I started photography as a kid with a little compact camera from the local store. Pictures were on the lower average, on the artistic and technical side... I went on anyway and with the support of my best mate's father I started taking photography seriously.
He opened for me the door of his black / white lab (in the bathroom, as you would) and encouraged me to buy a "real" camera: a Nikon compact (what I could afford at the time). Pictures were mainly holiday and travel ones, but they started getting better. One day, I bought my Pentax MZ-50 (ZX-50) just before leaving for a year in Britain.
I started getting into photography for real and it didn't get any better since. I particularly like landscapes. I am now trying to learn to include human beings in my photographs, especially in black and white...