The Nikon F4 used in my photo project work

For some reason I keep hanging heavier and heavier cameras around my neck!  I went from a Pentax Spotmatic to the Nikon F to a few different compact cameras back to the F and then the F2, and now the F4.  In actual use it’s really not that much heavier, and I’ve gotten used to it.  I’ve used three lenses with it, the 28mm f/2.8 AI-s Nikkor, 35mm f/2 AI-s Nikkor, and 85mm f/2 AI Nikkor, the three most modern lenses I own, and I’ve been very happy with the matrix metering so far; there have only been a couple occasions in 5 rolls where the shot I wanted wasn’t exposed properly.  This is one fully-electronic camera that you don’t have to worry about turning on every time you use it, I keep it set to S from the time I take it out in the morning to putting it away at night, and it’s always ready to take fantastic pictures, no drain on the batteries as far as I can tell.

Maybe it’s the updated multicoating of the lenses, maybe the lighting was just better in those few weeks, and maybe I wasn’t necessarily nailing the exposure before, but I’m in love with the look of all of these.  Is this going to supplant my F2s?  No.  The only thing I really have against the Nikon F4 is its bulk and weight but the amount of features you’re getting for that definitely tip the balance in the F4’s favor.  What I will use this camera for is:
-autoexposure-necessary shots: slide film, low-ASA, or any other speed besides 400 with which I’m really not that familiar
-fast-paced shoots where I need a motordrive

Behind the scenes of the 2022 pre-season meeting

I was commissioned this year to take headshots for the new drivers at AOW, this was me getting warmed up.

It was a great time hanging out and ended up being the last time I took pictures of one of our number.

Selected portraits from the 2022 pre-season meeting

About as current as it gets here at The Resurrected Camera, these date to the middle of May 2022, barely a month ago.  My job hired me to capture portraits of the new drivers at the annual pre-season meeting, to be used on the website; these photos amount to the first professional work I’ve seen out in the wild in quite some time, perhaps ever.  The meeting was held at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort and I used Cheyenne Mountain as a backdrop, shooting out on the patio in the shade of a building as the sun was setting.  I got a few of the not-so-new drivers as well: all in all I made portraits of 15 drivers and include my favorites below:

Besides the cowboys (and cowgirl) themselves, the star of the show was the AI’d Nikkor-PC 105mm f/2.5 portrait lens which was used for all but one of the exposures above.  There’s been so much written over the last 70+ years about the 105mm Nikkor so I don’t know what I can add except to say that I picked it up because it was cheap, I wanted to have at least one portrait lens, and it had a good reputation.  I’ve used it for a few portrait sessions so far and have been extremely happy with the results, as well as that from my AI Nikkor 85mm f/2 lens (which also makes an appearance here).  I would call either of these lenses a must-have for a Nikon manual-focus system, whichever you happen to run across first.  If you can, get both.

I suppose this means that I can call myself a professional photographer, right?  I’m hoping that this can be springboard me to bigger and better things but we’ll see.

Clementine and Mustang Sally 4×5

Two of the cowgirls at our outfit, Clementine and Mustang Sally.

Happy December.

Jeep tours 2018, Part II

2018 was the year I shot Canon gear.  It’s hard to remember back this far…but I had a lot of Double-X that I’d bought from the Film Photography Project and I wanted to use it all up, so it was all put through the Canon 7 (Part I) and Canon AE-1, which is below:

After shooting all these I decided to go back to what I know best, Tri-X in my beloved SPII, especially with the Yellow 50 (and now Yellow 35 too).  I think that being used to the Takumar lenses with Infinity to the left, it was hard for me to use the Canon (and for the Canon 7, the Leitz) lenses because they’re the opposite and it caused me to slow down too much and miss shots, or get out-of-focus results.  I’ll admit that the M42 system does have its shortcomings when it comes to camera body features, etc, but sometimes you just have to go with what you know.  While the Canon AE-1 can give me fine pictures (and it’s my go-to camera for slide film), I’m too familiar with the layout of the Pentax lenses.  So if I do ever abandon the M42 mount for something else, it’ll be Nikon I go to, not Canon.

Jeep tours 2018, Part I

As another season comes to a close I realize I have an incredible backlog!  I’ve posted some pics of last year’s season, but I’ve grouped the majority of the pictures here (there’s a Part II as well).  They’re separated by camera because I’m pretty sure that these were taken with the Canon 7.  However, that said, it was so long between when I shot them and when I actually looked at them: I think there was a roll in there shot on the Spotmatic.

Anyway the Canon 7 has taken a few hard knocks and the rangefinder patch is out of alignment.  I haven’t used it for about a year now, haven’t gotten around to sending it out for a CLA.  Another thing to note is that while I usually take my film to Cameraworks, all the rolls of film last year were processed by Mike’s Camera in Boulder.