I taught myself with an old 35mm SLR about 12 years ago. I did it on a whim because I wanted to be able to take nice pictures when I traveled to Europe for a few months. Sadly, many of the photos didn't turn out as well as I had hoped so I did a little studying and practiced a bit more.
I gave up completely and my camera went into storage sometime in 2003 and I haven't picked up a camera again until just this past fall when I finally broke down and purchased a DSLR. I was immediately hooked. It was like rekindling the flame of a long lost love.
Now I'm obsessed and it has taken over all of my free time and is holding my bank account hostage.
Self taught, and I spent a lot of time on photography sites to glean other info off of other people, and applied it to what I was doing. seems to work for me :)
I remember starting off back in 2003 with a Sony camera that still worked with floppy disks. A friend of mine borrowed me his camera. I was elated - had not the faintest clue about photography, but just started taking the odd shot now and then. Afterwards, around 2005, I borrowed another friend's Sony compact DSC P-72. With that camera, I started learning actively, until I bought my own Sony DSC P-200, an improved version of the previous. That's when it really started. My first shots were holiday shots, and probably quite crappish, but I just enjoyed going through the process of learning and constructive criticism (and still do!). I'm nowhere near being a professional photographer, I still have lots to learn and to discover and I love getting and giving feedback and also sharing my own tricks. There is a lot of talent on this site. I'm really happy to be here :-)
@gill It's a creative photography course I'm doing too. Think it's about 10 weeks too. I'm really looking forward to it. I did a taster course over a year ago nd loved it. I was using a 35mm and developing my own photos which is absolutely amazing, the learned the digital photography. It was only a little of this and that though. The course encouraged me to by a 35mm slr (old but good) but not happy with my photos from it yet, then late 2009 got my first DSLR. I haven't been one to keep picking the camera up as when I get the image wrong it depresses me so to do the 365 project will really encourage me and I feel I'm way better than I was 2 years ago so looking forward to doing this course again just to see how much I've improved.
Self taught for the most part. Heavily got into photography last year as the passion for it hit me full force. I am doing a diploma in freelance photography but most of it is listening to what people tell me, experimenting and reading. My first run with photography was at 16 (21 yrs ago OMG) with a basic point and shoot film camera. Loved it then but now I live and breathe for it
Besides a b/w photo class in High School (eons ago!), self taught and still on the path to learning much, much more. I've participated in a number of workshops, do online tutorials, read a lot of books, etc. I would, however, LOVE to have more formal training someday to really push my limits.
Self-taught.
I bought my first digital camera in 2004 and have been photographing almost daily ever since. Everything I know is by experience and experimenting. And being on this project has given me a real boost!
Self taught! I threw myself into learning my camera, lighting, photoshop, etc. Have viewed tons of tutorials, read everything I could search on the web, and a few books. I'm a hands on learner so going out and taking pictures in different situations really helped me learn as well. I'm still constantly learning.
Still learning... but my father was a big MACRO lens user when I was a kid, and I dated a photography-freak a long time ago. Mostly self-taught, through trial and error which is a LOT cheaper with digital than it used to be with film!
I took a bunch of photo classes in high school because I thought it was fun to develop etc. but that's not what I did in college. However I went back after a few years and got a 2 year degree in photo which really only tought me the basics and it was mostly geared toward film. I am glad I have that experience though before I went into digital. It's a different world and you learn to create with the camera instead of with the computer which seems to become more and more common these days. My advice is to look for workshops, lots of photographers offer them nowadays and there a meetup.com groups all over the country now too and you can learn a ton from the different events that phtoo groups offer. So, lot of options out there for the aspiring photographer that don't have the money for the big schools.
Ive never taken a class, and I still dont know much!
But my eyes are always looking out for a "kodak moment".
I love capturing beauty, and memories to share with others; giving them a little glimpse of who i am.
I've never taken a class, but would love to. I don't even own a DSLR, once I get one I would love a class to teach me all the fun tricks there are to learn about them!
A little bit of both. My father bought me my first camera when I was in 3rd grade thinking that would keep me from wanting to use his insta-matic. HAH! I learned about parallax with that camera.
A couple more cameras after that and then I took a photography class when I was a senior in high school, which taught me the basics. Most of the rest has been self taught. I still have so much more to learn. I'm hoping a daily assignment will help me tremendously.
@gill It's fab, just to stand in the darkroom and watch it happen before your own eyes and think, I created that. I've only done black and white though.
Self-taught for the most part, and I took a couple black & white photography film classes in college, along with one digital photography class. =) AND still learning!
I'm still learning basics :) It's all trial and error (and sometimes luck) with me - I don't really like to read about it because it can get a little overwhelming, so I play, play and play some more.
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
Pin With Me
I gave up completely and my camera went into storage sometime in 2003 and I haven't picked up a camera again until just this past fall when I finally broke down and purchased a DSLR. I was immediately hooked. It was like rekindling the flame of a long lost love.
Now I'm obsessed and it has taken over all of my free time and is holding my bank account hostage.
I bought my first digital camera in 2004 and have been photographing almost daily ever since. Everything I know is by experience and experimenting. And being on this project has given me a real boost!
But my eyes are always looking out for a "kodak moment".
I love capturing beauty, and memories to share with others; giving them a little glimpse of who i am.
A couple more cameras after that and then I took a photography class when I was a senior in high school, which taught me the basics. Most of the rest has been self taught. I still have so much more to learn. I'm hoping a daily assignment will help me tremendously.