What is your Journey?

[Chappy]

Each of us has our own journey in photography that encompasses different genre's, cameras, lenses and so many aspects of photography. It is obvously more than just a hobby but more likely a passion. Some may be professionals while some may just do it for the fun of it. Regardless, what is your journey.

Mine began when I was 15 years old about 46 years ago. On Christmas Eve I opened a gift and it was a Canon A1. I always wanted and 35mm camera and I was about to go on a trip to Washington DC for a week called The Presidential Classroom for Young Americans. A pharmacist friend of my dad's helped him pick the AE-1 to get and we ended up with the A-1. This guy became a mentor and taught me a lot about photography while shooting sports and other things while in High School.

I stayed into photography during my college years shooting different things like intraural sports, girls and eents. After awhile I moved away from photography as other things became more important such as my career and life in general. Sure i would never give it up comepletely but my interest waned because of life.

As I became older and my wife and I became empty nesters, I had a lot of extra time on my hands. About the same time I saw a slide show video of Wyman Meinzer a famed wild life photographer and eventually named the State Photographer in Texas. The Slide/show video was called West Texas. During my life time of farming I had seen many of the same scenes that Meinzer had captures and I became captivated by his work. So much so that I started carrying my camera with me on the farm and getting some interesting images while driving the tractor and truck. The more I practiced the more my photography improved. So much so that I began getting calls from friends and family for my work.

I got my first big breaks in 2014 and 2015. First I got a job to document the construction of a new new wind farm just a few miles from my farm. After finishing that job the wind farm develpment company continued to give me work taking pictures of new wind farms going up. They even got my photos published several times in the industry magazines and journals. The same year i got the opportunity to shoot D-1 sports for a fan site. They gave me a try and I am still doing that today.

Since then I have continued my wildlife photography from the seat of a tractor while also photographing cotton and farming and have sold pictures for advertisements, brochures and artwork for agribusinesses. Private individuals and buisnesses have also commisioned me to shoot pictures of their farms and and communities. It is a niche that not many people do around here but it works for me and I really enjoy doing it. A couple of years ago a bank bought several of my landscape photos for artwork in their main bank. These were very large prings from 60"x60" up to 46 by 72 inches. I have also sold a picture to a major chemical and seed company to wrap a wall/hallway. As your are walking down that hallway it feels as if you are walking under a center pivot irrigation system.

This past two months have been a culmination of my work as I was asked to do a photo exhibit of my work in a historical buiding with my work centered on the area near the building. In a couple of months I will be doing another exhibition in a museum in Lubbock.

Here are a few photos of my work that has been used for artwork and publications by businesses.


#1 Open Boll of Cotton.
#2. White Tail Buck in a cotton field
#3. Row of drip irrigated cotton
#4. New round bale cotton stripper
#5 Wind Turbines over a Playa Lake at Sunrise
#6. Angus Bull eating cotton burrs
#7. Pink Cotton Bloom.
#8. Wind Turbine attachment of hub and blades.

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[Cameron T]

I started shooting for fun, extremely casually with my phone. I was always vaguely interested in it, but never had the time or opportunity to really get into it (between life, and college, and everything else).

But about 7 or 8 years ago I really decided to give it a shot, and start getting into it more. It also helped that I wanted to get out into nature for my peace of mind, and so combining both things was good for me.

I like being able to share what I take. I'm not in it for money, but a few friends have prints of my stuff up on their walls, and it makes them happy, so that's what matters to me.

 

[txstone]

I can see why your clients keep inviting you back! I found your comment about taking photos from a tractor seat very amusing, having grown up on a tractor seat - minus the camera.
I like each of the photos in this series. My cotton education is obviously lacking, as I didn't realize cotton blooms are multi-colored, including reddish-pink.
A great series - thanks for posting!

 

[NorthernFocus]

My journey is way simpler. I used to hunt. Was absolutely obsessed with it. One day it occurred to me that with a camera I could hunt a lot more species with no bag limits, no closed seasons, and cover a lot more geography. I sell a few prints along the way and subject matter has expanded a bit. But at heart I'm still a hunter. Just non-lethal.

 

[SCoombs]

I'm not sure yet. When younger I was always interested in photography but only played with it a little. When I had kids I bought a camera to photograph them and somehow from that got interested in doing wildlife. A few years later now I have learned a great deal and am thinking and hoping to start to do something more serious with it and to earn income - maybe somewhere down the line primarily from it, but for now I'm just trying to get started *somewhere*.

My primary interest is in wildlife, but I also enjoy doing portraits and other things. I still have a lot I can learn and improve on, but at the same time I know there are people out there selling work that's not as good as what I can do so I want to try to do... something. Heck, my wife and I even recently went back and looked at our wedding photos which are less than 10 years old and while I certainly don't have all the experience of setting up all the different poses and such it was pretty surprising after being used to the portraits I do just how comparatively poor the portraits from our wedding are. Part of that's equipment, but as I said the wedding wasn't really all that long ago.

I'm not sure what tond bexactly or how to proceed. I've started trying to do a bit of photographing public events at the church and offering the photos to them for whatever use. They apparently are putting a few in the bulletin this week. Last year I did have a few published in the diocesan magazine of an event I photographed for work where I am a teacher. I don't think either of these have attribution, though I'm unsure. I volunteered to photograph the school's major fundraising event this year and hopefully that can get some attention of some of the more important people who are involved with that.

Beyond that I know I need to be more intentional about things, but I'm still trying to figure out how exactly.

 

[Chappy]

I can see why your clients keep inviting you back! I found your comment about taking photos from a tractor seat very amusing, having grown up on a tractor seat - minus the camera.
I like each of the photos in this series. My cotton education is obviously lacking, as I didn't realize cotton blooms are multi-colored, including reddish-pink.
A great series - thanks for posting!

Actually when a cotton bloom first open it is white. When it is pollinated it turns bright pink like the one in the photo. The bloom then dies and falls off. It takes about three days for this process to happen. Our tractors today are much nicer and much more expensive as it is now like being in a car. Good stereo and bluetooth, air ride seat, climate control air and the GPS that steers the tractor for you.

 

[Doug Herr]

My Journey? A long and winding road. I was obsessed with wildlife photography from reading National Geographic as a child, in particular Fredrick Kent Truslow's work. Bought a used Nikon F at 18 years old, took a field workshop along with my father and a borrowed 300mm f/4.5 Nikkor-P to the high Sierra with David Cavagnaro and Ernest Braun which resulted in my first national photo credit on the inside front cover of Audubon magazine, September 1974

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Engineering school, a low draft number and wanderlust intervened, then family responsibilities put photography on the back burner until an empty nest and retirement made personal fulfillment practical. By then my photo equipment was hopelessly outdated; it was clear that mirrorless was on the near horizon so I didn't see the sense of sinking cash into a new DSLR and when the time was right I replaced most of my older gear with a Sony a7II. In a few years I traded up in steps to the a7rIII and when the a1 was announced I beat a path to my local dealer.

I've admired thoughtful landscape and macro photos, dabbled in both but it's clear when an animal is nearby that my heart is in wildlife photography with the goal (not always fulfilled) of combining artistic composition, an accurate depiction of the animal, and a fuller story of the animal's interdependence on its habitat. A work in progress.

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[Winston Churchill (Sir)]

Each of us has our own journey in photography that encompasses different genre's, cameras, lenses and so many aspects of photography. It is obvously more than just a hobby but more likely a passion. Some may be professionals while some may just do it for the fun of it. Regardless, what is your journey.

Mine began when I was 15 years old about 46 years ago. On Christmas Eve I opened a gift and it was a Canon A1. I always wanted and 35mm camera and I was about to go on a trip to Washington DC for a week called The Presidential Classroom for Young Americans. A pharmacist friend of my dad's helped him pick the AE-1 to get and we ended up with the A-1. This guy became a mentor and taught me a lot about photography while shooting sports and other things while in High School.

I stayed into photography during my college years shooting different things like intraural sports, girls and eents. After awhile I moved away from photography as other things became more important such as my career and life in general. Sure i would never give it up comepletely but my interest waned because of life.

As I became older and my wife and I became empty nesters, I had a lot of extra time on my hands. About the same time I saw a slide show video of Wyman Meinzer a famed wild life photographer and eventually named the State Photographer in Texas. The Slide/show video was called West Texas. During my life time of farming I had seen many of the same scenes that Meinzer had captures and I became captivated by his work. So much so that I started carrying my camera with me on the farm and getting some interesting images while driving the tractor and truck. The more I practiced the more my photography improved. So much so that I began getting calls from friends and family for my work.

I got my first big breaks in 2014 and 2015. First I got a job to document the construction of a new new wind farm just a few miles from my farm. After finishing that job the wind farm develpment company continued to give me work taking pictures of new wind farms going up. They even got my photos published several times in the industry magazines and journals. The same year i got the opportunity to shoot D-1 sports for a fan site. They gave me a try and I am still doing that today.

Since then I have continued my wildlife photography from the seat of a tractor while also photographing cotton and farming and have sold pictures for advertisements, brochures and artwork for agribusinesses. Private individuals and buisnesses have also commisioned me to shoot pictures of their farms and and communities. It is a niche that not many people do around here but it works for me and I really enjoy doing it. A couple of years ago a bank bought several of my landscape photos for artwork in their main bank. These were very large prings from 60"x60" up to 46 by 72 inches. I have also sold a picture to a major chemical and seed company to wrap a wall/hallway. As your are walking down that hallway it feels as if you are walking under a center pivot irrigation system.

This past two months have been a culmination of my work as I was asked to do a photo exhibit of my work in a historical buiding with my work centered on the area near the building. In a couple of months I will be doing another exhibition in a museum in Lubbock.

Here are a few photos of my work that has been used for artwork and publications by businesses.


#1 Open Boll of Cotton.
#2. White Tail Buck in a cotton field
#3. Row of drip irrigated cotton
#4. New round bale cotton stripper
#5 Wind Turbines over a Playa Lake at Sunrise
#6. Angus Bull eating cotton burrs
#7. Pink Cotton Bloom.
#8. Wind Turbine attachment of hub and blades.

Chappy - no arguments about you being a great photographer. Thanks for sharing - incidentally - your "photography path" - starting as a kid - life happens - return to photography- seems to be how it works for so many people.

My Journey? A long and winding road. I was obsessed with wildlife photography from reading National Geographic as a child, in particular Fredrick Kent Truslow's work. Bought a used Nikon F at 18 years old, took a field workshop along with my father and a borrowed 300mm f/4.5 Nikkor-P to the high Sierra with David Cavagnaro and Ernest Braun which resulted in my first national photo credit on the inside front cover of Audubon magazine, September 1974

​

Engineering school, a low draft number and wanderlust intervened, then family responsibilities put photography on the back burner until an empty nest and retirement made personal fulfillment practical. By then my photo equipment was hopelessly outdated; it was clear that mirrorless was on the near horizon so I didn't see the sense of sinking cash into a new DSLR and when the time was right I replaced most of my older gear with a Sony a7II. In a few years I traded up in steps to the a7rIII and when the a1 was announced I beat a path to my local dealer.

I've admired thoughtful landscape and macro photos, dabbled in both but it's clear when an animal is nearby that my heart is in wildlife photography with the goal (not always fulfilled) of combining artistic composition, an accurate depiction of the animal, and a fuller story of the animal's interdependence on its habitat. A work in progress.

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Black tailed hair?? Really? no one says anything about the ears ??
Beautiful photos!

 

[Winston Churchill (Sir)]

I started with under water photography early in my 40's - But since the camera was so expensive - I decided I had to also do on top of water photography to make it worth my while.
I had a studio for 12 years - specialising exclusively in fine art nude photographic art, which was very hard work and very stresful. I am currently on a sabbatical from studio stuff although I still have the studio. I started wildlife photography as that gave me a reason to go on holiday. I have been a successful photographer, as I had a mentor who he pushed me past boundaries known to man woman and child. We became partners until he passed away.

I converted my vehicle into a "first and only in the world, rooftop converted Prado LandCruiser" so I could tour, live, and shoot from the vehicle.

I think Photography saved my life. Add Photoshop and now include my saved sanity. Live, breathe ........
I count myself as exceptionally fortunate that I was one of the lucky ones - I am doing something that shaped my life on every level.

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[Tom Reynolds]

I started with film while hiking the California Sierra with the lightest camera I could find. I still have over a dozen scrapbooks of memorials of my many hike and the incredible scenery that I saw. Then I got too old.

I took up scuba diving with Olympus then Nikon focusing on super macro shots by adding am external +10 diopter designed for underwater use. I actually got quite good at it and my pictures are on tomandginnie.com. Then I got too old.

I started bird photography with a D7200/Sigma 150-600 and later a D-500/500pf or 300pf. Then either they got too heavy, or I got too old.

I switched to an OM-1/100-400 or a 300f4 because of the weight. I am not quite too old yet but when that happens.

I will switch to an OM Systems 900mm F3.5 super macro and shoot flowers in my Nursing Home room.

Tom

 

[dabhand16]

I got my first camera in 1954 - and I still have it. a Kodak Brownie Cresta. Rangefinder Kodak Retinette 1b around 1959, first SLR my beloved Pentax SV + 50mm f1.8 and 135mm f3.5 Takumar lenses bought around 1964/5. Olympus OM2SP 1984 with 24-70 and 70-210 Tamron adaptall lenses as well as the Oly 50mm f1.8 kit lens. Still have the Pentax and the Oly.

Then I added a Rolleicord 5b and a bit later added a Bronica ETRSi, and I still have these too.

First digital camera in 2001/2 with a Nikon Coolpix 885, bought as it had manual controls. 2006 Nikon D70s, 2008 a D300, 2010 a D700 + 24-70 f2.8 and a 14-24 f2.8 (already had the 80-200 f2.8) as my retirement gift to myself. D810 probably around 2014 then a D850 in 2018.

2018 was also the year when I got a Fuji XT-1 as I wanted to find out what this mirrorless stuff was all about. I fell in love with the XT-1 when it was released as it looks like my Pentax SV. I loved it so much that I sold it in 6 months as I fell over an XT-2 + battery grip at a price I could not pass by. I now have 2 XT-4s and lots of lenses!. I also have the fringer adaptor that allows me to use all of my F mount lenses that have focus motors on my Fuji cameras with AF.

Using the Fujis led me to modern manual focus lenses and vintage manual focus lenses followed very quickly. Now for my day to day photography I use the vintage lenses more then my AF ones. Problem was with the Fuji that the crop factor meant that my wider lenses were not wider on the Fujis. While it helped at the long end, I missed the wide angle lense so much I bought a Sony a7ii exclusively for use with my manual focus lenses. I did look at used Z6 cameras, but a good one was way over budget.

I found I was using the Fujis and Sony more than my beloved D850 and I had a light bulb moment when I realised that it was no longer suiting what I was shootting. I was fed up waiting for the Z8 so I did the unthinkable and sold my D850. I toyed with getting a Z7ii but it was not anywhere an equivalent to the D850 so I did my due dillegence and bought a Z6ii. This was aided by me having to buy a new boiler and spend £1200 on my car, but I'm happy with the Z6ii while I save for a Z8. I sold the Sony too, but I miss it a bit as it was easier to manual focus with it than the Z6ii. The most annoying being that when you are punched in to focus, on the Sony as soon as you got first pressure on the shutter release the viewfinder zoomed out to normal so you could check the framing before taking the shot where with the Z6ii you have to push the button assigned to punch in again to return to normal view.

I have been spoilt by my Fijis in that they are so cusomisable. For instance, in the viewfinder I can have any of the available icons displayed where the Z6ii only has 5 screens that you cycle round and the histogram is only on one of them. I'm getting tempted by the Fuji XH-2s but I love a FF camera and I absolutely love the XT form factor. Maybe I should sell one of my XT-4s and get an XH-2s?

 

[Clough91]

I spent my childhood playing in the woods, I was always interested in my moms film camera (have no idea what it was). I was in a tree stand one evening and was fortunate to be able to watch a great grey owl come into area and hunt for 45 min to an hour while I sat still and watched. I knew I needed to scratch that itch and get a camera after that. Wasn’t for a couple years later that I was able to get a canon m100 and a Efs 55-250. I spent countless hours in that area looking for those grey ghosts but have come up empty handed only few brief glimpses of them here and there I’m hoping I have time this winter to track them down. Reading Andy russels books have almost caused an obsession with this hobby haha and like northernfocus said hunting with a camera now there’s no seasons to worry about. I have a canon 90d and 100-400 mk ii that I use now.

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[Abinoone]

My journey, such as it is, started as an outdoor enthusiast, growing up camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, and diving with my older brother. I adored the outdoors, and spent my childhood exploring the many glories of nature. Later, in college, I discovered archaeology, which allowed me to combine my passion for the natural world with my interest in the human story. I spent the next twenty years as a professional archaeologist, traveling the world from Europe to the Americas. As an archaeologist, part of my responsibility was to document everything I discovered, which included many stills with my Pentax Spotmatic - primitive by today’s standards but it got the job done. Photography was an activity I did, but not seriously and only as a means to an end. Eventually, I left the academic world and had a second career in the computer industry (don’t ask me how, please), from which I retired 12 years ago. Since retirement, I tutor refugee children, whose lives I‘ve enjoyed documenting photographically (the not-for-profit that runs the tutoring program uses my images for community awareness). In this work I became more and more interested in expanding my knowledge of photography, and honing my technical and artistic skills. About five years ago, by chance I enrolled in a nature photography workshop sponsored by Road Scholar, and fell in love with the whole genre. The workshop instructor (a retired pro) has become a close friend and my primary mentor, and I give him complete credit (but none of the blame) for fueling my passion and any skills that I may have developed along the way. Since then, I’ve become totally absorbed by wildlife and nature photography, so much so that I spend most waking hours doing or thinking about it, and planning trips to new and favorite destinations. I still have a lot to learn, but I’m enjoying the journey.

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[gnpToday]

My journey is way simpler. I used to hunt. Was absolutely obsessed with it. One day it occurred to me that with a camera I could hunt a lot more species with no bag limits, no closed seasons, and cover a lot more geography. I sell a few prints along the way and subject matter has expanded a bit. But at heart I'm still a hunter. Just non-lethal.

I always joke that I hunt legally year-round!

 

[SNEDDERS6666]

I started with under water photography early in my 40's - But since the camera was so expensive - I decided I had to also do on top of water photography to make it worth my while.
I had a studio for 12 years - specialising exclusively in fine art nude photographic art, which was very hard work and very stresful. I am currently on a sabbatical from studio stuff although I still have the studio. I started wildlife photography as that gave me a reason to go on holiday. I have been a successful photographer, as I had a mentor who he pushed me past boundaries known to man woman and child. We became partners until he passed away.

I converted my vehicle into a "first and only in the world, rooftop converted Prado LandCruiser" so I could tour, live, and shoot from the vehicle.

I think Photography saved my life. Add Photoshop and now include my saved sanity. Live, breathe ........
I count myself as exceptionally fortunate that I was one of the lucky ones - I am doing something that shaped my life on every level.

View attachment 72787

Beautiful Elsa.

 

[Winston Churchill (Sir)]

Beautiful Elsa.

Thank you kindly David.

 

[ccirelli]

Beautiful images and so much talent here

My story - My dad always loved photography, and had a good selection of old Minolta gear when I was in my pre-teen years. I have vivid memories of taking his camera out, exploring the area looking for cool photo ops and being really excited to show him later (something to be said about the delayed gratification of film back then ). It was just me and him together for quite a few years, we moved quite a bit and I never had a consistent group of close friends - so my love of music, photography, and dogs is where I put all my time and energy.

Fast-forward, after a few years of spending way too much time in my high school dark room, I decided to withdraw from my local community college and run off to photography school in Rhode Island for a 2 year program. During my time there, I started freelancing for a few local newspapers, resulting in being offered a full-time news photography job at the at of 21. I jumped on it. I got paid very little money, worked 80 hours a week - yet I still consider that the best job I ever had. The little highlight of my career was beating out the big Providence Journal photographers in a RI news photography awards event, taking the top two out of three spots in the Sports category.

So all that was going well enough, until burnout hit me pretty hard a little later on. I probably didn’t even know or realize what that was at the time, I wasn’t even 24 yet, but looking back it’s pretty obvious. It was an exciting, fulfilling job - but I also had to cover a lot of ugliness and sadness and that will really wear you down after a while. I never developed the callousness I saw in older, more experienced news photographers (thankful for that). So I left the paper, and shortly after sold all my gear (a Domke F2 bag full of Nikon gear - F3HP, FM2, motor drives, and some heavy manual focus glass). After that I pursued a career in Fire / Police, probably from some time spent in that world doing spot-news coverage. Tested and passed for FDNY and Port Authority police, waited to be called, and fell into the I.T. world. Decided not to leave as it would have been a pay cut, and my girlfriend at the time wasn’t fond of the idea.

That’s mostly it for me. Once digital really hit, that movement reinvigorated my love of photography and I was reminded how I much I truly missed it, but also who I am at my core - a photographer - regardless of the career path I fell into. That realization came with some regret, but I also don’t think I’d change anything since I’m so thankful where I landed years later. Now I’m looking ahead to a second career of sorts, in the portrait & events genre. And of course just shooting for myself - because I love every moment of it.

 

[splatbass]

I've been interested in photography since I was a kid. When I was 9 in 1970 I wanted a camera real bad, but my parents wouldn't buy one for me. I went on a class field trip to the zoo, and my parents gave me some money to spend. At the zoo they were selling these plastic cameras that took film cartridges, not sure what size at this point, so I bought it and a one cartridge I think for about $10, all the money I had. That was my first camera, and I loved it, but getting my frugal parents to pay for film and processing was hard. But it got me obsessed with photography. About 9 years later when I was 18 or 19 I had a chance to buy a used Pentax Spotmatic, that was my first "real" camera. Then in the mid '80s I got a Canon A1, 50mm f1.8 and 70-200 no name lens, and it was on. I later got a cheap crappy 500mm to try to photograph wildlife since I was just starting my (non-photography) career and living in No. Cal., one of the most expensive places in the country even then. I took many, many pics in the Sierras, and the coastal mountains, landscape as well as mule deer and tule elk and the like. They weren't very good, but it got me hooked. Now I shoot Nikon and Olympus and have more lenses than I need, as well as the means to travel all over the country and world to shoot. And my photography is much better after 50 years of practice (although it stills needs work).

 

[Viathelens]

Unlike many of the stories here I only took up photography as an art in 2010. I did save my money to buy a film camera when I was about 23 but it was stolen from my home a month later and I simply did not make enough money to save it up again and life moved on. When I was 35 my career path veered to marketing/public relations/media and for the next 20 years I did take some photos through time to put into publications that I produced but that was my only photography effort. In 2001 or so I started writing for a recreational boating publication, maybe four or five pages worth every month (4000 words and 15 or so photos) this was photographs of boats and people and businesses. I did that for six years for two different publications so I've had hundreds of images published during that time, but not anything to do with artistic efforts or wildlife (maybe the people at times!). After I retired in 2005 I bought my first digital camera, a Nikon D200 and I started to figure out photography. I signed up for a photography class that started in January in 2008 but then had a family-related issue that set me back for two years. I took my first photography class at a junior college in 2010, they were still teaching BW film even though we had started using digital cameras. I took every class they offered and used my prior A.A. degree to get another A.A., in Photography, (probably the only one the college ever awarded!). After that I signed up for multiple photo tours with experienced photographers, took a week-long intense session at a photography school, and read everything I could about photography. At 60, ten years ago, I took a trip to South Africa and got hooked on wildlife photography. Now photography is my sole focus in life and anything else comes second to that. I generally plan multiple trips both in the states and some out of the states to other countries, oftentimes based on the animal I want to photograph. Next week I'm heading to the South Pole for three weeks to photograph penguins and other marine wildlife.

 

[Larry S.]

Unlike many of the stories here I only took up photography as an art in 2010. I did save my money to buy a film camera when I was about 23 but it was stolen from my home a month later and I simply did not make enough money to save it up again and life moved on. When I was 35 my career path veered to marketing/public relations/media and for the next 20 years I did take some photos through time to put into publications that I produced but that was my only photography effort. In 2001 or so I started writing for a recreational boating publication, maybe four or five pages worth every month (4000 words and 15 or so photos) this was photographs of boats and people and businesses. I did that for six years for two different publications so I've had hundreds of images published during that time, but not anything to do with artistic efforts or wildlife (maybe the people at times!). After I retired in 2005 I bought my first digital camera, a Nikon D200 and I started to figure out photography. I signed up for a photography class that started in January in 2008 but then had a family-related issue that set me back for two years. I took my first photography class at a junior college in 2010, they were still teaching BW film even though we had started using digital cameras. I took every class they offered and used my prior A.A. degree to get another A.A., in Photography, (probably the only one the college ever awarded!). After that I signed up for multiple photo tours with experienced photographers, took a week-long intense session at a photography school, and read everything I could about photography. At 60, ten years ago, I took a trip to South Africa and got hooked on wildlife photography. Now photography is my sole focus in life and anything else comes second to that. I generally plan multiple trips both in the states and some out of the states to other countries, oftentimes based on the animal I want to photograph. Next week I'm heading to the South Pole for three weeks to photograph penguins and other marine wildlife.

Impressive “journey”. That you toured with experienced photographers (to learn) shows a commitment that has or will pay dividends. If you tell someone how to do something they may or may not remember how to do it. If you watch someone and they show you…. and they explain… you likely will not forget..

 

[BobbyV]

I had no interest in photography about 12 years ago. I was surfing and skateboarding and working. One day I decided that when my body wouldn't let me surf anymore, I'd do surf photography. Then a friend of mine rented a beach house and his wife had a Nikon D60 that I found interesting. Soon I was shooting surfing, skating, and birds. I realized that being a bird photographer in Florida was a legit thing. Years later I'm still into it...but still surfing occasionally.

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[NatureBoy]

My journey is way simpler. I used to hunt. Was absolutely obsessed with it. One day it occurred to me that with a camera I could hunt a lot more species with no bag limits, no closed seasons, and cover a lot more geography. I sell a few prints along the way and subject matter has expanded a bit. But at heart I'm still a hunter. Just non-lethal.

Wow, me pretty much exactly. Im not ready to say Im done hunting but I haven’t gone out this year for deer. When out with the camera, it’s like hunting year round in target rich settings! Everything is in season.