David Sargent Photography

05/24/2026

I think I’ll have this be the final set to share on Instagram from my San Diego trip.

Overall, I’m really pleased with what I was able to get on my few walks in the mornings and in the evenings. San Diego is full of life and color. We met good people, had good food, and I would absolutely return for a deeper dive into this place.

I also am happy with the deeper connection I’ve made with the ZF and manual focus lenses. On this trip I took the 21mm TTartisan 1.5 and I’m glad that I did. It was a lot of fun to use and I really like the images from it. Since then I’ve acquired a couple more manual focus lenses I’m excited to shoot with.

But now we’re in the season of spring migration for birds. The street photography will be put on pause and the focus will go back to nature for a while.

05/16/2026

Before the sun came up.
San Diego.
Nikon ZF // TT Artisan 21mm f1.5

05/13/2026

This city had an undeniable vibrance to it.
I put a lot of steps in around sunrise and sunset and I’m glad I did. The warmth of the morning had a totally different impact on the scenes than the tones that fell on San Diego in the evening. I brought with me an 85mm, a 40mm, and a 21mm and while all these shots are with the 40mm (I think), I really did make equal use of all three focal lengths on this weekend.
There are more images to come, but if you want to see all the highlights in bulk, you should really check out episode 67 of the .overtime podcast I do with . On YouTube you’ll see a larger set and I go through a lot of process shooting around for this whole trip.

05/12/2026

One of the more colorful evenings in San Diego.
I must say, as time has gone on - and it’s been about 14 months now - I have become more deeply enamored with the Nikon ZF. When I say it’s my favorite camera I’ve ever owned, I mean that. And I owned a D850 and D500.
The ergonomics are junk. The sensor is just fine. But the satisfaction of actually taking photos with the thing is unlike any other camera I’ve owned. It’s simply a joy.
I have also been using RAW+Jpeg a lot more lately. Actually, since San Diego the ZF has stayed there. I really like using the creative recipes and film sims to shoot with and see those color grades on the LCD. However, in those tough situations regarding exposure, having the RAW is ideal. I’ve also been solely using PhotoLab9 now for a few months and I’m really liking it; even more so now that I’m using Film Pack 8 with it to reapply film looks similar to what I was looking at in camera but with extra advantages since I’m working on a RAW file. That’s been a very positive experience for me so far.

More SD photos to come.

05/10/2026

Flying further into the American Southwest, I was incredibly grateful for both the window seat and the lack of clouds as I saw landscapes like I’ve never seen before.
Again - Nikon ZF & Viltrox 85mm 1.4
Not sure where. Possibly northeast Arizona areas

05/10/2026

Alright fine. I’ll finally share some photos taken throughout my trip to San Diego last month. But it was a lot so I’ll be slicing it up and posting small sections at a time.
This, for example, I believe was mostly as out longer flight from Chicago to San Diego was flying over what I think was Colorado. I packed the Nikon ZF and I’m sure most of these are shot with the Viltrox 85mm 1.4 Pro from the window seat. More on the way.

05/02/2026

The way a sunrise or a sunset, the latter in this case, slips into and out of phases of bursting light and dulled monochrome just because some clouds are sweeping by can have a photographer on their toes waiting for the final breath of daylight. Often is the case that it is worth the patience.

04/27/2026

As mass migrations are happening this spring, I was lucky enough to catch a single Horned Grebe on the lake I live closest to. In fact, this lake is only a block away from my home. Last year I spent a lot of time searching for horned grebe and finally found that and other migratory grebe species toward the end of the year. However, the horned grebe I found last year was not in this beautiful plumage that gives them their iconic look.
Unfortunately I never got a closer look than this, so for now I’ll be grateful for the few moments spent with this bird, and look forward to the next opportunity.

04/26/2026

https://youtu.be/9q71JmDmFRs?si=3LiYCff0JVPw4brL

Episode 67 | Running RAW+SOOC Jpegs with the Fujifilm XT-4 and Nikon Zf

01/31/2026

A few photos from the frozen portion of Lake Superior by the Ore Dock last Saturday.