why are you interested in photography??

[sognoinunastella]

Originally Posted by PnwGuy

Photography is a drug you know. :-) There really should be a General Surgeon's warning.

The other motivator was to tap my creative/artistic side. I've always been good at making things work, but not good at making them look good. My brain hurts sometimes, but it's good cerebral exercise.

lol, same here sometimes i spend so much time thinkig of how to get the perfect picture (in my eyes, not others) that my brain hurts.
in the end it's worth it

[sayshh]

Its a very tough question to answer.. however my first stint with photography was with a film camera, a Minolta Maxxum 7000 SLR which my father bought some 24 years ago. To be honest I had no skills whatsoever then (10 years or so ago), not much now either but since I started using a digital camera I was able to experiment more and learn more about photography.

My interest in photography really picked up with I supported HP digital cameras for a year, then I really got interested in the digital technology, and since then I've never looked back!

[Aaron Koolen]

I've only discovered my interest in photography earlier this year but for me there's several reasons I enjoy it. It seems to have ticked a whole heap of boxes for me, something that my career as a software engineer just was not doing (Therefore I quit it)

- It's technical. I come from a computer background and I love gadgets and knowing how things work. Learning about how light works, how cameras pick up lights, flashes, snoots, composition etc really interested me.

- It gives me a buzz to affect people and to be effected. I've only taken a few good photos to date, but when someone looks at a photo and enjoys it, it gives me a sense of accomplishment.

- It's the one thing where I've felt I've had both the permission and drive to express. I want to think of new things to photograph. Random things, interesting or quirky things and not worry that it's not a 6x4 headshot. I've never been into fashion and modelling but since taking up photography I find myself interested in looking at fashion magazines and dreaming about putting together great creative shoots. I don't have the skills and access to people to to it yet but I hope to one day.

- It's varied. I can go out and shoot landscapes, people, macro, food I bake, flowers, sports, events...everything. I have yet to find a type of photography that I don't like.

Those are probably the main things I can think of that draw me to it.

[JerBear]

Not sure what "turned" me on to photography, but even as a little kid, I had a camera in my hands.

I look at the "Greats" out there and feel a connection with them, not that I am at their level, but that I strive too and share the desire to capture images that will inspire and or document a point in time.

I have been fortunate to be able to make a very good living from this for over 40 years and if I had to change anything, it would be to get better training in business management at the beginning of my career. Most Photographers I know, wish the same.............

Good Shooting

JM

[spookie5150]

We always had cameras around when I was growing up, and I always wanted to push the buttons. At various times I was given cheap cameras to play with but the interest never really stuck. Then when I was in my 20s my older brother got really into it, and some of his work really captured my interest.

My first "real" camera rig was a Minolta X-700 and several lenses that he left to me when he passed away. My first outing was on the way back from his funeral and I was amazed at how it put me at peace. All the things clogging up my mind went away when I was looking through the viewfinder. The pictures were just OK...but I think the process was more important at that time.

It can be a very expensive hobby, and it can be very frustrating when you blow a shot, but the bottom line is I really enjoy taking pictures. It's good for the soul.

[floryone]

I guess mine started as a child as some of yours have but for a different reason. My parent were divorced and that wasn't a subject to be talked about at the dinner table back then for the normal family. And children of that kind of family won't looked upon at that times very kindly. So we were raised by our grandparents, and my grandfather loved to go out west and collect rocks every summer. So we traveled with them to some of the most out of the way places I ever seen. Then on one of those trips my eyes opened to my surroundings and I could see things only a few ever seen in their whole life and places no man as every steped. Looking up and seeing stars that folk in the city and town don't see any more due to the street lights. I could stand on a hill and never see any part of mans disrtubance of the land. And my only friend with me to share those times was a camera.

[sandi]

I have always wanted to take that great picture. One that everyone goes AHHH.
However that has not yet happened so I just keep plugging along.
I do enjoy the snapping of the pictures and viewing on the computer.
I enjoy seeing the before and after. I don't enjoy seeing all the everyone can do with photoshop, because I don't think this is photography. It is who is the best with enhancing, changing, each photo.

[beatles2]

To take a moment in time and sare what you saw,,, if you think of it is pretty darn cool. and when you get that wow factor, well thats what were all after is it not.

[lilnassau]

My father used to take pics of me and my sisters when we were young, he stopped as we got older but as far as i can remember whenever there was a family gathering and someone brought a camera i would snatch it away and start snapping pics. So i always wound up having pic of everyone at the gathering but myself lol. I bought a few wind up cameras when i was young (cutting lawns to earn the money) but got my first SLR in 1997 a Minolta maxxum 300si with a 35-70mm lens then got a 70-210mm and a 50mm lens. which i still have today and still use. Ive bought a Nikon D40 in january of this year 2008 so im new to digital.

For me capturing a moment in time makes it all worth while, there are people who never saw a sun rise or sun set, but through my photographs i can show them what they have been missing. I can capture a fun event and portray the excitement in people eyes when their with family, a new born baby, at a wedding, even the sadness of a funeral. As a photographer i want my pictures to tell a story, to be a time machine to the past whether it be one second in the past or a decade, i want the feelings and memories of that time to be evoked whenever anyone looks at a picture. That's why ive been doing it for over ten years. i guess im destined to capture moments on film or digital sensors if i dont have one of my SLR's with me i would most likely have either my fuji fine pix or my cannon powershot a460 POS, ya never know what your going to encounter when you leave your home.

[Mr Guy]

I had vaguely debating writing a long artistic froo froo answer that would have been partially accurate about expressing art and capturing the world around me and a lot of other stuff that would have been part of the right answer, but I think the real answer is that I love it because it's hard for me.

PART of the answer is that I love looking at people. Landscapes and architecture and insects are nice and all, but I'm just absolutely distracted by people. I love looking at fingers and toes and necks and just the little pieces that come together to make a person, and I love looking at how people move and how they interact. If I had been born today, it's likely I'd have been diagnosed with some kinda disorder, but I have a lot of trouble relating to people emotionally so I end up watching them in order to mimic their behavior and watch how they express those emotions.

Another PART of the answer is that as much as I love people, I'm completely obsessed with patterns whether I like it or not. I can't help but notice the geometry of the world around me. In particular, I can't avoid seeing when patterns are broken in the world around me. Like when a seam doesn't match up, or lines cross, or tons of other stuff. In photography, I like to try and tame that part of myself by deliberately making things UNpatterned. I like putting shadows deliberately across the lines in bodies. I like making lines converge in odd ways. I like rumpled sheets and messy hair. I like showing pieces of the whole and forcing my brain to ignore the rest of it.

The biggest part, for me though, is that it's something difficult for me. It's hard for me to relate emotionally. It's hard for me to connect to the subject. It's hard for me to put myself on display. It's hard for me to visualize lighting and models until I see it. The whole process of lighting properly is so difficult! Without trying to sound arrogant, so few of the things I'm interested in really ARE difficult. For all my flaws, I'm a relatively gifted person, and I'm able to do most of what I want. I've always been drawn to what I can't pick up right away, to what actually takes effort to get right. There's so little in my life where I actually get to feel that kind of accomplishment because I've failed and then had to work hard to improve.

So really, the people and the patterns are what make me like it, but it's the successes after the failures that make me love it.