 My name is David Patton. When I started photography, I wanted to make art. But with bills to pay and a family to feed, I decided it would be better to be a working photographer than a starving artist. So I took a job as a photojournalist. 25 years and thousands of assignments later, it was time to go back to my first love. Come along as I follow my passion trying to create art that shows the essence of nature in a photograph. I'll be sharing my successes and my failures in hopes to inspire and educate. This is my journey. This is Riding the Edge. Well, I thought before we get too far into this roll of film, I thought I would say what this roll of film's loaded in. I've got myself a Nikon F4. It's the non-vertical grip version. So it only takes four AA batteries. It's a bit of a chunk. And I wouldn't say this is a great camera for everybody. But I knew exactly what I was getting when I bought this camera, since I used the vertical grip version many years ago as a journalist. So I knew it was going to be a heavy, chunky little camera. But I wanted the metering ability to meter with some manual focus lenses. I wanted that versatility. And I wanted a camera that was built to professional specifications. These are very tough cameras. And this F4 fits my hand perfectly. I forgot how well it fits my hand. But because of its weight and its size, I wouldn't suggest this camera, this model, for everybody. But if you want a very durable camera with mirror lockup that will meter with just about any Nikon lens, give this one a look. But today we're just going to be out testing this and making sure everything's working out OK. I have no reason to believe it won't. With every new to me camera, there's always a learning curve. This is the first roll of film I've shot with this camera. So my expectations aren't too high. I need to get a few rolls through it to get a feel for how this camera works, how the meter's working, how my lenses are working on this camera. There's a lot of things. It might take more than a few rolls. But I can say I really enjoy using this camera, even though it is on the heavy side. The grip is very comfortable, built like a tank. The thing about Nikon's professional line F line cameras is they're just precision pieces of equipment. And if it's in good shape, man, there's something really cool about using a precision camera. The camera built to really tight tolerances. After many, many years, I was just 30 years old, something maybe more, it still feels amazing to use. Now, if my photos don't turn out that well, it's really just me learning how to use this camera again. It's been many years since I've actually used one. I think one of the things I like most about 35 millimeter film is I have enough exposures on a roll to experiment a little bit. Like this composition I'm trying to make here. There's a lot of chaos. There's a lot of highlights, a lot of lighter foliage that's kind of dotting around this trunk of this big tree here. It's going to either look very chaotic. I'm hoping that I get enough of this tree. I've got some of the upper branches up in here on the top of the frame. And then of course, we've got this massive trunk. I'm hoping that that's enough to ground the image. You've got a bit of a breeze, so I'm going to get a little bit of movement probably in the foliage. It's just one of those things where it's worth the experiment. But I see a lot of things that could make this shot not work. But it's worth using a frame to see. 36 exposures does give me a little room for playing. I mean, experimentation. That's really important to my photography. So typically, I'll have quite a few throwaway shots on a roll just because I experiment a little bit. But when you get one that just works really well, it was really worth it. This isn't a shot I would waste a whole lot of film on. It's going to be a half second exposure, F8, 28 millimeter lens, and we'll see what happens. I find that I'm often making photos of the space in between. This time of year really brings it out because the leaves are not all off the trees. They're kind of thin through. Sometimes it's just a diagonal line through the frame, a little bit of extra contrast where the tree is. There's just enough of leaves that are falling off that you can kind of see through it. You can see that space. I think that's one of the things that attracts me to compositions this time of year. If you like coming along on my photography journey and would like to help keep me out making photos and videos, consider picking up one of my zines or visit my PayPal donation page at my website ridenitsphotography.com. And most of all, don't forget to like and subscribe. And why not leave a comment introducing yourself? I'm always interested in who stopped by my channel to say hello. So until next time, thanks for coming along for the ride.