I really hate having to “tell a little bit about myself,” however, in this case I suspect that it is necessary. If I don’t give you at least some information about myself, how will you know whether or not the information I give you about photography is worth paying attention to? Hopefully the “little bit about myself” will help convince you. About what it convinces you is up to you…
I started taking pictures at age 8 when I was given my own camera. I realize this will date me a little bit but the camera I received was a true point and shoot. It was a film camera (there was no other choice back then) and there was no focus or telephoto lens. You looked through the viewfinder and snapped the shutter. If I wanted to use flash I had to buy a flash cube. I could take 4 pictures with that flash and then I would have to get another one. The pictures that came out of that camera were square. As far as I was concerned it was perfect. I had so much fun taking pictures with it. One picture I remember taking was of a bright blue sky with a snow-covered tree. I think that picture was when I really fell in love with photography.
When I graduated from 8th grade, I graduated to a nicer camera. This one had auto focus and a telephoto lens. When I went to college I was given a Pentax K-1000, a completely manual SLR. It taught me so much about photography. I had to do all of the thinking for that camera. If I set the controls wrong and the picture was blurred, over exposed, or underexposed, the fault was all mine. I couldn’t blame it on the camera. I loved that camera even though I had asked for an SLR that had auto focus and could do the thinking for me if I wanted it to. I am grateful I didn’t get one like that because I know I would never have learned about f-stops, shutter speed, aperture, lighting…
Unfortunately, about two weeks before I was supposed to go to Switzerland (a photography paradise) my Pentax was stolen. Pentax had just stopped producing that camera so I had to get an SLR that had auto focus and the ability to think for me. The controls on this camera were so different from what I was familiar with I had a hard time learning how to think for the camera. Most of the time I relied on the camera which is too bad because I missed out on so much creativity control. The camera took excellent pictures but my lack of understanding of the controls took away a lot of my enthusiasm for photography.
Photography took the back burner for several years. During that time I taught deaf and hard-of-hearing students mostly at the high school level. I enjoyed teaching but after a few years I felt like I was missing something. I wasn’t real happy with what I was doing. At that point I started taking pictures again. It was what I did to relax and have fun. If you told me I had to get up at 3 AM to go teach, I would do it grudgingly, but if you told me I had to get up at that time to go take pictures, I would be jumping out of bed so excited to be able to go take more pictures. I am still that way. Tell me I have to take pictures and I am there. Tell me I have to do anything else and I may not make it.
When I got married my husband bought me my first digital camera. It was a point and shoot, but I had fun with it. For our first anniversary he bought US a digital SLR. Notice I said US not ME. That didn’t stop me from calling the camera MINE. He would always correct my and say it was OUR camera. After a few years he gave up trying to change my view on whose camera it was, bought himself a little point and shoot, and started calling the dSLR MY camera. For birthdays, Christmas, and our anniversaries he would buy me more gear for that camera. We would go on day-long trips just so I could take pictures. Sometimes we would drive as much as 5 hours one way for those day trips. Anytime we went on vacation it was to a place I could take pictures. I learned to apply what I knew about my film SLR to my dSLR. Finally, I was back in control of MY pictures. All my pictures are my creation because I make all the decisions about the settings used and not the camera. A few months ago I decided I wanted to upgrade to a newer version of my old dSLR so my husband got my old camera. (Now it is his.)
With my passion for photography and the teacher in me (yes, even though I don’t teach anymore I am still a teacher- I try to keep her under control but sometimes she just HAS to teach), I know I can help others who are interested in photography by sharing what I know. That is not to say that I know it all. I don’t, but I learn more everyday and I will continue to learn and improve which should be everyone’s goal no matter what you do. (See? There she goes. She just HAD to teach!) I hope you enjoy my blog and learn a few things along the way. (The teacher in me will be so happy if you do!) 
Like this:
Tags: aperture, cameras, dSLR, f-stop, learn, learning, Photographer, photography, point and shoot cameras, shutter speed, SLR, teacher
I learned photography on a Pentax K-1000 also! It was my dad’s when I was little, and then it was mine when I started college. I loved taking photos with it, and running back to the college darkrooms to develop my film and see what I’d captured.
When I finished college I lost my easy access to a darkroom, and couldn’t afford printing prices on top of film prices, and at the same time I got my first digital camera. I’ve hardly taken film since, and I miss it so much. I miss everything you mention here. Having complete control over the camera makes the image that you produce that bit more “yours”.
Hehe, thank you for this reminder. You’ve got me so nostalgic that I’m about to buy some film on ebay to play with. It’s been too many years.
I’m now off to see what else you have written!
I used my Pentax in college too. Developing my images in the darkroom was so much fun. I always felt like I was opening a gift, wondering what it would look like. I saved all of my darkroom tools in the hopes of someday having my own darkroom. I recently gave it all away but I do miss seeing my images slowly develop.
Glad I could “take you back” to those days where photography was photography and not Photoshop (not that it isn’t photography today, it’s just that it’s so easy to manipulate photographs nowadays in ways you never could with film.)
Oh! First post!
Well then you’re off to a beautiful start, and I look forward to your next post, and the one after that.