Chesapeake

I ordered my Nikkor 800mm PF lens from Nikon on Friday night and it was delivered late Saturday evening thanks to priority delivery from Nikon Professional Services.

I went out to the Great Bridge Lock Park on Sunday morning to put it through its paces. The first thing I noticed was how light it was. It’s pretty amazing that a 800mm lens is light enough to be hand-held. It’s only September, so the winter migratory birds have not arrived yet. The Brown Pelicans that were so abundant in February were nowhere to be seen. All in all, the pickings were very slim.

Exploring with Ilford Delta 400 and the Nikon F6

For this roll, I loaded Ilford Delta 400 into my Nikon F6 and carried it across several locations in Chesapeake and Norfolk between December 28, 2024 and February 14, 2025. Delta 400 is one of my favorite black-and-white films because of its fine grain and wide tonal range, which make it a good fit for different subjects and lighting conditions.

Battlefield Park – Great Bridge

I caputured a couple of images at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens after changing film on my F6. From there I moved to Battlefield Park in Great Bridge, where the film’s tonal range really stood out. The mix of open spaces, tree lines, water and the Great Bridge bridge made for varied scenes, and Delta 400 delivered consistent results across them.

Fading Malls and Coastal Light with Kodak Portra 400

This roll of Kodak Portra 400, shot on my Nikon F6, gave me a good mix of subjects to work with—abandoned malls, lakes, bridges, and gardens. Portra 400 handled everything well, showing why it’s such a versatile film. The colors came out natural and balanced, the grain stayed fine, and the film’s wide exposure latitude made it easy to manage both tricky lighting indoors and bright conditions outdoors.

City Streets, Quiet Trails, and Wild Marshes with the Nikon FM2n

This roll carried me through a mix of urban scenes, quiet parks, and wild marshland—an excellent showcase for what black-and-white film can reveal in such different environments. Shot entirely on my Nikon FM2n with Ilford HP5+, these images reflect a season of exploration between August 1, 2024 and November 3, 2024.

HP5+ is one of my favorite black-and-white stocks. Its slightly more pronounced grain and high latitude give it a grit that feels at home in both city streets and natural landscapes. It rewards careful metering but also forgives a lot, making it a perfect companion for wandering with the FM2n.

It’s been a long while since I posted my film photography. I developed several rolls in March and I’m finally getting around to blogging about them. This roll of film was all about slowing down and letting the Nikon FM2n guide the experience. The FM2n, fully mechanical and as dependable as they come, has a way of making you think about every frame before you press the shutter. No screens, no autofocus—just pure photography.

After Winter Storm Kingston came through, I knew it could be an interesting time at the Great Bridge Locks. So once again, I headed out with my Nikon Z9 and brought along the Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.4 VR lens because I wanted a little more reach for the eagles, and I felt I hadn’t used it much since getting it.

There was a lot of ice on the water, along with a lot of dead speckled trout due to the recent cold snap that brought arctic temperatures to our area. It was kind of funny to watch the pelicans come down and try to get the trout that were dead below the ice.

Winter storm Kingston made a visit. Having snow just a week before, we weren’t expecting another snow storm in the Hampton Roads region. We normally get maybe one a year. But Kingston was going to be different. And it turned out to be the biggest storm we had since 2010. When it was over, we had almost 12 inches of snow.

But the crazy thing about it, this snow was gone in a couple of days. The texture of the snow was unlike what we usually see. This snow was dry and light. Almost like what you would find out west. Usually, our snow is wet and heavy. It makes a mess as it thaws and refreezes. Within 48 hours, this snowfall was mostly gone. And it wasn’t even because of the temperatures. It’s like it just evaporated.

I had such a great time the week before, that I went back to the Great Bridge Locks again. Once again, I headed out with my Nikon Z9 and the Nikkor Z 100-400mm f/4.5–5.6 S lens, hoping to catch the local birdlife—and once again, the Locks didn’t disappoint.

I arrived about 45 minutes earlier than the previous week and started at the boat ramp. The Brown Pelicans were still there. Probably numbered around 100 or so. And they were busy.

I love mornings at the Great Bridge Locks, especially in the winter when the air is crisp and the wildlife is active. I headed out early with my Nikon Z9 and the Nikkor Z 100-400mm f/4.5–5.6 S lens, hoping to catch some local birdlife—and the Locks didn’t disappoint.

I didn’t arrive until almost 10am, much later than I would have liked. But almost immediately, I spotted a immature Bald Eagle flying over the water. It was looking for a late breakfast, right in front of a squadron of Brown Pelicans. There’s nothing quite like locking focus on an eagle in flight—the grace, the wingspan, the power.

A Southeastern district game took place at Hickory on Tuesday night as the Hickory girls took the floor against Western Branch.

I used my Nikon Z9 body and Nikkor Z 70-200 f/2.8 S lens to shoot the action.

It was a hard fought game by both teams but Western Branch was able to come away with a close victory in the end.

You can purchase images from the game on MaxPreps or my website.

The Indian River gym was packed as the Braves hosted district rivals King’s Fork on Friday night. King’s Fork came into the game ranked #4 in the area while Indian River was ranked in the top 15.

I used my Nikon Z9 body and Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena lens to shoot the action.

King’s Fork proved to be to much for the Braves and won the game easily. Even with the loss, Indian River is destined for the playoffs.

Rivalry game at Hickory on Tuesday night as the Hickory girls took the floor against their rival Great Bridge.

I used my Nikon Z9 body and Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 lens to shoot the action.

Hickory jumped out to an early lead, but Great Bridge started chipping away in the 3rd quarter. Great Bridge took over in the 4th quarter to grab the victory.

You can purchase images from the game on MaxPreps or my website.

It was senior night at Great Bridge on Wednesday night as the #2 ranked Wildcats hosted a tri-meet with Hickory and #1 ranked Grassfield. Grassfield cruised to an easy win over Hickory. I wasn’t able to get any images of this match. But I did shoot the match between Great Bridge and Hickory followed by the match between Great Bridge and Grassfield.

I brought my Nikon Z9 body and Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena lens. I love how the Plena lens renders the backgrounds, but sometimes the wrestlers definitely get too close for this lens.

It was a packed house at Hickory on Friday night as they took the floor against their rival Great Bridge. It was the first time that I’ve been shooting games at Hickory that they pulled out the bleachers on the other side of the court.

I used my Nikon Z9 body and Nikkor Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena lens to shoot the action.

Hickory jumped out to a commanding lead, but Great Bridge started chipping away in the 3rd quarter. They cut the lead to 3 points with less than two minutes to play but they were unable to get any closer.

Happy New Year! I started off 2025 with a morning of photography. I went to Battlefield Park in Great Bridge and walked around a little. Nothing like blue skies to quell my photography enthusiasm! But I captured a few images there and then moved on to Stumpy Lake Natural Area to see if anything was happening there. It was dead too. A few birds off in the distance. But other than one Great Blue Heron that I grabbed a couple images of, it was not much of a success. Hope the rest of my photographic journey is better in 2025!

It was doubleheader night at Greenbrier Christian Academy as both the girls and boys took on Hickory High School. It was my first time in their gym and while it was a decent size gym with a food court upstairs that overlooked the floor, there was about six feet of space between the ends of the court and the walls. The good news with that is I could rest my back against the wall.

It was doubleheader night at Hickory High School as both the girls and boys hosted Norfolk Academy. The girls game was a very competitive game that Hickory looked like they had control of going into the fourth quarter. But Norfolk Academy got the momentum and dominated the fourth quarter to win.

The Hickory boys took a 20 point lead to halftime and looked to be in complete control of their game. But Norfolk Academy fought back in the second half and even took a 1 point lead with a couple of minutes to go before Hickory finally got control of the game and won.

I started my high school basketball season off with a game between Southeastern District rivals Grassfield High and Deep Creek High. Sadly, I was going to have to shoot this game sitting on the floor since my telescoping stool got messed up from baseball season.

Grassfield controlled nearly all of the first half of this game but Deep Creek went on a row in the last minute to actually take the lead at halftime. Deep Creek then went on to dominate the second half.

The Grassfield hosted the Nansemond River Warriors on Friday night for their homecoming. A clear night with perfect temps. Another Chesapeake game with outdated lighting. I really hope they can get around to updating the lighting at the Chesapeake high schools.

Nansemond River was dressed in white while Grassfield wore their dark blue jerseys. Perfect color for a dimly lit field. Detect any sarcasm there?

I only shot the first half of the game as I wasn’t feeling great but at halftime Nansemond River built a 28-7 lead.

The Hickory Hawks hosted their city rival Grassfield on Friday night. Great night for football as I had to put on the hat and thin gloves.

Hickory isn’t the best place to shoot football at night. The combination of outdated lighting and black jerseys make for some high ISOs in the images. Luckily, software has come a long way in the last ten years and the noise cleans up well.

Thanks to Hurricane Helene’s tracking, and the upcoming rains we were expecting on Friday, we had a football game on Thursday night. It was Military Appreciation night as the Hickory Hawks hosted their rival, the Great Bridge Wilcats.

The combination of high school stadium lighting, dark open spaces between the two sides of the stadium, and Hickory’s all black jerseys, make for a difficult night of shooting. It gets so dark out there. Even shooting wide open at f/2.8 on the 400mm lens, my ISOs were reaching my peak settings. Lets hope these schools can switch out to LED lights in the near future.

I made it out to Colon L. Hall stadium in Great Bridge for the Friday night high school football game between the Oscar Smith Tigers and the Great Bridge Wildcats. Great Bridge’s stadium had undergone renovations and it was finally complete. I have to say the stadium looks really good now. I want to say it was originally built in 1962. Made completely out of cinder blocks and concrete, it had suffered from neglect and black mold for years. They gutted and ripped out a lot of the back wall and replaced it with steel beams.

I shot my first high school football game of the season on August 29th. The game featured the home team Deep Creek Hornets of Chesapeake, Virginia and the visiting Currituck County Knights of Barco, North Carolina.

Having just received my “new” Nikon 400mm f/2.8G ED VR lens a day earlier, I was eager to try it out and since it was Labor Day Weekend coming up, most of the high school football games would be played on Thursday. Deep Creek High is not too far from my house, so I decided to go there and shoot. Did I mention I shoot for MaxPreps too? The gallery from this game is on both MaxPreps and my own site.

As my film journey progresses, I absolutely love the simplicity of shooting with my Nikon FM2n and Yashica Electro 35 GSN. But I have been thinking about getting into medium format at some point. I’ve really had my eye on finding another Yashica. Especially the Mat 124G. But then I was watching Youtube and and I saw Kai’s video on using the Nikon F6.

Watching his video got me thinking. I have the Nikon FM2n. The perfect, most simplistic 35mm SLR made by Nikon. It doesn’t even need a battery to function. But what if I paired it up with the most advanced 35mm SLR Nikon ever made? That would be an awesome complement to the FM2n.