[tokyoscape]

Start:
I started back in college / film day with a Yashika then soon switch to Pentax Z1 which just came out. I like night photo immediately but I have no idea how to select my equipment ... maybe that's why I go with the Z1 which does everything as auto as it get at that time. Manual prime suck, Auto focus all the way and give me BIG zoom lenses too, etc. Anyway let not talk too much about how stupid I was.

Give up:
I went to the US and get tired with big heavy equipment, so I sold them all on Ebay and hope to migrate to digital camera but it was still too expensive for a student like me. I lose interest in photography soon after that. I went all the way for Computer and Graphic design.

Comeback:
Back to photography again after move to Japan with a K5. I need to lose weight, that is the real reason I am back to photography. It is the only way I can force myself to exercise (walk). I keep testing many cameras in stores. I almost go with Nikon D7000 because I have a friend recommending me but it so uncomfortable in hand. So I walk to Pentax booth in Yodobashi camera, I see the TAV mode,... T_T , it was like... seeing a long time old friend. Buy it the next day. Body only and searching for a prime to go with for the next couple of weeks. No-more big zoom and I end up with FA35. I have to re-educate myself how to shoot again. Still like night photography and Tokyo night is perfect. I go and try multiple times in almost 1000 spot (I guess from looking at location marks in a map) from Tokyo to Yokohama in the last 4-5 years. I lose more than 20 kg in the process because I walk rather than take a train. I am still doing it today.

Now:
I test and try many lenses over the years. It is easy to find Pentax lenses here. I ended up with 10-17, 21, 55, 100 now. Also, start to make little money with my small photo walk in Tokyo which I do only one a week. Not much but it is good seeing my hobby turn to money. This is something I will hopefully keep on doing after retire. I also have to thank Instagram a lot. I take photography as both Documentary, Art work and Design work, that's why I have no problem seeing both photos with minimum post process and heavily manipulate photos on Instagram. For as long as it looks good in the end, I am all for it. I learn so much from looking at works from better people on IG and the highlight part is; I get to meet them sometime. Not that my photo is any good. Some of them have works featured in NatGeo, foreign diplomat, famous artist, still no-name artist with amazing works, many more pro-photographer and videographer, etc. to be honest, I still wonder why they even want to keep in touch and/or meet an amature photographer with average works like me. I wouldn't have dreamed to meet people like that in person. For those of you're afraid of social media like Instagram, I would say "don't be afraid". I can see a lot of good works here, way way better than mine. IG has a very large and variety of users. Keep posting good photos, using the right keyword and amazing people will come your ways.

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Last edited by tokyoscape; 12-16-2019 at 02:46 AM.

[gatorguy]

Started out with safe landscapes, then macros, and gradually to wildlife. Never had confidence enough for people/portraits.

Then I joined a local Meetup group who had a portrait shoot. Nervous and timid I still got involved and gosh discovered I was OK at it! For the past year or more at least half my photography has been portraiture. The best part is that having to communicate with models, a few makeup folks and a lot of other photographers has allowed me to be so much more comfortable dealing intimately with others. This photo stuff has been good

[Alex645]

What about the journey you took from start to here. what was that evolution like?
what is your evolution like? and where do you want to progress into?

1972-1982: Student photography; a little of everything with 35mm and 120 film, B&W and color.
1983-1990: Professional photography; a little of everything with film.
1991-1996: Trying to find my voice, my vision, my style in mostly B&W medium format and expanding from single focal point decisive moments to non-temporal multiple focal points and juxtaposition.
1997-2007: Mostly family and vacation photos as the kids grew up. Teaching more and doing less, but working on quality and not quantity.
2008-2011: Learning and embracing DSLRs and mastering Photoshop.
2012-present: A lot of hybrid work either shooting full frame digital or scanning medium format film. Refining my style. Creating images that evoke emotion and finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. Moving away from complexity to more and more simple compositions and abstractions.

The future? I don't foresee any major changes, but rather a gradual shift in the same direction of trying to capture the magic of light, shapes, textures, people and places with simplicity.

[BrianR]

I'll describe a few phases I've been through, and I liked the idea of illustrating things with a photo.

Starting phase I guess with my first dslr (k100d) I wanted to be a bird photographer. Armed with a da50-200mm and the goal of that perfect 'bird on a branch' photo, I spent a good deal of time sitting in the wild watching stuff and eventually realizing I don't have the patience for birds. The very thing that makes them interesting (wings) makes them annoying to photograph (they use the wings to flee). I learned the fine art of sitting outside and accomplishing very little while surrounded by trees, so that was time well spent.

Few of these early birding photos survive (and none conveniently located on flickr), so I present a more recent (2011) self portrait with a k1000.




Lighting Phase I started reading the strobist website and bought myself a cheapo off camera lighting setup and learned a bit about lighting. I'm not sure I had much of a point or goal here, but I enjoyed the technical aspects of setting up photos and lighting. The idea that I could shape or control light was my first big step towards taking control over a photograph.




Frog Phase I'd always been interested in photographing small stuff so a macro lens was next up, and I spent the next few years terrorizing chasing frogs, snakes and turtles with my camera and lights. Patience for frogs was much easier to muster than birds, as frogs are incapable of flying away. The more I photographed frogs, the more I became interested in them so I spent a good deal of time reading about frogs and this just made me want to photograph them more. A 'virtuous circle' of frog learning and photographing. I also learned the fine art of sitting chest deep in a swamp while accomplishing very little, all the while enjoying the company of frogs.

Toads are the best:





Preplanning Phase Even with relatively unpredictable frogs, I learned it was a good idea to approach photos with a plan. No point in lugging a few lights out after dark and wading in a mucky pond if you don't know what you're going to do with them. Most of my photos that I'm happiest with had some sort of intent before I even thought about picking up the camera. Especially with mushrooms or plants, I became more and more comfortable with manipulating not just the lighting but the content of the image. Somewhere along the line I also figured the photographer is to blame for everything in an image they created, so I figured I'd be more pro-active about what's in my own photos.

This one took a few goes, but turned out pretty much as I'd hoped.




Nature Phase I could repeat the 'Frog Phase' with a 'Mushroom Phase' or a 'Lepidoptera Phase', but I think the reality is the camera and learning about stuff go hand in hand. Purchases of nature books fall under my photography budget now, it's converged into one hobby. This is extending into some physics stuff, optical phenomena, movement, and other fun things. I'm pretty squarely here and plan to be for some time. The little jars filled with caterpillar faces I have plans to photograph tell me I'll be here for some time. They aren't literally talking to me if that's what you were thinking




Idiot Phase I'm big on attempting humour, so setting up silly photos has been an ongoing process. Sometimes I circle back to birds. It's clear from this photo that I can rock a bird in flight, so yea, I've definitely evolved. In some direction. Not sure it was a good direction.

[Aaron28]

originally got a dslr to take better pictures......mind set better camera=better pictures....did not know jack …...learning the exposure triangle was a great step....astro was and is my first real love with a camera.....moved on to macro mostly bugs and when I got reach became a birder...enjoy buying and using old cheap glass and what it can do..but the past year and continuing forward is working with depth of field (not everything needs to be shot at f1.4 or f8) and use of flash whether on or off camera which is an amazing adventure

[AggieDad]

How has my photography evolved? In my case perhaps the question might be, how have I evolved because of my photography.

Before I retired from teaching my photography was all about some travel shots with a Canon superzoom to share with family and friends on my little website. Retiring at age 70 I realized I would need some hobby to help keep me involved in life. So I decided to get more involved with photography. That was seven years ago. It was a great decision.

The photography itself has evolved from clicking at everything in sight to becoming more selective and trying specific genres. An illness in 2017 when I was essentially housebound for a few months got me involved with macro. My interest continues. I also have interests in monochrome photos and panoramas.

I am also trying to learn to work with prime lenses as I have been sort of addicted to zooms. I am not interested in the primes because of image quality. To be honest, at my age the eyes don't really allow me to see these finer elements of an image. I just think it is time to learn how adjust my shot to the lens rather than vice-versa.

As my photography interests have evolved, so have I. My interest in macro resulted in me building my own programmable macro rail. This required learning to code – something I hadn't done since the 1990s – and learning about electronics. Oops, a new hobby. Now I am in the midst of designing and building a programmable pano camera mount. If I get it right it will allow me to set the pano width and then it will calculate the angle for each image based on the lens, the number of images needed and automatically rotate the camera and fire the shutter.

Along with taking pictures, photography adds in a sub-hobby of post-processing. And post-processing, for some of us, has its own sub-hobby – software acquisition. I love messing around with processing my images. And I can't resist trying new software.

So for me, photography has morphed from one to three hobbies: photography, post-processing, and building stuff for picture-taking. An I have evolved from a just another retired old man into a guy constantly learning about new stuff. Along with the boat and road trips in the motorhome, that's enough for a 77 year old.

[DWS1]

Mine has evolved into now being able to affordably explore all the things I saw the news and sports photographers doing in the 70's when I started, in and out of the darkroom. Like using motor drives with 1000 exposure film canisters (burst drive), bracketing, color balancing, split toning, retouching, etc.

[bkpix]

Fun thread. Will have to mull this for a bit before trying to answer.

[ZombieArmy]

I

That owl looks absolutely plastered!

[roberrl]

Well my journey started with a Halina 35X but I really lusted after a Pentax SV belonging to a friends father.
This seemed to be not only high quality but fitted into my hands in such a natural way it was easy to use.

After a while it was my own SP1000 and an SP500, then ME and ME Super. Then a long hiatus until I went digital with an DL2.

Now I finally have an SV of my own, it still feels great but I don't pick it up as much as my KS-2.

that owl looks absolutely plastered!

... Hah!

[MossyRocks]

I started out with some 110 format point and shoot camera when I was a kid and I use that for years. It was blue and I probably still have it somewhere. In college I worked at U-Haul and when cleaning out a truck found my what became my spotmatic under the seat in an out of state truck. Called the people who brought the truck in to ask if they had left something under the seat in a blue neoprene bag and got a no. Called the store it came from to find out if someone had called reporting a camera left behind and got a no there as well. So as standard procedure we put it in the lost bin and waited the 6 months to see if anyone would come looking for it. As usual things in the lost are never found so I laid claim to it. I used that camera exclusivly for close to 20 years and then 2 years ago got a K2000 because I decided I wanted to spend some time and get better at photography and realized that for the cost of film and developing that I would be better off with an inexpensive but decent used DSLR to lean with. 2 months after that the local camera shop got a used K-3 in that was barely used and horribly mispriced it so I ended up basically stealing that even though I didn't intent to buy another camera.

As far as progress as a photographer goes, well here is the first picture I ever took with my spotmatic and then a recent picture I took with the K-3:

[Progbusters]

My parents got me varioud snapshot film cameras when i was a kid. Then i learned on a film Canon AE1. Used that in art school. But also used the very first digital snapshot cameras. I tried to use one from Okympus with its 4gb sd cards on my portfolio but my instructor was not having any of it.

After watching a pro take my portfolio shots, i got into lighting. And then i got K100D as my first dslr.

At work we started using nikon d70. Then d300. Then d750. With speedotron lights and then cool fluorescent lighting.

At home i upgraded to a k50. Then now a k70. I also own a dynalite baja b4 for myself.

[house]

Perhaps my next evolution will be studio portraits. I've never had any interest in posed photographs of people. I enjoy taking and viewing candid or at least natural looking shots. Thing is that when something feels completely wrong there's bound to be something interesting in there.

[Aaron28]

I enjoy taking and viewing candid or at least natural looking shots

that's my preference as well but would like for them to be of portrait quality which is quite difficult for me to pull off