went to paris
needed camera
and
I don't know. just want to look at nice things

i just played with an old camera and got hooked
and
education and career aspects

My dad always had a camera, recording everywhere we went for posterity.

Felt I had to do the same.

Still doing it.

was always borrowing this one friends camera until she gave it to me.
there is always more than enough to keep me busy photographing. I like to experiment with light

My dad annoyed my family back when we went on vacations by stopping all the time for photos. Then I started doing it too, and got a great camera as a hand-me-down.

Just because you like photography
and I wanted to be better than you
so no one would notice you.

I don't even like photography

.

Took a photography class in highschool, fell in love.

I don't think you care. I think you just wanna get it off your chest because you have no one to share that shit, op.

I wondered how people got those pro-looking shots of stuff all the time. also the science of it made me curious.

still doing it because it's still fun.

I just wanted a new hobby OP

I wanted to do macro shots of insects and arachnids, so I bought a shitty camera. It couldn't manual focus and its macro capabilities were crap.
after an initial period I barely used it anymore until it stopped functioningone day. Maybe a year later I started again using my moms old F301 (N2000). I kind of fell in love with the camera and thus became more serious about photography.

I started out to impress girls and as a hobby or some shit. Started out taking hipster shit which my friends seemed to like. I became a pretty cool guy. Still taking photos today but not for that reason at all... I'm trying to prove to myself one day that I'm not a shitty photographer and that I will succeed at one hobby.

Also was given an old-school chinon film camera by my granddad and am now taking photos just for the love of photography.

was a loser then i decided i wanna be hipster

got me a holga, and got me some slutty cam hoes

got a diana, got me some more slutty hoes

then i got a nikon, what every hipster hopes to have as his final upgrade... shit i got no slutty hoes only greasy gear fags

i quit photography now, now i invest in skinny jeans

because I was great at it from the get go.

I'm actually a closet gearfag. I enjoy holding cameras and I find them fascinating. Especially old film cameras. Actually, this is the longest creative hobby I've "kept". I like to try everything and this one just stuck. It's just too easy to point it at things and click the shutter.

>>625662
lol, pinoys

About a year and a half ago found out that my uncle owned a Canon 20d w/ a 28-135mm lens. Played around with it and kept learning how to do shit on M mode and eventually I started to like it.

I liked the idea of going through photos and mentally reliving moments I had while taking it, so about a year ago I went ahead and bought a 450d with the 18-55 and 55-250. Still doing it because there's still lots I have to learn, but I can't go out shooting as much as I would like. College classes are killer.

>>626109
exact same here.

we should fuck.

Liked taking pictures, then got into photography (you know the DSLR kind) did that for a bit getting pretty decent but never going anywhere, didn't really do it for a year or so and then picked it up again but with film instead only about half a year ago.

My dad has photography as a hobby, so I kinda fell in love with photography when I was a kid and I ask him to let me hold the camera and take a photo of my mother and him together wirh his SLR (om-1n). The moment I pressed the shutter and advanced the film it just felt so right.
Then, when I began to work I bought myself a sony P&S, and when I got more money and read a couple of books about photography I bought an dSLR.

I keep doing it because I love taking pictures, and I still got tons of things to learn, and stopping to compose and looking through the viewfinder, setting aperture and shutter speed relaxes the shit out of me.

Because monies. that's why.

I enjoyed taking photos of my tunnel missions when I was young, I then bought an DSLR and have been great at my job ever since..... always room for improvement though ;)

I picked it kind of randomly in high school, shooting photos for the school paper. I think what keeps me coming back is that I like to visually explore and interpret the world around me.

I started photography in 5/15/2005 with my first pictures I actually took was on a Metrorail station in Prince Georges County. At the time I had a small memory card of about 64MB so I did not took much pictures.

My photography kicked into high gear when I got into college. Where I just took pictures of anything that would interest me.

Cosplay and convention photography was my next step and that started when I first attended Katsucon 13. I've been going to anime conventions ever since because of the cosplay and atmosphere.

Why I started photography? For various reasons, primary to keep a memory of what I done in life. Photography helps you in that.
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truthfully

ive been shooting since the age of 3-4, ive got pictures of me with a range finder around my neck lol

always been the shooter on the many many family vacations around the world mostly with a nikon f601 and its predecessor i forget the number.

started digital with a sony mavica and floppy discs

have had the first phone camera, and every leading one til now importing them, my nokia n82 is a little behind but its 2 years old

long gap between mavica and a canon s3 is. which i didnt shoot much at all with anything

loved the s3, hacked the shit out of it, off camera flash on bracket, adapter tubes, hand made remote trigger, vari-nd filter etc

upgraded to the 450d this summer, love it to death, its all modded out with a grip, 2 eyepiece attachments, new strap. i rotate out about 7 lenses, but i love my tokina 19-35mm and the nikon 50mm mk1 and canon 50mm mk2. i use a metz mecablitz 48 and a decent manual flash from yinyan from china. i use gf knockoff whale tail

i try to shoot as much as possible, but its hard to lug around gear all the time, i use a lowepro 200aw sling backpack. i shoot about 2, 4gb sandisk extreme cards a week.

im way back on PP, which i do in lightroom first and finish up in photoshop. i like the nik software suit, tiffen dxf, and alien skin aperture 2. i work a lot with masks, clone and patch tools, and burn and dodge when required.

as of right now im deciding if i should do it as a profession
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Ive been doing science including: physics, biology, astronomy for a couple years now, its nice to see photos of science in action. Also there are only hipster shit photographers in my city, time to set the bar a little higher.

started cuz i liked how easy it was to get pretty looking photos. i liked capturing things in the way only i saw things... this to me felt like something special and very personal.

i'm still doing it because i've become a model/portrait photographer and i love the interaction and creativity that flows between me and them. every collaboration is very different from the next which always keeps things interesting.
i'm also still doing it because i'm not yet at the level i want to be.

>>626178
I hope that's not to say that you will quit once you reach the level where you want to be.

>>626176

oh god i remember those mavicas and floppy discs.

My girlfriend at the time went to San Diego and I was stuck here with nothing to do, soo I decided to pick up a new hobby. I stuck with it because it's the only thing I've ever excelled at.

I started cuz I sucked at painting, drawing, poetry, writing, skateboarding and playing the guitar, and basically at almost anything I wanted to do.
I'm still doing it cuz I guess I don't suck that much.

I wanted to take photography in college, but they had a lot of prerequisites before you actually got to take a class where you took photos, and I was double majoring in a competitive major and had a minor in french - so not much space to take electives.

Then a few years ago I was dating a girl who had a DSLR, and I started learning to use it and then bought one for myself.

been shooting since 5 , grandfather worked for NASA designing Television Camera Equipment and adapting still camera equipment for use in space during Gemini/Apollo/Skylab , I have always had a camera, started with his Argus from the 60s, he had a darkroom in which i assisted, and progressed from there

Wanted to learn photography in high school but the art teacher didn't accept me in her class because I can't draw. Became an astronomyfag in college. Bought a 400D when I graduated because it was cheaper than getting a proper telescope. Astrophotography is not really that rewarding. The amount of gear, effort, money and patience needed to produce the photos I want is astronomical (lol pun). In the 2 years I've had a camera, I went out to take astrophotos exactly twice.

Why I stuck: I have shit social skills. Apart from being a conversation starter, having a camera helps me connect with people in a way. Kinda why I gravitated towards taking pictures of people. Also enjoy the challenge of being overly critical of how shitty my photos are.
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I look at the world through a camera the way Bukowski did it through a glass of whisky.

>>625510
Started in it to get a woman, naturally.

Still doing it because I love the technical mastery it requires. I hope to one day be able to make a living doing it. Even if its just taking portraits in a studio. And on top of that, chicks dig it :-P

Because I was bored lol.

But honestly I don't know. Just smething to get me out of the house a bit more and do some fucking exercise.

1. Because I was a writer and a pretentious teenager who admired Allen Ginsberg, who in addition to being a great poet was a better than decent photographer, and so at the time being a pretentious teenager I picked up a camera. He took pictures mostly of his friends, which provide a fantastic record of the Beat Generation and its allies. Most of those kickass pictures of Kerouac you see on book covers were Ginsberg's, with a cheapo Kodak Retina until Robert Frank started giving him his hand-me-down cameras. (Pic is Ginsberg's.)

2. Because I'm still chiefly a writer, but enjoyed and could do good work in photography for its own sake, alone and with words.

Also to take pictures of my friends, and as a social and access-gaining prop. Showing up with a camera smaller than an obtrusive penis-subbing SLR with f/2.8 zoom at the right kind of concert? More often than not, it's a backstage pass.

Lastly, Dorothea Lange: "The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."

>>626385
Whoops.

because it's fun.

>Why did you start photography?
Always been a creative person. Enjoy drawing.. designing.. all the sort of hands-on creative activies. Dabbled into photography, ended up starting a 2 year course in it (what a waste of time)

>Why are you still doing it?
Not really taking photos anymore, pretty bored of this phase, but ot another 6 months of the course left so sticking it out and the only work I produce is for that.
I've got back into drawing and painting again now.

Although dont get me wrong, I still go to exhibitions and galleries regularly and check up on various photog blogs etc. OH AND OFCOURSE /P/ <3

I started because my dad got me into it. He gave me one of his old FtB's and I always loved playing with it. It's always fun to go out and take pictures with him, too, which I'll be doing plenty of when exam week ends. I'm still doing it because in the grand scheme of things, I haven't really been doing it for very long and I really want to continue to learn and get better.

i like the manipulations of the light beams.

I took a film class in high school with a 35mm SLR, a few years later and now I just got my first 4x5 view camera. In short, because its fun. Fun to take pictures, fun to mess with different cameras, different films, different chemicals. The variables are endless.

i like shooting extremes. Extreme long exposures, extreme close macro, ultra high telephotos (telescopes too), really bright or extremely dark scenarios, etc. something about long exposure light trails fascinates me

>>625510
>Why did you start photography?
I liked seeing my girlfriend naked. I wanted to be able to do that when she wasn't actually in the room or willing to take off her clothing.
>Why are you still doing it?
Chicks dig guys who act all artistic and shit.

i started photography cause i needed to study something for life experience to become a cop. then i fell in love and i still do it cause its fuckin sick

Originally started when I picked up an old Mamiya RF at a church rummage sale when I was 12. First started getting interested in it seriously when I was 14 and had just moved to another state the summer before my freshman year of high school. Had my dad's old SLRs, started reading, became obsessed.

Still doing it because I'm still obsessed. It's my consuming passion. It pretty much drives my life.

>>627945 It pretty much drives my life.
how so?

>>627957
Just about everything in my life is relative to photography. Half the time I get no sleep because I'm up late looking at photography, then getting up early the next morning to go make photographs. In spare moments at work I'm planning photography. I squeeze my food budget to increase my film budget.

Put simply, in photography I have found my vehicle through life. I have found no other creative form which has afforded me such freedom in expressing myself as well as enabling continuous personal evolution. Just about everything else comes second.

This week I heard my back again. I finally went into the clinic a few times this week because I couldn't stand up straight. Chiropractic treatment plus acupuncture works wonders, but I still hated to do it because now I have to put off buying an 80 mm enlarging lens until January.

In 2004 I was accepted to graduate school in environmental science and Alaska and even offered an assistantship. After some consideration, I turned it down because it was apparent to me that photography would always come first for me.

The list goes on and on and on and on. I think you get the idea, though.

>>627978
>How did you heard it?
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>>628020
You'd have typos too if you were as fucked up as I am right now on pain meds.

>>627945
> It's my consuming passion. It pretty much drives my life.

You tell me about that...I'm planning to travel to Norway in late february with my girlfriend; and the only reason to choose to go to the fucking north pole in the middle of winter is because I want to photograph aurora borealis and it's the best time to have a chance to see them...people at work think I'm nuts. Best of all...I've pulled my gf into photography too...she bought a 450D with the kit lens, what did she ask for a christmas present? the 55-250 IS to complement it...

So yeah, I totally relate to that...but isn't it fun to have an awesome hoby like photography?

>>628057
>isn't it fun to have an awesome hoby like photography?

I wouldn't trade it for fucking anything.

Things off the top of my head I would rather do than "photography" in no particular order:

1- F1 driver
2- Movie star
3- being Master Chief
4- being James Bond
5- being Solid Snake

You guys are out of your minds.

>>628065
>1- F1 driver
You need to be already rich so they let yourself in that circlejerk. You probably aren't. FAIL
>2- Movie star
See conclusions.
>3- being Master Chief
Fictional. Videogame character. FAIL
>4- being James Bond
Fictional. Novel character, but you probably know only about the last movies or the videogame...FAIL
>5- being Solid Snake
Fictional. Videogame character. FAIL

Conclusions. Leave your mother basement and get some real objectives in life, you /b/-tard.

>>628069

I think you should lurk more.

>>628065
2 and 5 are stupid. Extremely stupid.
4 is glamorous and all, but besides not having any sort of real-life analog, have you ever considered how shitty and empty Bond's life actually "is?" You get this only alluded to in the films at least (haven't read the novels) beneath all the bang-bang and the girl-banging and the gadgets, it sucks. He's constantly almost getting killed, constantly having to kill people, everyone outside of MI6 (and even some people inside it) he cares about gets killed or betrays him and then he has to kill them, he drowns it all in high-priced liquor and doomed, brief, often fatal dalliances with women.
1 would be enjoyable in a visceral way, but whatever.
Only the movie star one is creative. Only the F1 thing could possibly be a hobby.

But anyway, you're missing the point that people create for reasons beyond just choice, that for many people it's something beyond their take on stamp collecting. Now yeah, there are people who just as well could be stamp collecting (no offense to anyone who does this; it's just the first mental at-hand example of a hobby with no high culture analog) what have you, but that's not everyone.

Something to do. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Now it's a moneypit.