years ago. My father taught me. then I studied it in high school.
Lessons back then, exposure, exposure, exposure!
I liked nature and cemeteries, my most favorite places to shoot!
As a little girl, I was always fascinated when I saw my father taking photos. He would have been a “serious amateur photographer” if we had more money and if he didn’t have two kids to take up his time. :-) But he enjoyed shooting and did a lot of it. I’m sure I picked that up from him.
I don’t know exactly when I got my first camera, but I would guess it was when I was about 8 years old based on the photos that I have found in my old photo boxes. The camera was a 110, and I took a LOT of pictures on it over the next seven or eight years. I don’t remember what the first photos were, but they were likely shots of family members and/or pets. I also don’t remember specific lessons that I learned. I just know that I was never discouraged from shooting, and thus learned to enjoy trying to capture the world around me on film. It’s a lesson that continues to pay off even to today! :-)
* What was the camera?
Vivitar 110. I bought it for $0.25 at my neighbor’s garage sale.
* What were you photographing?
Anything that I could, I was 5.
* Was it film or digital?
Film
* What lessons were you taught in the early days?
Flash is important, so is keeping the camera still, and watch how many photos you shoot, developing is expensive.
* What was the camera?
Kodak 110 - glad I’m the only who used one of them
* What were you photographing?
Vacation type photos
* Was it film or digital?
Digital wasn’t even around for another 15 years
* What lessons were you taught in the early days?
Take a variety of photos
I don’t remember exactly at what age I took my first photo but I do remember using my dad’s camera. It was a Minolta SLR. I remember feeling so proud and grown up as I put a roll of film inside.
Lesson learned? Make every shot count because once the moment’s gone, it’s gone forever. That, and the fact that developing photos were expensive!
When I was very small I was ocassionally allowed to take a shot or two with Mom’s Instamatic. I was certainly never allowed to even touch Dad’s Leica (which was the camera my grandfather bought to make baby pictures of Dad-they were in Germany with the Air Force for the Berlin Airlift at the time. I love that bit of history. Of course, that camera is and always will be around, even if it isn’t being used these days).
Somewhere around 6th grade (mid 80s) I was given a bright yellow and black 110, the long, flat kind. I remember taking it on a field trip to the Huntsville space and rocket center and taking a whole roll, which seemed so extravagant. The monkeys that went up in space were still alive then, and were on display at the center, behind glass. I took a shot of them that I was so excited about. Then I got the film developed and was disappointed to learn just why it’s a bad idea to use the flash when you’re shooting into glass. Of course, I’m not sure leaving the flash off was even an option on that camera. I seem to remember that turning it on turned on the flash. Period.
I loved that little camera and made it last a long time. At some point, the shutter button came off and I had to stick my finger into the hole it left to trigger the shutter. I used it that way for at least a year or two before I finally was allowed to upgrade. That camera was a 35mm point and shoot, with auto film winder AND a telephoto setting. I was uptown!
it was a bulky canon digital camera, I took a self portrait immediately after purchase, and I thought the quality was so so good even though it was over exposed where I was without a nose. hehe
My first was on a school trip as a boy. There was a craze in the 70’s for a new camera that used a disc to hold the negatives on. These disk cameras were all the rage until everyone realized the pictures that came out were terrible. On this trip I shot about four of these disks and took them to my parents to pay for developing. They were none too pleased especially as the images were as you’d expect. I loved the feeling of holding the prints knowing that I’d created the image. After that, things really went out of control :)
My first camera was an old Kodak Brownie, which took 120 only black and white roll film. My first pictures were of family members on vacation. I recall that it didn’ take particlarly sharp imagages and that there were only eight exposures on a roll
My first experience was with a Brownie Hawkeye that my parents bought me when I was about 7 or 8 years old (way back in the ’50s!). My first shot was on b/w film and it was of my parents and my brother in our backyard. Just a typical snapshot, but I filled the rest of the roll with shots of our car, house and some trees and flowers. I still remember the excitement of seeing the photos for the first time when we got the film developed. I used that camera until I was in my early teens. I wish I knew where that thing ended up. I’d love to hold it in my hands again. What did I learn? Practice, practice, practice! I’m still practicing.
My first photos were taken on a Brownie 620 about 60 years ago. They were of my friends, the other kids in the neighborhood. It was my Mother’s camera and not used much. That hooked me, now use Canon point and shoot G5 and try to get out 2-3 times a week.
GAF Anscomatic from my Aunt Marge was my first camera, I was in Jr. High, late 60’s.
Was GAF’s version of Kodaks Instamatic and used those 126 drop in cartridges so it was super easy to use & used flashcubes too. Still have some of the photos.
Yep, I still have it (holds camera up so everyone can see) but I seem to have mis-placed the flashcube attachment.
Here’s where I show my age. When I was just a kid (maybe 8 or 9) my parents bought a new camera and gave me their old box camera. I shot black and white photos of friends and family as well as shots of neighborhood architecture, etc. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when my aunt bought me a brand new Brownie Starflash camera when I was about 10. The only guidance I was given was to be selective about how many pictures I took as film and procfessing were expensive! (Of course I paid no attention and shot pictures like mad)
Hmmm, interesting question.
My first photographic experience was with an old Kodak Box Camera (remember the one with two viewfinders, one on the side and one on the top?) when I was about 6 years old. I got a roll of film (my parents would develop it and have prints made) every other month and they let me explore with the camera and film. I was allowed to check out a book or two on the subject so had at least some sage advice.
It graduated through the Brownie, and Instamatic ohase until I purchased my first SLR (A Hannimex-Practica) while in the service in Key West Florida. WHile there I guess you coukd say I went Pro in that I took pictires of my friends and others cars and was paid by the roll (alright, not a lot but it doubled my income of $150/Month so what the heck,
That camera was “Liberated” by somneone so…
Next I got a Canon FTb,then a Canon A-1 and several lenses and so on.
With the advent of the Digital Age I got a Konica Z1 and 5400 Flash, then a Z6 and now I have Casio Z-1050 Point and Shoot for my pocket camera and a Sony Alpha 350 with an 18-70 and a 75-300 Zoom. I also have a Minolta AF 50/1.7 Lens and a .5x and a 2x extender. Thay means my range in the Bag is (taking into account the 1.5x Magnification factor) 13.5 - 900mm. Good enough for now… Someday I’ll find a rich relative to get me the Zeiss or topd shelf lenses I yearn for (LOL)
My first camera was a Kodak “Brownie Hawkeye”. I believe the film size was 126. It was a simple box camera, a real “point and shoot”. Of course it was film. I don’t believe the word “digital” was even in our vocabulary yet (unless it had something to do with a finger or toe). I believe it was made of what they called “bakelite”, similar to plastic but not exactly the same. There was one knob (to advance the film) and one button (to take the picture). I was given the camera in the early 1950’s when I was sent off to summer camp. I still have a few of the photos, but they are very washed out looking. What did I learn? Put the sun behind your back and hope the subject doesn’t move.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m87/unclestampcraz/Camera2/kodak2Abrowniebox1.jpg
and I’m not THAT old!!!!………am I?
I had very distrusting parents and cameras are expensive, so my first experience wasn’t until I was 12. I got given a cheap point and shoot from my grandfather to take to girls camp. It was a 4 day camp in June. I bought somewhere between 5 and 8 rolls of film and I used every single on of them. I couldn’t figure out how to re roll the film at first though and exposed one of them before I figured it out. I was SO upset with my self.
My first experience with a camera was when I was about 8 years old. I bought with my own money a little Kodak Brownie film camera. If I remember correctly it was Winter, so I was trying to take photos of snow and ice and rocks in a frozen stream. I’ve been hooked on photography ever since.
My first camera was an .88 cents Diana camera that my mom bought for me (my sister got one too) when I was around 11 years old. I loved that camera. It looked like a 35mm so I felt like a real photographer. I took such good care of it as if were the real thing. I even found a black plastic (uncushioned) camera case for it that when slung on my shoulder made me look (in my mind, of course) real professional.
It used 120 film that I enjoyed loading. Of course, film and processing was very expensive, so I was very careful about what I photographed.
My first pictures were of some model ships and airplanes that my brother had put together. A ray of sun was shining on part of them and the film was black and white.
I still have the camera (a treasure for me now) and the pictures.
I learned to compose carefully for good shots, not that they really were, eh.
What was the camera: Kodak
What were you photographing: essence of a moment
Film or digital: 110 Film
Lesson taught: You can’t always put time in a bottle
I don’t remember ever seeing my parents take a single photograph of any one or any thing. It was odd, therefore, when they gave me a camera to take on a field trip to Saguaro Monument in Tucson when I was 13 (1958). Those photos had a lot of Arizona sunshine washing out the faces of my friends. Going one better, though, were the indoor pictures taken with those really nifty flash cubes (four photos per shot) that yielded shots of people looking like escapees from the set of Night of the Living Dead. Probably why I prefer landscape photography. Thanks Mom and Dad.
Like some other people have mentioned my first camera was a Kodak Brownie. No adjustments what so ever. Just the button to take the picture and a knob to wind on the 127 film.
I think my first pictures was of my fellow scouts at a camp on the Isle of Wight .UK. The one rule I knew to obey was to have the sun behind me. Oh yes and digital was not even a word!
Great question. My first camera was a Poloroid Swinger camera. The first time I ever took a picture was with my father’s box camera. I have no idea what brand it was. I know you looked down to take the picture. I remember that. But I was hooked fast. I probably took a picture of a family member I guess, I don’t remember what was the first thing I photographed. But I knew early on, that taking pictures was the best thing in the world. Now people are buying my pictures. It is a dream come true !!!!
My first experience was taking a picture of my Dad so that he would have his picture in a slide presentation he was making (1957). The camera was an Argus C3. My first camera was a Kodak Junior Six-20 620 Film. Used electric tape to fix the holes on the bellow. I graduated to a Mamiya Sekor SLR when I went to college. My first digital camera was a Panasonic with disc as film in 1998.
My first camera was a Kodak Brownie, I found in the garbage (someone tossed it, go figure), don’t remember the film type, I was only 11. It worked great and I shot everything. Lesson I learned; Don’t leave it unattended at the park. Next was a pinhole camera we were taught to build in art class, used b&w film paper, learned to develop using chemicals, first picture with it was a cigarette package, but of course without mirrors, the images were in reverse. Now I have a Canon Rebel XTi Digital SLR - Love it!!
Pic of my parents and a row of beautiful oleanders in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It was in 1978, I was 3. Still considered the best pic of them ever taken.
Camera, don’t remember, but I know it was Russian made and heavy….
That is a tough one. I mean, I remember the old family Kodak…it would probably be a collector’s item now. It was a fairly simple box camera…the sort where you held it at waist level and looked down into the viewfinder. But the first camera that was mine was a cheap little “spy” canera of the sort that was sold in the back of comic books. I don’t remember exactly where I got it, but I think it was at the state fair. It came with several rolls of film. I proceeded to take a number of photos and took them to the drug store to be processed. Unfortunately, much to my great disappointment, not a single photo came out. It simply did not work properly. The people at the drug store were very sympathetic, but I was crushed.
Over the years I used a lot of my family’s cameras. I do recall a visit with my mother to the a tea for the March of Dimes. It was at the Governor’s Mansion in Alabama. George Wallace could not run again, so he had his wife run for governor. Normally the annual tea was hosted by the state’s Firs Lady, but that year the governor hosted it herself. I was taking pictures of my mother and her friends with the family Polaroid. I was in the seventh grade. I remember some woman asking me what I charged to take a picture. Unfortunately, I was out of film. But I thought it so neat to be thought of as a “professional.” In retrospect, they were pretty bad photos. I was too far back, with the subjects centered in the middle.
Lets see about 1965, some used box camera I payed $5 for and got yelled at for wasting my money about. It looked like a Kodac Eagle, and was a 35 mm.with no adjustments at all, no focus, nothing, one true point and shot. Had to use B&W film because color film was really new and cost to much. My first photos was on my trip out west with my grandfather on his yearly rock hunting trip.
I had one of those disc film cameras. My parents bought it for me when I wanted to have my own camera for church camp. I loved that little thing! I think I was supposed to learn not to take too many pictures, as developing them was expensive, but it never got through. I have always taken way too many pictures. I wish more of them were good ones!
My first camera was a ‘Dick Tracy’ camera that I believe used 127 film, black and white of course. Most of the photos are of people but two are from Yellowstone Park. One shows Old Faithful and the other Yellowstone Falls. The quality is not very good but that’s what started me in photograpy.
My dad was a professional photographer so I had many encounters with photography at an early age. I had toy cameras and remember my dad showing me the process of developing film in his homemade dark room in our house. He taught junior and high school level photography for 35 years and shot weddings on weekends. He used to give me the little “sample” cameras and film he would get in the mail from various companies. I would always fill the roll full of pictures but I don’t think they ever were developed. I had a polaroid camera at one time and a really nice olympus point and shoot 35 mm in high school but always wanted an SLR. The first time I was exposed to the art and science of photography was in seventh grade when my dad helped me with my science project, a pin-hole camera and how it works. We made one out of cardboard and mounted it on a tripod and took pictures of the neighbors house across the street while he showed me how the various aperture, focal length and shutter settings affect the picture being taken. He is the reason why I love taking pictures and I miss him dearly.
my first photo was of my dog, taken on film with a kodak box brownie, around the 1940,s after that I’d shoot anything. B&w in those days.
My first experience was with a Kodak that was a black square box. I have no idea of the model. It might be worth a fortune if I still had it. My mom told me to make sure I centered everything (How times have changed) and not to cut off people’s heads. I imagine the first thing I photographed was family, but I do not remember for sure.
addition to previous comment:
I also had a 110 film camera that had disposable flashes which was probably my first camera. I cannot find any info about it because I don’t remember the brand of it.
My grandmother gave me a 110 cartridge-based film format camera for me to take pictures at a Blue Angles show at what was formerly know as El Toro Marine base. I still have those pictures and they actually turned out pretty well if I must say so myself.
I was 17 and we were on a family holiday in Scotland, I had asked to take an old Kodak camera of my Grandad’s which noboady wanted to use. Everyone else had fancy camera’s and said ‘oh you’re not using that old thing are you it’s awful’.
They ate their words when they had to admit I had taken some really nice photographs of Loch Lomond!
The first camera I used was a Kodak Autograph Folding Brownie, one of two my parent’s owned:
http://licm.org.uk/livingImage/No2AutoGBrownie.html
I still have both of those cameras (one has small holes in the bellows)and many of the photos I took with it. It takes a great photo on a 120 film. The “autograph” could be applied with a metal stylus trough a flip open lid on the back. The film was specially made for this purpose and was off the market long before I used this camera in the 1950’s (started in 1956). Apparently, this model was one of the most popular in its day and other than historical value, it has very little “resale” interest from collectors, due to the quantity still in existence.
My first camera experience was when I was maybe 8-9 years old and I got to take a photo with my dad’s Canon, a film SLR and it was of a house on the playground near our house. The picture turned out to be blurry but it looks cool anyway. =)
What was the camera: Brownie Festa by Kodak. It was a birthday gift from my older brother to me when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade. I loved getting my brother’s hand-me-down gadgets.
What were you photographing: Everything! My friends, guinie pigs, Yosemite Falls, the tent while my family went across country camping in the summer of 1969.
Was it film or digital: 127 black & white film for prints. The film came on a spool about 3 inches high. You had to open the back of the camera, move the empty spool from one side to the other, put the new film spool in, drag it across the back of the lens box and put the flap into the slot on the empty spool, close the back. Shoot off pics until it says you are at shot #1. The only color pictures I ever saw were slides and school photos. A few years later instamatics were all the rage for making color prints. Then take your 12 pictures and take it down to the pharmacy to get processed/developed. Return in a week to pay for & pick-up photos.
What lessons were you taught in the early days: Lessons? What were lessons? We just took pictures until we got it right. Most would come out great! My older brother, for a Boy Scout merit badge, did his own developing with chemicals in the utility sink. He must have showed me how it worked and was happy that once I had my own (used) camera I bugged him less.
My dad’s a camera aficionado and I started using his cameras at an early age. My first real camera was the Pentax 110 miniature camera. I had 3 lenses. And yes, it was film. I seem to remember the rule of thirds but I don’t know if I was specifically taught, or read it in my photography-for-kids book or just did.
I didn’t touch a camera as a hobby for a good 12-15 years and only started again about 2 years ago.
I was 8 years old and in sleepover camp. We had a chance to do a photography club. I joined and we each got a box camera to use. It was black and white only. We were given film and told to go out and take a bunch of pictures. The camp was up in the mountains in Maryland and I took a bunch of scenery shots. We then went back into the lab and developed the photos. I loved it!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t born early enough to see my grandfather using his camera — he was a passionated amateur, with thousands of photos from around the country.
What I regret, is that I have no idea how to use his old Kiev-88 camera. Could’ve been a nice kick-start. But I had to wait, and last year bought a cheap Canon A450, just enough for a starter.
I remember I pre-ordered it, went to another town to buy it, then left in a flurry, to catch a train to a concert in a third location. So my very first photos were taken in the train, with the sun going down, and I depleted two pairs of batteries until the morning. Many many different subjects, with varying settings.
That’s all folks! :-)
What was the camera?
What were you photographing?
Was it film or digital?
What lessons were you taught in the early days?
What was the camera?
What were you photographing?
Was it film or digital?
What lessons were you taught in the early days?
I had just join the high school photo club (9th grade) and learned to develop my own film. After which we could shot for the school paper. I knew that I needed a better camera that my brownie, so I kept bugging my folks for a 35mm. For Christmas I got a Kodak 35 and for the next couple of weeks I went through the manual learning what that camera could do.
As a newbie, our first assignment was to follow along with a more experienced member of the club at different events and shot what he did, and then compare our photos.
In the good old days of film you learned to pick your shots wisely ( because you bought your own film).
After getting a handle on shooting, they gave you your big assignment. You were to bring your camera with you and shot at different club meetings. (like German club, chess club, Acting club, and the debt club) for the year book.
I think the big thing I learned back in thoughts day was don’t to shot wild (unless you had a lot of money), plan your shots, compos your photo, and bracket your shot.
Happy shooting
Larry G
When I was right around 10 years old, my older brother found a 110 camera while cleaning his room. He didn’t want the camera, but, in true big-brother fashion, realized he could probably use it to bribe me somehow. So he told me he would give me the camera if I fed the cat (his chore). I thought about it for about .01 seconds and agreed. I think my dad bought my first roll of film and the photos were of random things…my dad holding dry-cleaning, the cat and a classmate…who actually later became my cousin’s wife.
I remember being truly amazed when the pictures came back, that a moment in time could be made to “stand still.” I have loved photography ever since.
My first camera was one that my aunt gave me for what i think was my sixth birthday.
It was a red plastic kid toy camera.
My cousins and I played hospital by wrapping up our arms or legs in toilet paper as a cast.
I took an entire role of film of all of our casts while pretending the camera was an x-ray machine.
what did I learn? that mom gets mad when i “waste” so much film and don’t tell her not to develop the roll.
If I don’t count the Kodak Brownie my parents gave me when I was about 8, my first real photos were taken with an old secondhand Minolta SLR (can’t remember the model) when I was about 11. My father gave it to me as a present, he was also a mad keen photographer, but had Nikon equipment, off limits to the kid. He told me I was too young to have anything that good - yet. I can’t remember the first photo, but I’m it was something like the chair in our lunge room of the fishtank or something. I still have most of the photo’s from that period.
First camera: Polaroid (Instamatic?) It was the early 80’s and it was the kind that you load the cartridge, snapped the picture, the actual square picture came out the bottom and you had to wait for it to develop.
Photographing: Friends at my violin recital
Digi or Film: Film
First photography lesson: Don’t touch the picture while it’s still wet
I don’t remember much about my first camera. I remember it was using the infamous Disk film from Kodak, but that’s about it. I also remember wasting two or three disks the first night taking pictures of stupid stuff. Took lots of snapshots, but wasn’t caught by the bug until I was a teenager.
In Highschool, I took a photography class. With my father’s Nikon N2000 (film camera: I have a Photo), I acquired my first taste for artistic photography. I immediately fell in love with Depth of Field, taking shots of dart boards, fountains, plants and the like.
I also learned very quickly that post-production is just as important as the shot.
It was august of last year. I focused on my foot on the ottoman as the foreground and a blurred living room as background. On that same night, Also took a shot of a focused Lays stax and the blurred tv as the bg. The next day, I shot a bokeh of a plant somewhere outside my workplace.
I don’t know the term bokeh that time but I was pretty much playing with it without knowing the technical side of stuff. Up until now, I still don’t know and still learning.
Oh boy.. that was back in the early 1980’s. I remember shooting pictures of little birds in a big tree with my grand mom’s very old camera. I also remember the picture. There was a tree :)
Nobody saw the birds in my picture :(
I think my first camera experience was with a disposable. One of the first pictures I remember trying to take a picture of some pretty flowers I gathered, so I held them in my hand, in the shade, and shakily took a picture of that… hand and all. I was probably seven at the time.
Later, I got my very first own camera: a hot pink, sparkly, Barbie film camera. I felt so cool holding it. Too bad no one ever taught me to take pictures. I ended up teaching myself years later, but it turned out o.k. :)
First camera: A Kodak manual film camera
What purpose: To take pictures with friends
I was around 8 (then the camera was given to me when I was 9). I don’t remember what shots I took anymore! Hahaha
First camera i used was Vivtar with that small film on 24 shots that was in 1994, then i used Zenit 122 35mm FLim camera from 1998 till 2007 then i got Canon 350D then now i have Canon 40D with 28 135mm IS USM lens and some other lenses
first landscape shots was with the Zenit 122
Now i am so happy with my Canon 40D
What was the camera?
Kodak Disc. I was 11 and I BEGGED my mother for it. I got it for Christmas and I honestly don’t remember what else I got that year!
What were you photographing?
Everything!
Was it film or digital?
Film
What lessons were you taught in the early days?
The best shots were close up. And glossy photos were damaged a lot easier than matte!
I’m not the one who started this thread, but I have to tell you all that I’ve enjoyed your stories so much! Some have made me laugh and others have made me cry. Still others have brought back memories of the cameras that have passed through my hands (and that remain as part of a mini collection).
Thank you all for sharing your stories. I think this is the thread I’ve enjoyed the most.
My first expeierence with a camera was NOT good.
Kodak camera circa 1980. Film obvoiusly (regular 35mm not a SLR)
At the San Diego Wild Animal Park in California, mom is taking pictures of animals.
I ask to take take some pictures and do so. I am very proud that I have the chance to do so with my mother. Just point and click she says. Great day, great weather..then I open the back of the camera and expose all of the film to the elements. Needless to say…all of the pictures were destroyed.
I have to laugh now, but I thank the digital god who created digital camera’s now that my son (5 years old) is into taking pictures. He wont have to worry about that.
LOL!
First Camera: Kodak Brownie Film
First Pictures: I was about 9 years old (back in 1956 - Wow I’m getting old) and my parents signed me up for a photography class. We went to a park in our town and took pictures of trees, birds, landscape etc.
First Photography Lesson: As I remember we spent most of our time on how to compose a picture, cannot remember that we did much with speed or f-stops
My first experience with a digital slr was in 2003. I was to take pictures of my father’s concert performance in London. My only experience prior to using a canon point and shoot. I was given a Nikon D70. I knew nothing about low-light photography let alone anything about using a Nikon D70. I asked the other photographers for advice on settings to accomplish my mission. I learn about shooting in Program mode and not using flash. I later learned many more things about the other modes. Currently, I use manual mode than any other modes. f/stops and shutter speeds.
Yes, I know that I wrote an entry for this thread (Kodak Hawkeye…) but I have to add something. The Hawkeye was my sister’s camera. My first camera was a (very used) Voightlander Vitessa. Loved that camera.
My first NEW camera, though, was a Nikon Nikomat acquired in the late sixties. Yes. The spelling’s correct. The Nikkormat was the US version distributed by Ehrenreich and the Nikomat was “gray market” and purchased for me in Tokyo. Nikkormats are the perfect “student” camera. All manual with match-needle center-weighted metering. A mechanical shutter so you could still shoot if your battery ran out. The camera had absolutely everything that you needed and absolutely nothing that you didn’t. Since you had to set the aperture and shutter speed you always thought about what you were doing. And the camera seemed to be machined from a single piece of steel. You could drive nails with it. Many years of use (and abuse) and I never had one fail. Over the years I accumulated Nikon lenses as well as a used Nikon F and at least one more Nikkormat.
Eventually I became a father and my son was ready for a camera. We were still shooting film, so I found a clean, barely used Nikkormat (and a 50mm f/1.4) for him. When I showed him what I had gotten for him I was disappointed when he didn’t look as thrilled as I had hoped. he looked at me and said, “I was hoping for the Nikomat.”
So my first new 35mm camera was also my son’s first serious 35mm camera. I the age of digital I don’t think that any of our kids will be able to say that.
My firsy camera was A film Kodak Cam (and still had it as a memory but don’t use it)… when I was 6…
My Dad bought it for me cuase he bought an SLR for himself…
Photographing was my favorite hoppy since then…
My first shot was at school… it was a portrait shot for my best friend Senthia…
And still keep that photo with my first Cam as a memory…
My firts camera was A film Kodak Cam (and still had it as a memory but don’t use it)… when I was 6…
My Dad bought it for me cuase he bought an SLR for himself…
Photographing was my favorite hoppy since then…
My first shot was at school… it was a portrait shot for my best friend Senthia…
And still keep that photo with my first Cam as a memory…
My first camera was a Kodak Brownie box camera. I think that it used 127 roll film. This was in the mid-1950s, and I was about 8 or 9. The film was black and white, and came back from the drugstore with the prints attached end-to-end and folded accordian-style, with deckled edges. The subjects were my family and our dog.
I didn’t do much photography after that until I graduated from college in 1970, and bought my first SLR, a Konica Autoreflex T to photograph my girlfriend (who is still my wife). After many years and a number of other SLRs, I’m now happily shooting with my third digital camera, a Canon 720IS, and experimenting with the CHDK software that greatly expands the capabilities of the camera.
My first experience was a few months ago. I’d got a Casio Exilim Ex-Z700 camera for christmas back in 2006. I’d never really used it for anything more than taking photos when I went out places like holidays or with friends.
Then, I decided to go out onto the green back in April, when the daffodils were out. I showed my Dad the pictures, and that’s when he said “they’re good, but they could be better……” and he then showed me the Best Shot menu, and macro mode.
He told me all about the sort of pictures you could take and how to take them. So I shot back out onto the green, all excited, crawling around daffodils, and going mad on Macro mode. Since then, I’ve used pretty much every setting on my camera including colour filters.
It was also that experience that led me to this site to learn more about digital photography!
My first picture taking experience was some time ago (read early 1950’s)with a Kodak Brownie box camera. I think this was a school trip when my folk entrusted me with this paragon of technological wizardry. If you’ve never seen one it’s a film camera shaped like a box with a waist level viewfinder, shutter speed of about 1/60 and a probable f8 lens. Todays XSI I just got is a far cry from where I started.
While I took some photos with a point and shoot and some with an very basic 110 film camera, I consider my first photography experience in ‘93. I was use on my high school yearbook staff, and our advisor was a former semi-pro photographer. I borrowed my father’s Canon AV-1 and took some of my first thought out and composed photos. I also learned to develop them as well. I walked away with lessons and skills I still use today.
The camera was an old 110 that came with a pack of batteries if i remember correctly. I was about 7 so i bought the batteries because they came with a free camera.
The pics i took were of things in my backyard that seemed interesting and of my dogs, of course.
I didn’t really get any lessons until years later when my uncle showed me how to use his Canon AE-1 program, and later i used my grandfather’s Sigma SD14, and now i own a Canon EOS 10D and a good old Lomo
I’m 17 by the way