Kiss & Tell

I recently did a photoshoot with my friend John. Nothing fancy, but we popped over to his place to chit-chat, and he wanted to do a shoot with me.  No, not "with" me as a helper, but me as a "model" so to speak.
The photos he took of me and Donna were quite interesting, with the whole "Steampunk" look going on, which was rather humourous, and actually quite fun.  Sometimes I like being on the other side of the camera for a change.

Well, that night I decided on doing a shoot with Donna, and having a bit of fun.  During it, I brought out my Nikkormat FT2, a camera from the mid to late 70's (75 through to 77) that was a fully mechanical camera, with mirror lockup.  It was essentially the last of the non-AI (automatically indexing) cameras that Nikon released.
Well, I wanted to try out the lens I had received, for free no less.  A Sigma 70-200mm ƒ/3.5 AIS Autofocusing Lens.  The lens mounts pefectly to the camera, stops down as you would expect it to, and is crystal clear and pin-sharp!  Even wide open it's remarkable.

Needless to say, I wasn't shooting wide-open, but doing some strobist work with the camera, so was stopped down around ƒ/5.6 or ƒ/8.
Rather a conundrum for me, is the fact that I was a big time Canon loyalist, but I cannot deny that I have a rather strange and unfounded love for this camera I got for $10.00.
Perhaps it's the Nikonist in me, perhaps it's just because it's a film camera.  I may never know..

Kiss & Tell - Nikkormat FT2 - Sigma 70-200 ƒ/3.5 @ ƒ/5.6
Polypan F 50ASA - Tmax Developer 1+9 8:30 @ 20°C

A little bit of Strobist work, using a Chinese Blazzeo 180Ws Strobe in a bounce Umbrella, SunPAK 622 Pro Auto Handlemount, and an AC/Slave Strobe as the B/G lamp.  I'm working on making this photo into a print, simply because it's just near on perfect!

Until next time, keep those shutters firing!