V7N Photography Friends

**Cricket** · Share | #1 (**permalink**) 10-23-2011, 10:42 AM

V7N Photography Friends

Tell me your photography story. How did you start taking pictures? How have your skills changed over time? Have you had any training?

Is photography something you do for a living? Or, something you just enjoy doing?

When you are capturing photos, how do you feel inside?

This is also a chance for you share two things – (1) One of your all-time favorite pictures. (2) A link to your photography related site and/or photography FB page.

Note: Please use our V7N thumbnail option for uploading photos.
http://www.v7n.com/forums/digital-ph...nt-photos.html

**Cricket** · #2 (**permalink**) 10-23-2011, 11:14 AM

Are y'all seriously gonna make me start this?

Okay, here we go...

For the life of me, I cannot remember when I started taking pictures. It has been something I always enjoyed doing, but wasn’t very good at it. A gazillion years ago I received a little Kodak Easy Share camera and suddenly I “thought” I was a photographer. LOLOLOL. Eventually I switched to a Sony and currently I use a little Canon. My skills haven’t improved much but through trial and error I am at least headed the right direction.

Training? Are you kidding me? As much as I would love to have some photography training, the only thing I do is keep taking pictures. Every now and then I get one that I really like and it inspires me to keep on shooting.

There are no words that will express how I feel when I am shooting. The moment my eye is behind the camera, everything ceases to exist except the scene right in front of me. Sometimes I think perhaps it is my escape from the crazy things in life, helping me to zone in on the beauty….

Recently I started a group on Facebook of V7N photography friends. It helps keep me inspired and I love learning tips from the pros!
http://www.facebook.com/groups/V7NPhotography/

My all-time favorite picture changes from day to day, but right now, this is my favorite one.

Carol Tomany · #3 (**permalink**) 10-23-2011, 12:24 PM

I don't know how I got started in photography. I have always taken pictures and liked the composition. I think that somewhere in my 30's I asked for a camera for my birthday and got an Cannon TX or is it XT. Anyway I took pictures ubtil something went on the camera and I bought a digital. I couldn't adjust to the screen/picture idea so I bought a Cannon DSLR.

I use photography in my business to take pictures of my lace shawls and stoles, because I design and sell patterns to knit lace.

and I use photography in my life to take me places I have never been.....anyone seen Patrick Stewart around here?

My ramblings: http://divineknits-infiknit.blogspot.com/

LeTissier · #4 (**permalink**) 10-23-2011, 12:35 PM

My name is Lynette Meek and I design knitting patterns.

I needed to take pictures of my patterns. I especially needed clear and detailed pictures for the "Cover" shots and the technical explanations of the techniques involved in my patterns. I generally venture outside of the conventional lines in knitting! I cannot draw a straight line.

I started with a small Digital Pentax. It was a good camera but not so good for the Macro shots I needed. I went looking for a better Macro didital and I found it with the Canon power shot. It takes great macro pictures and I still use it at the store and carry it in my bag. But as I started to take more pictures of more of the life and stuff I saw around me I wanted more and better!

About a year ago I bought the Canon EOS Rebel XS with the 18 - 55mm lens. It is a great camera and I love it. A few months later I bought the 55-250mm zoom with image stabilizing, now I am saving for a good Macro lens. I have the bug but good. I still don't know how to use everything in the camera I am buying and reading lots of technical magazines. I generally learn by reading and doing.

Time is an issue and the learning curve has been steep this last year!

Thank-you for sharing the site.

Lynette Meek

I don't think that I have a favorite picture right now. But I will share the picture that I took of one of my designs that won a Vogue Knitting Magazine Design Competition in January! I think that this is the picture that did it.
Pictures were taken at the end of November 2010 with my brand new Canon Rebel XS, bought for the occasion. Original lens. Taken at Bowen Park in Nanaimo B.C.

My blog http://letissierdesigns.wordpress.com/

BobB49 · #5 (**permalink**) 10-25-2011, 11:11 AM

I guess I've always been in to pictures and I've owned a camera or two but never really 'got into it' like I am now. I guess I have to say that the "digital" revolution made it economical and after purchasing a Nikon D90 I started to take photographs again.
One of the first few shots I took with it is responsible for my level of addiction today. It was a bee in our garden - it just made me feel good that I had taken a photograph like that. I went all over looking for dragon flies and humming birds and sunrises and trees and ...I turned in to a veritable Pixelholic.

I met a wonderful photographer named "Cricket" who is responsible for getting me started blogging and it was awesome to be able to shoot with another photographer to gain another perspective - I'm constantly learning and dream of just taking photographs all day long. Cricket is the most knowledgeable, considerate, and all around go to person when you have a question about anything from photography, to SEO to websites and blogs and if she doesn't know the answer she knows who does.

I started "Barrett Photo Art" but haven't really sold alot seriously - still working on it and getting the bugs out (between my job and sleeping of course). I also have a blog I post to once in awhile called "Bob's Blahg" so feel free to stop by and poke around.

I'm totally addicted to photography now and have a camera with me ALWAYS.
Well - thanks for listening and I look forward to reading all of your posts!

Halvorsen · #6 (**permalink**) 10-25-2011, 08:34 PM

My first camera was a pocket instamatic. I bought it when the town I grew up in flooded, from that point on I was hooked. My second camera was the Nikon 6006 bought with the money left from my divorce...best money I've ever spent

. I married a wonderful man that was also into photography and he encouraged me and inspired me to continue my love for photography. I'm so glad he did because when he passed away 3 yrs ago it's the only thing that kept me going. So, now when I take a picture it's so much more than a picture. It's the way I am moving forward and when I look through that lens, there is so much not going through my mind. I am thinking and focusing on my subject. I don't think about what I've gone through or how my life has changed. I think about what is right in front of me and that's it. The first year after he passed was about existing, really, I was in such a fog. The second year, 2010, was about living so I took workshops. My first workshop was macro photography, the second was in Santa Fe, NM and boy what a journey that was. I had a blast! I met a lady that I know I was meant to meet and we are the best of friends. I took a workshop in the Palouse, WA area and again I had a blast! I met so many people and I'm happy to say I came away with two more friends. I then took a workshop in Forks, WA. area and again I met more people and more new friends. So, I've done things I may have never done, I've met people I would have never met and I've learned more about myself in the process than I could have ever imagined. I believe my pictures have improved with all that I have done. I hope they will continue to improve as I continue to push myself so I can be the photographer I want to be.

Chris Brandt · #7 (**permalink**) 11-01-2011, 05:00 PM

I started taking photos with a Kodak 110 back in the 1970s. In the early 1980s I bought a Pentax K1000 and really started learning what a 35mm could do. A young family curtailed my learning for a few years. Okay, almost 30 years. I gave it up for a while until a couple of years ago when my wife started me down the digital track.

I don't have any formal training in photography. I read everything I can about techniques. But I try not to let anything influence my personal style.

Digital photography has reopened my eyes too the world. I look at everything with a photo in mind. Colors and contrast and lighting.

I shoot for personal enjoyment. I don't have a website that I am want to share as I haven't decided if I want to do this as a profession, or even use it as a source of income.

My current favorite photograph. This is my most recent that I have printed.

**ScriptMan** · #8 (**permalink**) 11-01-2011, 05:57 PM

Chris, I don't know if you can sell them or not but you need a way to share them. That is a great capture.

We welcome them here in one or more threads, so post away.

Chris Brandt · #9 (**permalink**) 11-01-2011, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScriptMan

Chris, I don't know if you can sell them or not but you need a way to share them. That is a great capture.

We welcome them here in one or more threads, so post away.

Thank you very much!

I've had offers to buy a few of my photos, and many requests for me to give them away. I'm afraid it will change my perspective into something I love so much. So I am currently dealing with the internal struggle of how to handle it.

LeTissier · #10 (**permalink**) 11-02-2011, 09:16 AM

Gorgeous Shot Chris!

I have just started to learn photography by doing. That shot is something to aspire too!

Lynette

**ScriptMan** · #11 (**permalink**) 11-02-2011, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Brandt

Thank you very much!

I've had offers to buy a few of my photos, and many requests for me to give them away. I'm afraid it will change my perspective into something I love so much. So I am currently dealing with the internal struggle of how to handle it.

Your own site would be best. You can test the market using a stock photo site. They don't pay much but you don't pay anything.

juliensimon · #12 (**permalink**) 11-02-2011, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobB49

I guess I've always been in to pictures and I've owned a camera or two but never really 'got into it' like I am now. I guess I have to say that the "digital" revolution made it economical and after purchasing a Nikon D90 I started to take photographs again.
One of the first few shots I took with it is responsible for my level of addiction today. It was a bee in our garden - it just made me feel good that I had taken a photograph like that. I went all over looking for dragon flies and humming birds and sunrises and trees and ...I turned in to a veritable Pixelholic.

I met a wonderful photographer named "Cricket" who is responsible for getting me started blogging and it was awesome to be able to shoot with another photographer to gain another perspective - I'm constantly learning and dream of just taking photographs all day long. Cricket is the most knowledgeable, considerate, and all around go to person when you have a question about anything from photography, to SEO to websites and blogs and if she doesn't know the answer she knows who does.

I started "Barrett Photo Art" but haven't really sold alot seriously - still working on it and getting the bugs out (between my job and sleeping of course). I also have a blog I post to once in awhile called "Bob's Blahg" so feel free to stop by and poke around.

I'm totally addicted to photography now and have a camera with me ALWAYS.
Well - thanks for listening and I look forward to reading all of your posts!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Brandt

I started taking photos with a Kodak 110 back in the 1970s. In the early 1980s I bought a Pentax K1000 and really started learning what a 35mm could do. A young family curtailed my learning for a few years. Okay, almost 30 years. I gave it up for a while until a couple of years ago when my wife started me down the digital track.

I don't have any formal training in photography. I read everything I can about techniques. But I try not to let anything influence my personal style.

Digital photography has reopened my eyes too the world. I look at everything with a photo in mind. Colors and contrast and lighting.

I shoot for personal enjoyment. I don't have a website that I am want to share as I haven't decided if I want to do this as a profession, or even use it as a source of income.

My current favorite photograph. This is my most recent that I have printed.

These 2 pictures are awesome.

I'll try to find my favorite picture and post it here soon

Just wanted to say great job!

txshellie · #13 (**permalink**) 11-04-2011, 11:08 AM

Wow - those are all lovely photos.

I have been interested in photography since I was in 10th grade or so - I did the best I could with my camera. It had film in a weird cartridge and was just point and shoot.

Now I have a Canon and a cadre of lenses that really belongs to my husband. In writing this post, I realize that I need to encourage him to use it more often himself.

Like all things artistic that I'd like to pursue - music, painting, photography, etc - I find that life keeps shoving them on the back burner and I'm really trying to keep that side of my live vibrant.

With work and kids, that's easier said than done. I do quite a bit of photography in my work.

Here is my favorite photo. I took it with my left hand over my own shoulder. It has a minor amount of digital editing - I still don't know what I'm doing when it comes to that. Jack's 8 1/2 now and is all arms, legs and Harry Potter glasses. I can barely remember him as a baby

I guess that's what God intended - or we'd never let them grow up.

ejingram · #14 (**permalink**) 11-09-2011, 02:41 PM

This is my all time favorite picture. One is the original, the other is doctored up with photoshop. All I did was get rid of the background, make it black and sharpen it. With the second one, I one an award.

JimEx · #15 (**permalink**) 11-10-2011, 02:58 PM

Some of these pictures are just amazing!

Halvorsen · #16 (**permalink**) 11-10-2011, 09:01 PM

It's hard for me to pick an all time favorite for many reasons, but in the spirit of moving forward this was taken New Years Day 2011. It was the perfect beginning of a new year literally and I don't think the picture turned out half bad. I did have to repair the moon since it was a long exposure and I did bracket and then merged them together. In any case, this is what I'm submitting as my favorite image.

Halvorsen · #17 (**permalink**) 11-10-2011, 09:02 PM

The moon really was like this that morning.

**ScriptMan** · #18 (**permalink**) 11-11-2011, 04:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halvorsen

It's hard for me to pick an all time favorite for many reasons, but in the spirit of moving forward this was taken New Years Day 2011. It was the perfect beginning of a new year literally and I don't think the picture turned out half bad. I did have to repair the moon since it was a long exposure and I did bracket and then merged them together. In any case, this is what I'm submitting as my favorite image.

Very nice. I like the lights of the city and the moon combination.

**Cricket** · #19 (**permalink**) 04-16-2012, 11:24 AM

I want to hear more stories!

Elliott Richmond · #20 (**permalink**) 04-16-2012, 11:34 AM

Can't post any urls or links :-(