What started your photography?

[Mike]

I'm actually not a photographer. I may be the only one on the site who isn't. I'm just someone who has always been fascinated by photography, and love looking at other people's work. I did try it once, though. So, one my favorite things to do is watch high school football games. I go to quite a few during the season, and almost always go to the state championship games here in Texas. One year I decided I would like to photograph the game(s). After all, the games are played at AT&T Stadium, so I thought it would be neat to be able to get photos there too. I rented a nice camera and a nice lens, thinking that they would both magically turn me in to a photographer somehow. I even got a crash course from a few friends who do photograph football games on a weekly basis.

So, here I am, taking hundreds of photos, thinking I'm doing great. I can't wait to get home to scan through these pictures, knowing I've got some great moments captured, and I did! The problem is, most of my photos were out of focus, or I was actually behind the target (photographing moving targets is harder than you'd think). After going through all my photos I found out a few things 1) I had absolutely zero "good" photos and 2) I'm terrible at photography!

For those wondering, the camera I rented was a Canon EOS R6 Mark II and the lens was a Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS.

The moral of the story, one that I really already knew but thought I could prove wrong, is the equipment doesn't make the photographer. You can have the best equipment in the world, but it really doesn't matter if you don't know how to use it. I'm amazed by the work you all do. One day, when I can afford to get into this and have my own camera to use all the time, I'd love to get into photography. But, for now, I'll just admire what y'all do and be happy with that, just like I've been doing for years now.

Keep up the great work, y'all! I look forward to seeing more of your photos!

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

The moral of the story, one that I really already knew but thought I could prove wrong, is the equipment doesn't make the photographer. You can have the best equipment in the world, but it really doesn't matter

This is absolutely true, Mike!
What good equipment does do is make it easier to get the shot. But it will not make a bad photographer a good one. Nor will humble equipment turn a good photographer into a bad one.

And photographer or not, it's good to have you on board!

 

[K9Kirk]

I've done photography on and off since '83 when I joined the Army to be a Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Specialist. Or, NBC Specialist for short. At the time, I figured that might be my one and only trip overseas to Korea, so I wanted to document my journey, and I got myself a popular camera of the day, a Canon AE-1 Program with a nifty-fifty lens. Man, did I get really good with inserting rolls of film, ha! Honestly, I didn't know much about cameras in '83. I always bought 100 ISO and shot almost everything @ 1/60th, which explains the lack of sharpness in many of my pics back then.

After getting out of the Army, I lost interest in photography and ended up getting married. When I became bored with marriage I got back into photography. Then I bought another Canon AE-1 Program (good used) and started doing a little trick photography. Double exposures, light painting, and trick macro shots. I haven't done those things in a while, it seemed no one cared much for it and it seemed like a lot of work to get one good pic so after a while, I lost interest again and I got into other things, like motorcycles, kayaking, and smoking meats in my smoker. Anyways, when I moved to Florida to be a caregiver for my mother back in 2014, I needed a hobby and I thought to myself, (you guessed it) "Hey, why not photography?!"

So, I ended up getting a Canon 80D and gradually collected better and better lenses for it. then, one dark, dreadful day, I did "The Stupid" and ruined it with a bottle of water. I ended up with the camera I have now, A Canon R7 with an RF 100-500 f/4.5-7.1 lens. and I'm loving it so far. It's all just as a hobby to keep me occupied and I have to say, it's a fantastic hobby! I don't think I'll ever give it up ever again and I don't drink much water anymore.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

You had quite a journey in life, Kirk.

NBC Specialist

Sounds serious.

Double exposures, light painting, and trick macro shots.

Interesting. I wouldn’t mind seeing some of thatI

How did you get into shooting birds?

 

[EdC]

One of these

when I was six or seven! Image from Wikipedia courtesy of A.B.

 

[K9Kirk]

You had quite a journey in life, Kirk.


Sounds serious.


Interesting. I wouldn’t mind seeing some of thatI

How did you get into shooting birds?

My life has been rather exciting, I was a bit of a wild child so I couldn't sit still. I didn't like the NBC job, though, it was boring as hell being in H.Q. platoon. I would've liked being a grunt better, they had all the fun. But Army life wasn't boring. My battalion did honor guard for President Reagan when he visited the DMZ in '83 and I got to fly in some cool aircraft and my Hap Ki Do sensei showed me around Korea on a train. Right now I'm having 3 1/2 TB's of data recovered from two older hard drives. It will take at least a few days to transfer everything onto a new 5 TB ext. drive I just bought. I'm hoping some of my old light painting pics are on them. I think I saved some. I 'wasn't' really good at them, just ok I think. I don't think I have any dbl. exp. shots, those were done back in the early 90's before I had a computer, but I just might have a go at it again just for kicks and post them. Maybe a few other things as well.

I got into shooting birds when I moved to Sun City Center, FL. in '14. There was an old golf course in the neighborhood that had turned into a bird sanctuary, with a decent variety of birds and it became my favorite local place to shoot. It was only about half a mile away from me, so I went there almost daily. I can't wait to get all those pictures, I'm excited! Sorry about the wall of words.

 

[RichardB]

My life has been rather exciting,

Definitely sounds like it.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

My life has been rather exciting, I was a bit of a wild child so I couldn't sit still. I didn't like the NBC job, though, it was boring as hell being in H.Q. platoon. I would've liked being a grunt better, they had all the fun. But Army life wasn't boring. My battalion did honor guard for President Reagan when he visited the DMZ in '83 and I got to fly in some cool aircraft and my Hap Ki Do sensei showed me around Korea on a train. Right now I'm having 3 1/2 TB's of data recovered from two older hard drives. It will take at least a few days to transfer everything onto a new 5 TB ext. drive I just bought. I'm hoping some of my old light painting pics are on them. I think I saved some. I was real good at them, just ok I think. I don't think I have any dbl. exp. shots, those were done back in the early 90's before I had a computer, but I just might have a go at it again just for kicks and post them. Maybe a few other things as well.

I hope you can find those pics from the recovered data. And will post them here! I have a few pics in the Creative Corner and they're mighty lonely!

I got into shooting birds when I moved to Sun City Center, FL. in '14. There was an old golf course in the neighborhood that had turned into a bird sanctuary, with a decent variety of birds and it became my favorite local place to shoot. It was only about half a mile away from me, so I went there almost daily. I can't wait to get all those pictures, I'm excited! Sorry about the wall of words.

From what I've seen Florida is a birds heaven to begin with! I envy you in that respect. And "wall of words"? It's great reading people's stories!

By the way, I thought I was original with the new name Creative Corner but yesterday I was somewhere else and they had a forum with the same name.

 

[Blackbird]

And "wall of words"? It's great reading people's stories!

I agree. It’s wonderful to learn a bit about the world behind the names and the avatar!

 

[K9Kirk]

I hope you can find those pics from the recovered data. And will post them here! I have a few pics in the Creative Corner and they're mighty lonely!


From what I've seen Florida is a birds heaven to begin with! I envy you in that respect. And "wall of words"? It's great reading people's stories!

By the way, I thought I was original with the new name Creative Corner but yesterday I was somewhere else and they had a forum with the same name.

Same name .... Geez, now just how does that happen, lol! I feel for ya, Levina.

Nothing good happens on the web after midnight, ha!