In the summer of 2003, I travelled from Edmonton, Alberta, where I was a post-doctoral fellow in chemistry, to Wolfville, Nova Scotia, to visit a colleague then at Acadia University to work on a small, collaborative research project. I took with me a Nikon F65 film camera, equipped with a 28-80 mm zoom lens. The gallery above shows a selection of photographs I made in and around Wolfville during the trip. The town sits close to the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the largest tidal range in the world.
Terry Fox /
Terry Fox is one of several neighbourhood cats who frequent our corner lot, which I suspect serves as a shortcut for animal traffic between houses. He has taken to whiling away the sunny springtime afternoons by slumbering on our deck. And to leaping into the house through my office window whenever it is open—much to the annoyance of our own cats, who, despite their advanced years, always seem ready for a fight. It looks as if he is sleeping in these photographs, but he is in fact wide awake and steadfastly ignoring me, as cats in their regal superciliousness are wont to do.
I made these exposures with my new-to-me Nikon FE mounted with a 180 mm f/2.8 AI-s lens, set to minimum focus distance at f/8. Despite the fact that Terry, who was unequivocally aware of my presence, resolutely refused to look at me, I love the way these photographs turned out. This lens is spectacular. I look forward to using it in portraiture.
Vancouver Alleyway Vignettes /
A pair of diptychs, featuring garbage and green waste bins, seen on a sunny Saturday in Kerrisdale. These four photographs were selected from the test roll of Ilford Delta 400 Professional that I exposed using a new-to-me Nikon FE equipped with a 50 mm f/1.8 E-series lens.
Glimpses of a Passage /
First Camera Review: Nikon F65 /
Behold the alluring beauty of the Nikon F65 film camera! The svelte, polycarbonate, turn-of-the-century stylings! The “champagne” silver!
The heart melts.
In 2002, I paid $500 for this camera when I was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Alberta in Edmonton—though I had absolutely no money at the time. And though the F65 featured at the bottom of Nikon’s lineup of amateur cameras, it was more “professional” than any camera I had ever before held, let alone owned. The Nikon F65, pictured above with the 28-80 mm f/3.3-5.6G kit lens, was my first serious camera, and I was overjoyed to make photographs with it. In those days, I carried it with me everywhere in the blue, Nikon-branded shoulder bag that I purchased at the same time, and which I still use everyday.
I have owned and used dozens of other cameras since buying the F65, most of them more “serious” and “professional,” not to mention much more valuable and collectible than the lowly Nikon. However, this little electromechanical marvel, despite its many weaknesses, occupies a special place in my heart and in my growth as a photographer—even as an artist—and for that reason, I’ve chosen to begin my new series of camera reviews with it.