John Stokes photography venture began at Williston High School with his 10th grade Physics teacher selling his Yashica 35MM camera with 135MM lens in 1971 or fifteen dollars. In 1973 he used graduation money to purchase a Pentax Spotmatic with 50mm lens and a built-in light meter! His favorite film was Kodachrome 64 and subject matter, as today, the wonders of God's creation. In 1979 following college at Florida Southern he moved to Lake City. In the ensuing years he purchased a Nikon FM with 35mm 1.4 lens, later adding a FE and F3 body, 80-200 zoom,180 telephoto and 100 macro. Stokes used low light lenses as he did photography for newspapers in his early years. After shooting hundreds of kodachrome slides, in 2007, after dabbling with Canon point and shoot pocket digital cameras, he purchased a Nikon d40 digital SLR with an 18-55 and 55-200 lens. To this light and compact package he added a SB400 flash and 50 1.8 Nikon lens. When riding the 1991 Basso Gap Steel Road bicycle with Campy Athena components, he uses the Canon Powershot A570 in a small top tube holder. When riding off-road on the Fuji mountain bike, he carries the D40 with a waist pack and rack pack.
This August Stokes kept having pain in his arms when riding his bicycles. Knowing it was more serious than just being out of shape, Stokes scheduled a heart catherization this past August and sure enough, he had a ninety percent blockage in his left artery, the widow maker. After a stint, Stokes had to have a demand only pacemaker due to his heart stopping beating for twenty seconds the night of the stint. The pacemaker was installed to help alleviate the neurocardiosyncope that he has suffered with the past ten years. With an all clear from his cardiologists, Stokes is making a comeback and plans to soon be back out on the Basso and Fuji in search of the wonders of God's creation.