point of origin

I am the youngest of three children, so we took turns holding the polaroid. Happiness was experiencing the magic that developed instantly.

Those memories planted themselves firmly in my subconscious. {How he smiled with his camera slung around his neck, a cigar hanging off his lip.} Looking at that polaroid camera will always make me his little girl again, eager to explore the magic of photography. {The story goes that when my brothers were young my dad walked into a pawn shop in San Diego and walked out with a polaroid camera.}

I spent most of my early adolescent years saving money to buy and develop film and annoy friends. {My brother calls it the curse of the photographer.} Later as I left for college I inherited his old Pentax. {You might know the one with the broken light meter.} My cameras always morphed into something new, something different over the years and many states I photographed. For me, somehow 'things' always turned into cameras. Follow the signs, my cameras always led me down this path marked  P A S S I O N.

And here I am.

So, hello. I'm fairly new here. My name is Meredith and {blush} I'm addicted to photography. It's so nice to meet all of you. {Hey, I see familiar smiling faces! Come here often? Want a cup of tea? I think we are sisters cut from the same cloth.}

What's your story? What do you see as the point of origin for your love of photography? Is there a moment, a person, or a camera of your childhood that stands out as the spark that lit your fire?

Comments

[Marcie]

It began with an uncle's old fashioned movie camera..and then my father's old polaroid land camera..and finally my very first kodak instamatic - which I carried with me wherever I went..capturing (much to my siblings' annoyance) each and every moment in our daily lives.
For my 16th birthday I got my first Minolta SLR. I learned how to develop and print in a darkroom. Hours of uninterrupted happiness were spent there.
And here I am - possessed..obsessed..and always with a camera-in-hand.

[Simon Larwence]

This is a beautiful photograph, I love the composition and lighting. Very impressed. Si

[Kate]

My bright blue Fisher Price camera at age 9! used 110 film. I just found a photo of it!!
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_HARUa7Jv07c/R_ATLyMviUI/AAAAAAAAAxM/5fgFpTmfU-w/Fisher+Price+Camera+1.jpg

I fell immediately in love.

[lucy]

I remember playing for hours in my grandparent's attic, where they had decades of treasures stored, including two or three old cameras. I have no idea what kind they were, but they probably dated from the 1930s or 40s. My sisters and I would have pretend photo-shoots and pose for each other.

I inherited this little camera -- often used as I was growing up -- about 15 years ago. It's been sitting in a drawer, and I just found film for it. I'll be posting my photo results soon.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FDIVsLxKxWM/SaAVspQZSsI/AAAAAAAABsk/SUi17AvpfvM/s1600-h/DSCN0691.JPG

[georgia]

honestly, i think shutter sisters was a big part in my reason/love for photography. i mean, it was multiple things, i'm sure. my twin has always dabble with it over the past 20 years. my brother for even longer. i started a blog for design {jorjah-b}, because i majored in graphic design and am slowly studying to be an interior designer. through that blog, i started to see a lot of photography and photography blogs including this one. right before i started my blog, i had bought a camera simply to take pictures at the zoo because i had not been in over 20 years, and i had not owned a camera for almost as long. i was tired of not recording things like that. i found i could not stop snapping all summer long {two summers ago}. so i also started a photo blog. here is one of my earliest photo blog posts that shows how trigger-happy i was:
http://itsjusthowiseethings.blogspot.com/

it was like i was making up for lost time. now, i just try to use it as an art form as much as i use it for documenting things. and i, too am addicted. shutter sisters has been one of my biggest inspirations along the way. it's been one of the biggest things that inspired me to grow and learn. still on that path. great post, meredith!

[georgia]

oops, i pasted the wrong url. here it is.
http://itsjusthowiseethings.blogspot.com/2008/09/goodbye-summerwe-had-blast-you-and-i.html

[kristin]

yes i too inherited my dad's old camera when i was in high school. it was a minolta. i took photography class as a senior for an elective. we shot black and white and developed it in the high school dark room. it was magical. placing our work in the solutions in separate bins watching them develop right before our eyes oh yeah i was hooked. but then life happened and just a few short years later i pawned that very camera for money i needed. it was a sad day. sad that i had to pawn it. sad that i had taken my life off path. but it was done. and life went on.... from there i had a few junky 35mm film cameras and then one day a point and shoot. then feb 27th 2005 i walked The Gates exhibit in NYC's central park. i had never been to anything like this my whole life. these massive orange flags whipped and cracked in the winter wind. the sun shown on the fresh fallen snow. i was in a city i LOVE, these vivid most beautiful orange flags against a clear blue sky was intoxicating. i clicked probably 200 frames that day. i could not stop. when i loaded those shots on my computer something stirred inside me. i remembered that feeling i had in high school. a spark was relit and passion returned. thanks mere this was such a great post i have to admit i have goosebumps a little remembering this path.... thank you.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14811117@N02/3028894380/

[spread your wings]

i can't remember just how and when the love started but it goes back to high school for sure. Making box cameras, working in the darkroom with my older brother, taking photography classes in college and loving the darkroom experience most of all. I've had numerous cameras, Nikkormat, the 70s polaroid, my dad's old Argus, etc. Then my daughter started following a similar path - doing her first science project in elementary school on the box camera. Her love grew from there. Her wonderful eye for photography and her creativity inspires me and after following 3191 blog for a year or so I got the idea to start our mother/daughter blog as a way for the two of us to share our love of photography when she went away to school last year.
The shuttersisters blog has helped me grow and I hope I continue to grow and shoot better photos every day. I want to be good by the time I go to Provence next summer ; )

[Julie Alvarez]

My godfather gifted me a small camera, Kodak Instamatic was it's name I think. I was a girl back then, maybe 10 years old, or less. I never stopped.
I don't own many cameras, just my digital point and shoot (Lumix DMC-FS42), and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/2693544479/">my old Nikkormat</a>, with which I still <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliealvarez/sets/72157617779503892/">shoot a lot</a>.

[Samantha]

When I was 9 years old the Olympic torch was carried through my neighborhood on its way to the Los Angeles Olympics. We sat on the curb for a long time to get a good spot, and when the torch and runner came near I started madly clicking away with the camera my uncle had handed down to me. Well, clicking and sliding to advance the film. My mom looked down and me and said "Put down the camera so you can see it with your own eyes." I was so confused by that statement that it has stayed with me all this time. I now understand that although she saw the camera as detracting from my view, that was not what I was experiencing. At the time I did not have the words or insight to explain it, but now I understand that I see the camera as enhancing my view, but that not everyone experiences it the way I do. A shutter sister was born.

[Caroline]

Hi, my name is Caroline and I am addicted to photography :) There I said it!

I am not sure where my point of origin is...I have loved photography since I was little, but didn't pick up a "real" camera until 1 year ago. My life is now revolved around photography. For me it's an expression of my soul. A love so deep that I could not imagine my life without a camera. Pretty crazy, huh?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nowordz/4111003083/

[Patty Reiser]

My point of origin: September 20, 1993.
This day is vivid in my memory. It is the day my first husband died. Our daughter was put 10 weeks old. Once the chaos was over, I came to realize that we had never made it a priority to get a family photo. And with death, there are no do-overs.
I have been the mommy with camera close at hand ever since. There are days my family gets tired of me always snapping pictures but I know that one day, they will come to treasure those photos. Because you don't always get a second chance to capture a moment in time.

[kosenrufu mama]

my moment was on 12 years old, my father's old camera was for my first experiments, i loved it so much, now it's my coozy moment, i use to shoot for enjoyng being with myself!
http://esterdaphne.blogspot.com/

[xanthe]

what a beautifully inspirational post! taking photos has always been part of my life.... at high school shooting on 35mm, learning to process and develop, at art collage my love of polaroid. then the mid 90s i had an amazing affair with lomo, but in the late 90's i got my first digital point and shoot, and finally i could take as many photos i wanted and needed to satisfy my desire to document everything. two years ago i finally got my first digital slr, and my visual diary continues.
i am an image maker and photography is my addiction. thank you meredith.

[Leslie]

For a long time I didn't enjoy photography. I was timid and I thought my memories were enough. But three years ago I made a major life change that included travel and I started blogging to share my travels with friends and family.

I slowly fell in love with communicating through writing and even more through the photography. Earlier this year a friend's beautiful photos inspired me to purchase my first dslr. I still can't believe how much I enjoy it...the learning, the experimenting and sharing the results.

It is wonderful, there is no right or wrong, it is a marriage of creativity and techniques, that is a powerful form of communication. I love it!

[Crystal]

I don't remember my parents taking many pictures as I was growing up. But in high school my best friend's Dad shared some travel photos and closeups that he'd taken and I was fascinated. His daughter (my friend) took most of the yearbook pictures at school and I trailed her learning more. And then the Christmas I was expecting an engagement ring, my (to-be) husband surprised me with an Olympus OM-1 camera. It was a wonderful gift and the beginning of a love affair with cameras :)) And I did get the engagement ring - just 4 months later!

[Betzography]

For me it was looking through very old photographs when I stayed with my Grandmother. Everything about her, her home, her cooking, her photos and her amazing hugs made me feel unconditionally loved. The photos were kept in albums and there was this aroma.... nostalgia that made me want to know more about the people in each photo. Tidbits of family as they were and eras gone by captured through these little bits of paper and emulsion.

With a vivid imagination I would spend hours just creating lives and stories from one little photo. It stuck with me and now I like to think I'm passing a bit of my Grandmother on to my own children and giving them tidbits of life that they'll share with generations to come. Perhaps they'll be a great-great-granddaughter who'll daydream like me as she makes up stories for my own photos.

[jakki]

I remember my first was the 110 camera. I got it as a birthday gift and I didnt use it often. Matter of fact, i think it took me a while to finish the 'roll' and get it developed. Once i did...I was hooked. Being able to look at the 'moment' months later...there was no going back for me. I always kept a scrapbook but until I was about 16, the only thing I get in my rope bound scrapbooks were articles fromt he newspaper, notes we passed in class, and posters from TeenBeat....My photo's always went into the sticky backed photo eating photo albums but some how I clicked onto putting my photo's into the scrapbook and from there...I would tell my stories

[Trude]

Love that shot, a perfect B&W! I can remember playing with my dad's old Nikon on a family trip to Mammoth one summer, and on my mom's side my grandmother and aunt always had their cameras out (and were also published and won some awards). But the realization that I could do beautiful images too wasn't there until a few years ago when I joined the digital scrapbooking communities, and these women were sharing, honestly and openly, about what equipment they used and how they figured out their dSLR. That was the turning point for me. :) Haven't looked back since!

[Karyn]

My family took pictures..we didn't actually develop them often. Thus finding 10-15 yr old pictures in THE DRAWER OF FILM. I developed. With feverish impatience. I honestly don't know of one specific memory that started it all. I had a two fold love - getting as many pictures of my friends doing the craziest things possible....and capturing lightning. Literally. I LOVE lightning shots, and I've gotten a few in my time. It's all about capturing the crazy, wonderful, moment.

[camerashymomma ~ meredith winn]

oh joy. thank you all for sharing your memories! i have thoroughly enjoyed reading all your words and reliving memories with you all.

thank you for this feeling of sisterhood!
xo

[Lori]

My husband and I were blessed to travel overseas for many years and my mother-in-law encouraged me to take lots and lots of pictures so she could in turn paint them. I began to take pictures with the "eye of an artist" as I thought about her turning my pictures into paintings. She has even sold some of them! I still have a lot to learn about this craft. I just began reading blogs (like this one) this past year and find they are very inspirational ... thank you!

[Vanessa]

oh wow. such a great post.
I have ALWAYS, always, always loved photography.
I still have one of my first cameras- a kodak/fisher price blue thing that takes 110 film.
I can remember selling greating cards and wrapping paper door-to-door in order to save enough money for my first 35mm point and shoot. And I vividly remember asking my mom over and over for a 'real' camera (SLR).
Finally, for my high school graduation present I got my SLR. My god-dad, Buffalo took me to the local camera shop and I picked out a pentax. That thing went all over with me- mexico, spain, scottland, england, ireland. It held captured the memories of my late teens and early twenties.
My grandfather was a photographer, he developed film, 'down the cellar'. I have his old TLR Yashica. It is a prize and an honor to have it in my home. A link to my past. I think that in some way, even though I lived across the country from him, this was my connection to him- to take photos.
I might not always make the best pictures but what I do know is that I love making photographs, trying to capture a moment, to see the beauty in the world around. me. It makes me tear up to just think about how much I really do love this art form.

[cmv]

my love for photography came directly from seeing my dad constantly taking pictures with my "little brother" the story is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23061481@N06/4124128672/

[Alex]

The point of origin for me was my first trip to Europe on my own, when I was 17. I was visiting Venice during their famous carnival, and I was completely charmed by a group of people dressed up in Medieval costumes, standing by the water. They looked stunning, the light was stunning. It was a moment of pure magic and for the first time, I felt the need to capture an image because it moved me. The memory of that day still gives me goose bumps. It's a memory and an image that never cease to inspire me. I'm going to scan that pic to make sure I save it. As usual, thanks for a great post, Meredith!