Debatable

People often ask me how long I have been into photography. It's debatable when I got into photography on a serious level, what qualifies as a serious level? I know I was aware of it from a very young age as my old Dad (no longer with us) was a keen photographer. I remember taking some cool shots of my feet accidentally triggering the shutter while walking around Trafalgar Sq on school visits to London aged about 11 or 12. And I travelled overland to India aged 19, I don't consider myself to be a "serious" photographer back then but I documented the journey with a Kodak Instamatic film camera (still have the prints, and one image from it on my Insta) I had an unplanned stay in Iran because of the Islamic revolution of 1979 (I'm older than I look) The Kodak Instamatic was a basic point and shoot with symbols as a crude distance scale, and I don't recall any control over the exposure, maybe a symbol method again? The film came in a cassette which just clipped into the back of the camera, smaller film then 35mm, really just a glorified pin hole camera! But it worked in a fashion. 

My first decent camera was an Olympus Trip 35, 35mm film camera. I started doing the obvious landscapes, and pics of people I knew. Later I started using Canon 35mm SLR cameras, and medium format twin lens film cameras...more landscapes, yawn. I had a spell doing wedding photography, even bigger yawn, which I was good at, but the novelty soon waned and it got to the point where it was actually stifling my creativity! I did a stint at College doing a BTEC diploma, which was a waste of time really, the Tutor was a waste of space, I learnt more through my own efforts and I am still learning today. The only landscapes I do now tend to be Cityscapes. It wasn't until 2001 during a visit to NYC and San Francisco that I slowly discovered/developed my love for street photography, and documentary style photography. so maybe that's when it became serious? As I say it's debatable. I could do a post on what qualifies as a professional photographer. When I used to do wedding photography my own definition for a professional was someone who can deliver the goods, no matter what! I know some people who think simply having a degree on the subject makes them professional. 😂