I got into photography when I was about 15, being drawn into the technical side through my interest in astronomy. My high school had a photography class and several well equipped darkrooms, and I learned the basics of shooting and processing film. We learned how to bulk load our own film canisters, how to handle and process the film, and how to make prints. I even learned to process my own slides using the Ectachrome E-6 process, and did some B&W film reversal into slides.
The assignments in the class started drawing me over into the aesthetic side of photography, learning about composition and color. When I was about 16, I spent most of a summer's earnings on a Nikkormat FT2, which I still have. As work and family came along, photography changed from a serious hobby for me into the typical family and travel photos. In the past decade, the film-related aspects of the hobby have almost receeded into the pages of history. The digital camera has changed everything - in many ways, for the better. But I'll always have a certain nostalgic attachement to bulky enlargers, safe lights, and other paraphenalia of the old days.
I digitized a few of my slides from the analog days. Check out the gallery