D850

 D850 history

Tell me, will it make me a better photographer? It can’t hurt. I still need after all these years, all the help I can get. I began my photography history with a Yashica 35mm Emile Santiestiban(sic) my high school science teacher sold me for $25. It came with a 135mm telephoto and sekonic light meter. He let me use the darkroom at Williston High, as all I shot was monochrome Tri and Plus-X. For graduation, with the money I received, I went to Harmon’s in Gainesville and finally purchased a Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic with a 50mm super takimar lens. It had the internal needle meter. I used this, along with eventually several screw mount lenses purchased from a photo shop in Sylvia, NC until the mid eighties when I purchased a Nikon FM2 and FE2, later a F3. When digital arrived I gave in and started with a Nikon D40, which I still love. I’ve had several digital crop sensor Nikons but could never afford a full frame, which would replicate the old Nikons. Enter my son Jordon Stokes, who, home on leave from Korea in the Army, on his next assignment to Sicily, Italy, did for me one of nicest things a son could do for a photographer father, purchased me a top shelf  Nikon D850. After many delays, yesterday it arrived in the evening. I stayed home all day waiting. So this morning, in honor of the old Nikon lenses, I attached the 35mm 1.4 manual lens just as the vulture flew into the pine and landed. A fitting start if one appreciates my story of the vultures and how they were such an inspiration to me in the 2009 time with Melanie in Orlando with H1n1. So begins the era of what’s your excuse now? Oh, I will just have to have that latest, greatest lens, and that motor drive, and that computer to process....but for now, don’t call me, I’m too Stoked to talk.