What’s Your Preference?

Selected Pixels · #21 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 01:36 PM

Wow, some great stories and photos.

I fell in love with photography twice. Once in analog, then in digital.

My dad was a pro photographer for a large newspaper. He loved sports photography. When I was a teen he would let me come along and help him with his equipment and sometimes "run" film back to be processed before deadlines so he could keep shooting. Then one day we were at a pro football game and he handed me a camera and said "start shooting". Wow. That day I took a shot of my favorite player. When my dad and I printed it together I was hooked. I was a photographer for my high school yearbook and stayed active through college.

Then I got married and other than snapshots of the kids I lost touch with serious photography because of limited time and budget.

Then in 2004 I read an article about DSLR's and eventually bought a D70 on a lark. Shortly after I took:

That was it. Now I have another body, a bunch of lenses, lighting equipment, etc. etc. and I'm almost never without a camera. I am constantly reading, learning, thinking.....

mistyp · #22 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 02:20 PM

I really like that shot, Selected Pixels!

jjohnsen · #23 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 05:52 PM

My dad has been a photographer for as long as I can remember. Every Saturday he'd go to Inkleys and drop a roll off while picking up the previous weeks shots. I was always amazed at how great his shots were, somehow capturing emotion and great color etc.

I was always just a point and shoot guy. Snapshot stuff mainly. Then one day my daughter and I were camping and I thought "what if instead of taking a head on shot, I layed on the grass while she was swinging?"

This shot came out of it, and though not technically a perfect shot, it was interesting enough that I realized how much fun this photography thing could be.

Caine · #24 (**permalink**) 09-01-2007, 03:55 AM

For me, it was this shot. I had been taking photos for less than a month. This shot transformed me. Everything changed that day, how I felt about photography, possibilities and how I looked at things. This was also my first highlight at moblog. I shot this with a Nikon Coolpix L1, macro mode in cyanotype. No editing outside of resizing.

psykon99 · #25 (**permalink**) 09-01-2007, 10:56 PM

This is the one that did it for me. I took it the day after I bought my current camera (Finepix S700).

I've always been interested in photography, but I've never had the resources to really get into it. I bought this camera just before we started our last vacation. it was really meant to be a good family camera with a bit of versatility for me to have fun.

This pic ruined it for me. It totally launched me into photography head on. Now I keep feeling as though I've outgrown the Finepix, and I'm really anxious to pick up an SLR. Hopefully soon!

Karol · #26 (**permalink**) 09-02-2007, 06:43 AM

I am sure I have shared this before, but I still love this photo. I took it shortly after I got my p/s for Mother's Day awhile back. It inspires me everytime I look at it and keeps me trying to learn and become a better photographer (ok, at this point I'm hardly a photographer, but I'm trying).

Pernod · #27 (**permalink**) 09-02-2007, 02:30 PM

The first shot I took that made me fall in love with photography...

My teenage summers were spent working on my Aunts farm. It was a hard way to learn the facts of life, trying to save dying lambs while getting pummeled by horizontal hail.

At the end of the road was a giant lagoon, feed with freezing cold waters straight off the antarctic. This is one of my favorite places, as no matter how hard the day was, this place seemed to make it all better...

Around 5 years later my girlfriend (now wife) and I went on a road trip around the country, we stopped at the farm, and headed down to the lagoon for an amazing spring sunset. I took up a couple of shoots on the film p&s we had borrowed. Then I picked up a big rock and biffed it in to create some ripples before taking a couple more.

This was the result - its a very average scan of what was not a bad shot (although I know I could do better now!).

This shot taught me the difference between pointing and shooting, and taking some time to create the shot... the pics without the ripple were lifeless in comparison. I fell in love with photography there and then.

EllaBites · #28 (**permalink**) 09-02-2007, 02:56 PM

I took this picture 10 years ago. I was 16 years old, it was some cheap point and shoot camera that I had with me everywhere I went. When I got this picture back from the developer I knew I would never look at taking pictures the same. It is still one of my fav. pictures ever. If you knew the guys in the shot, you would know why.