How many years have the CR posters been shooting seriously / professionally

[J.R.]

I'm just curious what is the "experience" in terms of years that CR folks have been shooting professionally / seriously (for hobbyists).

Speaking for myself, a hobbyist who had a DSLR since 2009, I started shooting seriously only since December 2011 so I am in Option 1.

[chauncey]

I couldn't vote as I'm a non-pro type of shooter.       

[J.R.]

I couldn't vote as I'm a non-pro type of shooter.       

That's why I put "seriously" as an alternative in there ... To include hobbyists like myself

[OnceUponaHoneyB]

August 2012 I got my first paid gig, but I have been a hobbiest since I met my wife three years ago, as she is the true pro and sparked my interest.

[pierceography]

I bought my first SLR (t1i which was quickly upgraded to a 7D) in 2009.  I've never been paid outside of my employer throwing me some "lens donation" money for a few city scape shots to hang in our conference rooms.  Though that isn't to say I wouldn't want to get paid, but my actual profession keeps me too busy to consider ever doing it outside of the occasional weekend shoot.

Photography is just something I like to dump a lot of my "allowance" into... as well as fend of questions/sarcastic jabs from my wife about why I insist in hauling a ridiculous amount of camera equipment with me when we go on vacation.  ;-)

[bdunbar79]

Started shooting film in 1995 at the age of 16 and boy was I terrible!  Gradually I got better, and stubbornly stayed with film until I bought a 5D Mark II shortly after its release.  I didn't get real serious until I purchased that camera, so really, not all that long of a time.  However I didn't start the AU and GLIAC jobs until this past fall.

[GaryJ]

Started with a Pentax in the mid 70's,then a Canon AE-1 early 80's followed by Zenza Bronica 645,digital Canons from 2005,some paid but mostly a super enthusiast

[Hobby Shooter]

First time I was published was in 2008. Those were pictures for an article I had written and they weren't very good. I put myself in the first category. I would say I have shot seriously for less than a year, I have done some photo gigs both paid and unpaid, but I am NOT, nor do I aspire to become, a professional. I am not good enough. But I love it.

[Nick Gombinsky]

Got my father's old Pentax ESII from the 70s when I first said I wanted to take a photography course at age 15 (2004). Decided I wanted to do that for a living at 16 (2005), and have been working professionally since I was 17 (2005/2006). That makes it 7 years now...

Of course, how "professional" I was in my first couple of years is debatable... but I guess that happens to all of us when starting out.

[Jel_55]

Started off with a second hand AE-1 in 1991. My first paid event was to shoot a corporate function at a Horse Race Track whilst I was at university in 1996. (I hired an Eos 1N for the day as my new little Eos 500N just didn't look the part even with the grip!)

As a very enthusiastic hobbyist, I've shot various events over the years - mainly family and friends functions. Never really thought about getting paid for it as like other posters, never considered myself good enough and did it more for the love of the hobby!

[Zlatko]

Photographing weddings for 10 years, and as a serious hobby for many years before that.

[iP337]

Interesting histories guys! I started with my dad's FujiFilm FinePix S1 Pro (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujis1pro) back in 2000 it was one of the first DSLRs and one of the first 6MP digital cameras (a 3mp "Super CCD" sensor actually but produced 6mp)  I had no idea what I was doing, shot only in auto and swore the built-in flash was helping my night landscape shots lol, didn't even know what lens I had on it nor did I ever take it off.

Later on I got a used Canon XL1 video camcorder for school and loved it, became a Canon fanboy that day so I bought a used Canon D60 (one of the first Canon digital cameras) with a Canon EF 85mm F/1.8 USM.  I was told 85mm is a good range but didn't realize about crop factors, so kept trying to do wide portraits and couldn't understand why I couldn't get what others did lol, eventually learned to use it as a 135mm and added some zooms but the 85mm on APS-C is still my favorite lens. 

Found a friend (another Canon fanboy with an XL1s and 20D) and started covering Weddings and Sport Events for peanuts ($300-400 a pop lol), learned manual controls and exposure settings on the job lol.  Then got a 9-5 in 2004 which took up too much time so my Photo and Video gigs got pushed to the weekends but I started using a Panasonic Lumix LX1 as my "always on me" personal camera and surprising learned a lot about composition.  Got published as a camera man for a documentary on the 2006 Formula Drift championship tour (I helped cover LA ;-D).  Got let go from the 9-5 around the time the 5D MkII came out and changed everything, so I sold everything and relearned shooting and editing video with a DSLR and instead of getting another job decided to go full pro lol.  Ended up getting a 7D instead (friend got the 5D2) been happily shooting Weddings and Events ever since.  We just sold the 7D and 5D2 for 5D3s and waiting for the 70D(hopefully) as I still prefer APS-C.