Wagstaff Photography

04/15/2026

Way back in 1988, I managed to get myself a recently released Nikon F4S.

Shortly after, I was in the UK visiting family…and was determined to check out this place called Grays of Westminster.

Grays of Westminsterhat I did.
The shop is more than simply a camera store. Sure, they have all sorts or new & used gear. But it also showcases the history of Nikon. Part store, part museum, part shrine. Gray & his staff are second to none.

Gray is perhaps the most cordial shop owner I’ve met…before or since.

When I mentioned that I was using the new F4S he told me that mine was one of perhaps 2 or 3 in the country at the time. One being his that he had loaned out. It had not yet been made available in the UK at the time…and was still several weeks, or possibly months away from the official rollout.

Anyway, we chatted in his office about the camera, about all things Nikon…and generally solved all the world’s problems.

As I left he presented me with a Nikon baseball cap and a few other goodies. I’ve never forgotten that and returned several times…and I have pointed many people in his direction.

I have not been back for a few years now, but know that on my next visit…I WILL stop by.

Grays of Westminster

03/23/2026

Having a after a long walk.

03/15/2026

What a cool bit of kit.

The first time I visited that store there were only a very small number of F4’s in the country. Possibly only 2 at the time. One was mine.

The F4s was one of my favourite film cameras of all time. I still own it.

The knowledge of he & his staff is unmatched. They seemingly have EVERYTHING a Nikon user could wish for…and, like this camera, some things one didn’t even know they wanted. LOL

Along with all of the latest goodies, the collection of rarities & oddities is amazing.

03/14/2026

Cool. Ok, not EXACTLY the same spot…and almost certainly a different focal length lens…but still rather cool.

He flew across the world to stand in one exact spot. The same place his grandfather had stood 73 years earlier.

In the late 1940s, during the Allied occupation of Japan after World War II, a young soldier posed for a photograph near the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

The picture was simple. Just a man standing in the city far from home.

Decades later, after his grandfather had passed away, the man’s grandson found the old black and white photo and decided to do something special with it.

He wanted to find the exact place where it was taken.

With only the faded photograph as a guide, he flew to Tokyo and began searching. He studied the old image carefully, comparing the palace walls, the trees, the roads, and nearby landmarks with the modern city.

It was like solving a puzzle built across generations.

With help from locals who recognized the Imperial Palace area, he eventually found the precise spot where the photograph had been taken.

Then he stood there himself.

In the recreated photo, the two images sit side by side. His grandfather in grainy black and white from the 1940s, and the grandson in color more than seven decades later.

The same place. The same perspective. Only the world around them had changed.

For many people who saw the image online, it felt like a quiet bridge between past and present, a reminder that even after time moves forward, the places and memories that shaped our families still remain.

Follow Project Nightfall for more real stories that connect generations across time.

03/13/2026

Just playing around “painting” on my iPad.

12/04/2025

Kinda cool…but the first batch are sold out.
(Not that I’m looking to get one.)

06/19/2024

A promo piece I did well over a decade ago. O_o

07/22/2023

Good group and a worthy cause…

06/14/2023

Great organisation

Please Don’t Forget🤔

We have our Flapjack Fundraiser this Saturday, June 17 at the Applebee’s in Corona, CA (521 N. McKinley Dr) from 8am to 10am.

This is our last big fundraiser to help us fund the 2023 U.S. Adaptive Judo Championships the following weekend!!!

Tickets are only $10 each. You can buy them this Friday at Judo class or you can purchase them online at our Police Foundation site - you can choose the $10 Regular Donation and write “flapjack fundraiser” in the comment section.

https://riverside-police-foundation.square.site/product/riverside-youth-judo-club/2?cs=true&cst=custom

03/28/2023

When ya feel like sushi but can’t decide…
bowl…