Tuesday, July 7, 2009

First

The most wonderful thing happened this morning.
I found the first photos I'd ever taken!
It brought back all these warm memories of discovering my dad's old camera and realizing that this felt right for me =)

For all of you other picture takers out there, when did you first pick up a camera and fall in love? ( I was 17!)

57 comments:

Margie said...

My Dad got my mom a camera for Christmas, when if asked if that was okay, I didn't think before saying, I'd love a camera, jokingly. He took me seriously and got me a camera and I took it to school everyday in 9th grade, now I'm a senior and I'm considering to go to art school.

Amanda Mae said...

I picked up my camera in high school and I loved it - but I was no good - and was told I was no good. I got a bad grade in Photography class, how embarrassing!

It wasn't until my mom got me a good camera in 2005 as a present. I shot off from there... taking photos of friends, family, food, anything that will stay still for more than a second - mainly food. Not sure how that became my thing, maybe because I love to eat so much.

So, I went from barely passing photography class - to now wanting to do photography as a side business/dream job/hobby ting... hmmm
:)

colormekatie said...

That is so fantastic Amanda! You can't listen to people that tell you you're no good. What do they know anyways? You just have to do what makes you happy =)

Maddie said...

i was 20 years old when i got my very own camera :) i used a minolta film camera in high school for photograhy classes (it was my dad's camera), and i didn't realize then how much i could love photography until they gave me my own camera. i love these pictures, so beautiful!

Poke Salad Annie said...

these are beautiful photographs. the first time i picked up a camera, the results were certainly nothing close to these!

Tommaso said...

I was not so young. In fact I was 21. My brother made me a surprise: Polaroid Image.. Love at first sight! So I started to love the world of Polaroid and then the one of Analog SLR photography. Now I am an addicted, like -no not like, that's worst than- a drug (and your pictures are of first quality!)

Nicole Ioma said...

These photos are beautiful!

I was in 8th grade, or 13, when I took my first photography class. I remember the summer before I was shooting pictures of EVERYTHING cause I was so excited to take the class.

Anonymous said...

I went through several different cameras, but it wasn't until last summer at 23 when I got my Nikon D40 that I started taking it seriously. Now a year later, I'm moving to a new city in an amazing apartment 2 floors below my best friend to work with one of the most well-known wedding photographers in the area. It's a dream come true to make a passionate hobby into a future career.

Boaz said...

My mum first suggested i should take up photography when I recieved a fisher-price camera aged 10. She kept mentioning it until i turned 14 before the idea died away. A few years later I begun taking photos with my camera phone. People like them so i took the leap and bought myself a SLR.

I wish I had done so before, it feels so liberating and now its my way to relax.

I have to admit your blog has "forced" me to try new things and express myself and my photography more.

Thanks for sharing as usual, wonderful!

Suss said...

I got my first digital camera when I was around 12, I think. I loved it, when I think about it now.. That camera was super crappy, haha, but I did the best I could with that camera. :]

brionyskerjance said...

these are fantastic. i've been snapping pics since i was 13 but the love affair began when my dad gave me his old film slr at the age of 18. i haven't been able to get enough since then.

Estelle Hayes said...

This is such a happy post. Growing up my mother had an old Brownie camera and loved the clicking sound it made when I snapped a shot.

April said...

how fantastic!!! you obviously had a great eye from the beginning :-)

Sunshine Sarah said...

wow... so many memories... I was 12 I think when I've fallen in love with the camera.

Melissa~ said...

fantastic! so exciting.
Well, I fall in love with the camera last year (18 years old). I realized that is something that I can do, and I do it well (thats what people said )
And the most important, is something that will allow me work in the business of fashion, something I always wanted.

Megan Marie said...

I started working at a photography store when I was 16 and I will never leave my house with out my camera again. Plus, I ended up married to my boss, who is the great love of my life. SO photography has enchanted me, and given me my happily-ever-after.

Please say those weren't your first pictures! You're making us ammeters look bad, haha.

Lindsey said...

Well, these are pretty amazing for a first time! The camera was made for you.

I was also in High school when I started using my dad's old camera from college. There's still nothing like it.

Creamy Coconut said...

I was 16 and took a photo class because it fit into my schedule...and then took a photo of 2 police officers simultaneously blowing bubblicious bubbles.
I realized photography was my passion when (the police officers film came out blank) I persisted by setting up that shoot twice more, until I got it right.

den said...

45 years ago. It came in the post. A present from my aunt in the States.

bpddjeoomon said...

I've been the picture taker in my family for as long as I've been able to point and shoot. As a result, we have boxes and boxes of photographs and VHS home movies all over the house (you know, before everything went digital, and now there's also a stack of back-up CDs :D ). I was in junior high, however, when I got my OWN camera. My grandmother gave me a Polaroid OneStep 600 and my father gave me a cheap 35mm (it was chunky and GOLD!) the same year on Christmas. I still have both!

Erin Cathleen said...

Beautiful photos! I think I was actually 17 "my first time," too. :) I was a senior in high school, taking astronomy class. We had a photography unit so we could photograph stars; I wound up photographing nature, city streets, my friends... and that was it. I dropped the course and replaced it with film studies. <3 Photography is love. Your blog is a much-needed pick-me-up! Thanks for posting these.

SK said...

I always loved my Canon point and shoots but my real appreciation started when I signed up for a photography class my freshman year of high school and learned how to use my Dad's old Nikon F3! It's been with me ever since :)

Amy said...

I was in 8th grade, my parents made me sign up for a "hobby" and I chose photography, loved it ever since. I used to shoot film w/ my Grandma's old Nikon and develop my own b&w.. still have it in fact. best thing I ever picked up.

K.Pete said...

I fell in love with taking pictures when I adopted my dogs. It was so much fun to photograph them!! And then pretty soon I started taking my camera EVERYWHERE - still do.

hailey said...

i was 15 and photographed my new baby sister.... I put her in dolls beds and pots and suitcases...
I fell in love with photography but didn't take is seriously for a long time.

Stephanie said...

I've always LOVED photographs, as long as I can remember, and I begged my dad to give me his old SLR film camera for years. But my older sister had asked for it, too, so she got it and I was crushed. But then my sweet daddy surprised me and got me my own - I think I was 14. I never got very into film shooting, but now I have a digital Nikon SLR and can't get enough photography!!!

Dee said...

My family couldn't afford to get those film camera as it was very expensive on that time. So they bought disposable ones and I was like 7 or 8 yrs old.

Then when I was about 18 my dad bought me my very first digital camera and today it is still with me! =)

d said...

I was 15 and I took an Intro to Photography class in high school. I still have the same camera 20 years later and am in the process of finding lenses for it (it's an old Minolta X-370). I used to develop my own b&w film too. I got an A on my final project and it was the first time I realized that people enjoyed looking at my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. :)

Jackie Helena Gay said...

I was 8. It was a disposable camera and we were on a family vacation to New Zealand. I took mostly scenery, some black swans, heehee! It only felt right a little later, when I was about 14 and Dad lent me a Nikon F50 semi-auto SLR(i think). I miss 35mm sometimes. The whole anticipation of seeing it only a week after, when it's developed. I think in some ways, it builds faith in yourself :) And patience. Younger photographers are a little different from the ones who started with 35mm.

Tyler said...

I was around 9 and I went out next to my house and took some pictures of a few ducks with a disposable..when i was around 18 I found those same pictures and knew what i wanted to do with my life :)

ayod said...

i grew up watching my dad take heartbreakingly beautiful shots of Arizona where we lived.
it wasn't after i moved back to my home country, Indonesia, when i was 8 years old that i joined my dad's love of photography and began to learn it.

i love how photography can show the beauty of any side of the world, and how it can bring back those beautiful memories you never want to forget. :)

Miss Boule said...

I was 16 and my best friend's dad borrowed me an old manual nikon and all his material (he was a bit unconscious I mus say) and off I went without knowing anything. I should also look for these first pictures - some of them are still well printed in my memory. It was a first love that never left me since.
Bonne journée!
Anabelle

bichonpawz said...

I was young....probably 12 or so and instantly fell in love with photography. Not really good photography....just the ability to take pictures. I have taken tons and tons of pics in my lifetime and I have always enjoyed it! My daughter...now 23 also enjoys it to the max! I think she's much better at it than I am! Yours are fantastic!

flurogoddess said...

I was 9, I remember my Dad sitting down on my bed and teaching me all about aperture and shutter speed. I took his camera to summer school and started from there.

Although I started off in film and loved black and white, I must admit I am a digital fiend now, I love being able to take hundreds of pictures in a short time and it not cost a thing!

kimbirdy said...

Just a few days ago when I discovered how FUN it was to take pictures of the 4th of july fireworks!

Jan-Paul said...

I took my first pictures when I was about 8 or so, with my mother's Instamatic.
Later I used my father's Zeiss-Ikon, and in the early 90's, I was about 20 then, I bought my very first Nikon.

Alya said...

I don't remember the first time I ever picked up a camera. It was probably a loooooong time ago like when I was a kid and had the film ones. But it was never professional (and still never professional). Just for fun. I'm not even really good at it. Just point and shoot!

By the way, I've got a pair of Current/Elliott jeans to give away at my blog. Come check it out!

Katie said...

For me it was when I first moved to New York City and could take pictures of whatever I wanted, rather than of what was required (for digital media classes in college).

Desiree said...

I was 16. My parents and grandparents chipped in together for Christmas and got me an Minolta Maxxim 5--a camera I'd been coveting for about a year. I was so floored I cried! It got dropped and the battery door broke off 2 years ago. I have a Nikon Coolpix digi cam but I really want to get my "real" camera fixed. I miss having only "one" shot to get the pic I want.

Viva Cindy said...

in my family i have been dubbed "picture-ass"
if I am there no one else needs to take there cameras. I am always slowing down to take pictures, pulling over on the side of hte road etc. Last year I got a canon xsi for xmas and im still learning how to use it....i need a class so i can take this obsession to the next level.

i always enjoy looking at your pics katie!

Lemon said...

surprised i remember this so clearly!
i was 12, out west on a two week family trip and i had a cheap and lovely crayola camera. i held up my family wherever we went taking picture after picture after picture.

del4yo said...

I had my first point and shot at nine. I took pictures of my cat ^^

Then I brought it for a school trip to Venezia, Italy. My parents were very surpised to discover I didn't take pictures of my schoolmates. Instead I took the painted walls,the laundry drying,the snow on a black boat. My dad gave me an Olympus OM30 for my fifteen birthday.

I almost quit, unfortunately, because I can't be a CG artist, an illustrator,a designer, a Mom and a photographer. I had to put aside sculpture too. But who knows, maybe when I'm older.
Anyhow, I enjoy your website very much, thanks!

Lila said...

I'm actually seventeen and this year I started a photography course, and I'm loving it!
Love the blog by the way, you are really sweet:)

Nick Betancur said...

Ha! It's Kathleen! I remember those pictures hanging up outside the library at Albertus. :)

Anonymous said...

I think its was 4th or 5th grade. I don't even know what kind of camera, but I took pictures of my friends and I posing as "models" using a very white interior of a built in closet as our backdrop and a goose neck lamp for lighting. I still have the pictures. They're quite hilarious. Tyra Banks doesn't know fierce!

Kaylie said...

This January! (I'm only 16.) I was at a basketball game of all places, taking pictures for yearbook, and it kind of struck me in the face that I could sit there forever, catching moments that came so quickly I could miss them if I blinked. Now I'm photo editor for next year!

Jeri said...

A cheesy story that has to be shared.

My husband bought me my first film SLR. I came home from work and it was sitting on the table, with a camera bag. A sweet yellow one. A note lay next to it. "I couldn't picture my life with out you."

I didn't fall in love with photography then. A few years later I had a baby boy. I shot an entire roll of black and white film in a 15 minute time span. He was a rolly polly four month old. It was BLISS. PURE BLISS. I have had a camera in my hand every since.

Kat said...

I am 13. My parents put a camera in my hand. It was purely magic from that point on. A life without photography would be like a day without the sun! Absolutely pointless. On a different topic, your blog is BRILLIANT. You are such a WONDERFUL inspiration and motivate me with your dreamy photos to follow my dreams. My utmost gratitude for that.

Anna said...

I was 15 (28 now) and looked through my grandmother's polaroids. Then, it was cheap and the only way to go. Now, it's 'impractical' and film is costly. But, I adore the apprehension of what will develop. Its part of my heart now.

Carolyn said...

17 for me too! After 3 years of deciding on whether to get a DSLR or not, I finally decided to ask my mom for one as a Christmas present.
And I've been loving it ever since. :)

Anonymous said...

I was 4!

my grandfather and father were seriously into photography as a hobby. I had a toy plastic camera from the moment I was born.

But it was when i was 4 that i actually made sense of grandfathers home made dark room, when he let me the see the pictures he had helped me take with his camera appear like magic.

i am 23 now and it is my life.

Randi said...

I remember being around 10-12 yo, and we were going off on a family vacation. I desperately wanted to photograph, but did not have a camera. And my parents only an ooooold one, which they rarely used at all. I then ended up drawing different memories.
First camera was given to me at confirmation when I was 13. Have had several cameras since then, and I'm now totally hooked on the concept of taking pictures! :)

Anis Amira said...

Right now! I'm 14. :-D Thanks to my dad for intoducing me to the photography world.

Zoe Graham said...

I always messed around with cameras around my house, but it wasn't until the portrait unit in a photography class when it really hit me. Now, I take pictures of everyone I love love love, and I love love love doing it!

Unknown said...

I am a sophomore, and I was sent to my basement to find a basket for something, and stumbled on two old polaroids and an old canon film camera. I just can't buy film fast enough :)

littleghostgirl said...

Hmmm...I don't remember when I first had the opportunity to pick up a camera. They've been a part of my life for so long. However, I didn't start taking photography seriously until around my senior year of high school when I started taking pictures of anything and everything that came my way (mostly my friends). They got used to being followed not only by me, but by my camera (it's name is Sebastian!). It feels so right now, though. I think I might set my sights on becoming a photography professor. Well, it's only my freshman year of college. I still have time to decide...I hope. lol.

Alana Full (With Energy) said...

When I was twelve (!!), I gotted the old camera from my mother and I was immediately in love with the thing. It's an old one, but it's só beautiful.