The Crushing and Relentless Power of Entropy.

 I never thought that the decline and ultimate failure of an inexpensive hard drive would stir up so many thoughts about how attached I am to physical things, outcomes of day-to-day events, the feeling of needing to be in control and, mostly my attachment to the idea that there is a comforting constancy to my life. 

The reality, at least as I see it, is that everything we have, including our own lives, has a parabola of existence. In the example of lifeforms we are born, we grow, we learn, we thrive and then at some point we reach the top of our arc and begin to participate in the process of entropy. The downward slide from the peak of our potential. 

Here's my favorite simple definition from the Oxford Dictionary: the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system. 2. a. : the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity. Entropy is the general trend of the universe toward death and disorder.

Our own slides toward dissolution can be relatively quick or agonizingly long. At least in context. 

When I realized that I was unable to access the information on one of my hard drives I felt a sense of betrayal. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense but since so few of the hard drives I've used up till now have actually failed (as opposed to just getting "filled up.") I had the illogical presumption that life would go on in the same fashion from now until much later. This started me down the path, yesterday, of assuming that the life and death cycle of all the things I think I depend on might be accelerating. After all, it was just last week that our microwave oven gave up the ghost...

I'm not totally unused to things failing and becoming unusable. The plastic lenses on swim goggles eventually become fogged by chemicals, abrasion and UV light and they eventually become unusable. I have no issue with that. I understand the process and replacing them with new goggles is easy and inexpensive. Shoes are another thing that wears out. And most modern shoes aren't really made to be repaired. When the soles decay beyond a certain point it is time to replace them. Sometimes I feel a twinge of loss when I have to let go of a great pair of hiking shoes but, again, I understood from the beginning that those shoes would have finite useful "life span." 

In the case of this hard drive though I felt a different kind of loss since it was a vessel for my work. Both personal and professional. Logically, I know that if the files are so very important that I can have them recovered and moved to a series of newer and newer hard drives but where does it all end? How does it all end? I was letting the loss of the HD become a metaphor for my life as an artist. The loss of files a symbol for the loss of control over small parts of my own, personal art universe. A harbinger of a coming, accelerating decay toward an end. Had I become that attached to my self generated perception of the value of the work? Had I become the victim of my own identification with what my job and my art represents back to me? It appears so.

As I left the house this morning to go to the swimming pool I said to myself, "Oh Hell, Entropy is going to end up being my word for the day." I was in a quiet and sour mood. I even allowed myself to conjecture that perhaps swimming had no real value beyond being a vainglorious attempt to slow down or control my own physical and mental entropy.

But then I got in the water. I could feel the flow of the swim. As I focused on having as technically perfect a "front catch" as I could my mind started off on its own, processing all the feelings I was having and had over the previous 24 hours. I realized in the moment that I had forgotten the most important concept I learned from studying the life of Buddha. ("Old Path White Clouds" by Thich Hat Hahn). That concept being the value of resisting or rejecting desire. Non-attachment to physical things or outcomes. I had made the files on the drive important even though, in the long, medium and short run, their loss was neither good nor bad. It just was. And all the energy I was putting into battling against their loss was just causing me to be sad. Frustrated. And ineffectual. 

I don't believe in the idea that everything happens for a reason. I think most things are random and chaotic. And physics tells us that entropy is a reality for....everything. We'll all die. All (statistically) hard drives will eventually become dysfunctional. Batteries will run out of energy. Tires will wear out. Our brains will slow down and eventually become less stable. We might be able to slow the process but we joust with an "opponent" that holds all the high cards. 

The best way to "fight" the loss of something is to let it go. But dammit! Why do I still want to show that hard drive who's boss?  Mostly because life on the way up the parabola of my existence has been so easy and fun. Few things go wrong. But now? Will the journey into chaos accelerate? What's next? 

Swim Zen tells me to stop fighting things that are out of my control. Concentrate (be mindful) on doing the right things day to day. Concentrate on having the right thoughts every day. And to let go of the need to hold onto stuff so tightly; as well as the almost compulsive need to try controlling the processes. 

I should have learned by now that you have to loosen up the reins on life if you want to let in a bit of creativity, whimsy and happiness. This might just work out. One way or another I am almost certain that it will. As I've said before, "Happiness is self-inflicted." The same can be said for sadness.

My swim was quite nice. 

Finally back in the pool. It's been too long! Toasted Hard Drive. New Rounds of Back-up Imminent. How droll.

The only thing I miss about photographing with film is that once you got film processed, and you devised a safe way to store it, you didn't need to worry about a favorite image, or folder full of favorite images vanishing overnight. The film I shot in 1978 is still in a folder, in archival sleeves, looking as good as the day I shot it. Not so with digital images on hard drives...

My ancient 4 TB, USB-2 Hard Drive, which I labeled "Bob" stopped cooperating with me this week. I've run Apple's "disk utility" on it a number of times. There's something wrong with the partition map. The disk spins and, after a time the disk icon will show up on the desk top but clicking on it to open it results in a finder crash and general system malaise. 

I'm not too concerned since all the client data that was on that disk is backed up onto at least one other drive. And most of the client files are aging out of usefulness. Old head shots. Old projects. All stuff that would need to be updated anyway. There is one folder I missed backing up. It's on there somewhere. But if it goes away I'll take the blame for a spell of laziness eventually being punished by the resulting loss.

Still, the death of the drive spurred me to stay current with recent files of all kinds. I have two 10TB drives that back each other up. Amazon delivered me another 12TB hard drive so I can mirror the information on the existing (new as of October) 12 TB hard drives as well. Then there's the cloud back up. And the off site back up disks for critical client work and essential family pix. 

If anything needs to get lost it will probably be some of the endless street photographs that seem to breed like warm germs in a petri dish full of agar. If I lost a bunch of those I doubt I'd cry too much. 

I also have a filing cabinet drawer full of older hard disks that I pull out and fire up once a month. I feel like I am now partially in service to my own archive, knowing full well that most of it will end up being trashed and the drives recycled in the end. 

The only silver lining I can think of in the moment is that hard drive storage really has gotten radically less expensive than it was in years (and decades) past. I guess I should just buy endless 18TB hard drives by the case and do a yearly "all hands" back-up with mirroring from all the previous generations of drives. Not quite willing to add tape back-up ... yet. 

re: the dying disk. I know I can probably retrieved the files on the drive since it still spins, isn't making rude noises and still shows up on a desktop. It would just require buying one of the disk repair apps for about $100 and spending a couple of hours working the buttons. Either that or hire a service to do it. 

But in the long run will it matter at all? Will I spend quality time with the files I recover? Are those 100 or so any more important than the other million plus I seem to have accrued? Probably not. But again, we never had this problem with film....unless we spilled coffee on it or were careless enough to store the film in a Texas attic space. 

An interesting coda to surviving a week with a common cold. 

And what's my real carbon footprint of having so much back-up data spread around?

But, on to more fun stuff. I last swam on Saturday and I've taken off since then, until this morning, both to wait until my cold symptoms abated but also to prevent spreading my cold germs to my fellow swimmers. And with good reason since practices have been packed with people lately. Five in my lane this morning. Makes circle swimming into more of an art than usual. You don't want to come out of your turns too far to the side you arrived on....

But it felt absolutely wonderful to be back in water. Of course, it was a "coach Jenn" workout so there was lots of stroke work beyond freestyle but the workout was still a reminder of how great it feels to feel great. And to move through the water. And to be back in the middle of a huge group of like-minded friends who also love to swim fast. 

Today's diet discussion was all about steel cut oats. Our resident hardcore vegan approves... provided you don't douse them in a flood of whole milk. Or any cow milk for that matter. I was too intimidated to ask about covering the oatmeal with brown sugar....

The social discussion was all about the swim team holiday party coming up this Sunday. It's fun because we actually get to meet the other swimmers' spouses, and learn to identify each other when fully clothed.

Well, that's it for today. Be sure to use our links and.... oh wait! Nothing to buy here. Sorry.  

I have to apologize to a lens. I used the 90mm TTArtisan to make a portrait of an advertising exec. yesterday and it was just right.

 

the first of many unnecessary holiday photos...

Yesterday I did my first portrait session since we got the studio re-painted. The place looks so fresh now. I even scrubbed the floor. It's so different when you take everything off your walls and everything starts to look like a blank canvas. 

I haven't done a very good job explaining why I like photographing with eccentric and non-mainstream lenses but I think I'll give it a try. Over the years I've owned some pretty great lenses. From makers such as Leica, Zeiss, Schneider, Rodenstock and Mamiya. Also some of the best from Canon and Nikon. And every time I've decided that the pricy shit is the best I stumble across a lens for a fraction of the price of a big brand name lens and I find that, with a little experimentation, it can be as good on film/sensor, as the high priced spread. And sometimes the older optical designs that seem rampant in even the newest lens products from makers in places like China have a "look" that's different enough from current state of the art optics to make the images derived from them attractive to practitioners who grew up shooting less highly corrected lenses than are available now. 

Sure, the latest lenses from the big boys, coupled with tons of carefully programmed corrections and enhancements via in-camera software, can beguile one with sharpness everywhere in the frame at every aperture, and provide an almost suspicious lack of any vignetting whatsoever. And sharpness? In spades. 

But I always find myself wondering how a "lesser" lens would fare if it was endowed with the same crutches and boosts that come packaged with our current, favorite, premium brand (and priced) lenses. 

I recently had a hard drive die and I'm thankful for back-up files. But while I was backing up the back-up files I started looking at files I'd done with older zoom lenses from various makers and comparing them with the uber performance of my ______ branded 24-90mm lens. The amazing thing to me is that I liked the overall look of the older, far cheaper zoom lenses better for the kinds of photographs that are most important to me (different from my work photos which, I usually presume, need to be technically perfect) when I compared the old ones with the "reference standard." In fact, I like most of my earlier work, mostly done with less technically advanced lenses and cameras, far more than work from the last decade or so. And some of that is down to my shift from "the best lens I could afford" all the way over to "the best lens out there." A chase for unicorns that seems, at times, to have proven not just ineffective but anti-effective. 

My article about the faults and foibles of the TTArtisan lens (90mm f1.25) wasn't intended to be a savage and dismissive skewering of that lens as much as it was intended to be a true view of what the lens is all about before adding in layers and layers of technical fixes which seem to come standard on the latest lens from the big five camera makers. When you use their cameras...

Given some reasonable work I think a lot of the shortcomings of just about any lens can be dealt with. Unless that lens happens to be the original Nikon 43-86mm f3.5. Which may be the worst zoom lens ever unleashed on the market.

It's interesting to me that when I put up a portrait from my older film days everyone falls all over each other to tell me that this is the gold standard, the target I should be aiming for. The highest photographic achievement I could hope for. 

But nearly all of the greatest hits I've posted from the middle of the career (1990s) are done with a Hasselblad and a 150mm f4.0 lens that flared like a mad dog, was very soft wide open, etc. Coupled with the shortcomings of the lens was also the fact that I diffused the edges of my prints with a device called a Pictrol which feature "flawed" plastic blades which distorted and additionally flared the light when used under an enlarging lens. My goal, at the time, was to create an image that was intentionally not razor sharp. Clinical. Savage. or, in other words, technically excellent. 

Given the outpouring of enthusiasm for the Fuji GFX 110mm lens I almost felt as though I should send some of the commenters, and the people that like to "guide" me in emails, some drool bibs to wear while contemplating what seems to be the ultimate lens of the moment for that format. And they spoke about the inevitability of me purchasing the lens --- as soon as I came to my senses. "Stop saving for the Bugatti and just get the lens!" Seemed to be the message. Disregarding that everything they loved about the "idea" of that lens is mostly antithetical to the style of work I sometimes show here and which delivers the highest praise and admiration. Kind of a disconnection. 

But it's probably mostly my fault for mentioning and writing about every piece of gear I like. 

So, instead of hopping into the car, rushing to the local bricks and mortar Fuji Pro dealer here and dropping more cash on a super sharp 110mm (the performance of which I am nearly certain is well augmented by in-camera software) I looked at my review from two posts ago and decided instead to figure out how to create a set of workable profiles for the cheap ass lens. And then use it on a paying job for a very, very informed, critical and seasoned advertising professional. Different from a lens test done in the living room with a cat, offered on Instagram. 

Lo and behold, it seems one can make a $499 lens look pretty darn good with a little bit of work. The lens has barrel distortion. Yeah. But for portrait work and most non-architectural shooting a correction of +7 with the "distortion" slider in LRC and "Bob's your uncle." Want to tame the obvious vignetting? You probably can't get rid of all of it but for portrait work, at a subject distance of about six feet (as opposed to work shot at infinity and stopped down to f16) and a working aperture of f5.6 you'll see most of it tamed except for the extreme corners and once you drop in a +45 vignetting correction in LRC you'll pretty much have that conquered as well. 

So --- what do you end up with? A lens that delivers a really, really sharp central core from f2.0 onward which is very well behaved when you make a profile with the few changes I've outlined above, and shoot most stuff at the right focal distance and with a reasonable aperture. But you also get a lens which can deliver such a narrow depth of field at its minimum aperture that it's visually amazing; if that's what you want. 

When I first bought the camera and then the lens I think I stated pretty clearly that I was aware of the vignetting of the lens but that my goal was to use the camera and lens as a modern version of the square format cameras I used in the past. Meaning I'd set the aspect ratio to 1:1 (square) and use that particular system to try to get back to the style of my portrait and scenic shooting that most of us profess to like best. And, in fact, the perceived shortcomings of the lens when compared to the technically perfect performances of the hybrid modern lens + camera corrections might just be the characteristic of the lens that I admire. Look up Wabi-Sabi. Understand that beauty can be revealed by its imperfections. 

The problem at the foundation of enjoying photography as experienced through blogs is that it tends to attract linear thinkers. Engineers. Guys who mastered slide rules. Folks who want/crave definite rules and hierarchies. And technical perfection. Kind of a "Bell Labs" approach to life and art. It's nice sometimes to step back and realize that as humans, try as we might to dodge it, we are attracted to the imperfections as a healthy balance to symmetry and perfection. Nature gets it. That's why when we make up portraits with A.I. and the machines create perfectly symmetrical faces of people we instantly understand them as being artificial. 

I read a piece about evolution and asymmetry. One would think divine creation or evolution would always aim for perfection and symmetry in all things. It was interesting to read therefore that men evolved in such a way that their testicles are asymmetrical to each other. Were they perfectly symmetrical and placed side by side they would severely hamper man's ability to run. Or at least to run (or walk) without great discomfort. 

Maybe our goal of making perfect lenses is perhaps making our ability to do some forms of photography....uncomfortable. 

Something to ponder. 

In the meantime, I put in the work to figure out the shortcomings of the TTArtisan 90mm lens when used on a GFX camera and I've created a personal set of parameters which work well. For me. I used the lens yesterday in the late afternoon, here in the studio, to shoot 250+ frames of my subject. Except for a few blinks and/or grimaces on his part, I was happy with every frame. And, amazingly, I can still manually focus a lens. Imagine that. 

A lighting note. I photographed yesterday with three Nanlite LED fixtures. It was delightful. The secret is to have the lights up and running when the subject walks in the door. They get used to the lights almost immediately. No squinting. These lights have the best color of all the LEDs I've used. No. I don't sell them. There is no affiliate link.

Later in the evening, after importing the files we made and doing a global correction for color and contrast, I pulled my old LED book off the shelf. I wrote it in 2009 and the book was published in 2010. The advancements in the quality and power of LEDs in the short 13 years since is stunning. I remember working hard to make those older, multiple bulb LED panels work for color photography. It was possible but it took a lot of time and skill to get close to nearly perfect color. Now? It's amazingly simple. 

So, the takeaway from yesterday's shoot is that I found vignetting from the lens far less imposing when I used the lens as I usually do use a lens for portrait work. Apparently vignetting is not just dependent on aperture but also on subject to camera distance and lens focus distance. But before you laud more expensive lenses it's good to know that ALL lenses have to be designed for peak performance at one certain distance. Everything else is techno-magic. And interestingly, aren't we all opposed to the intrusion of under the hood, hidden tricks? At least when it comes to our photo gear?

Now that I've learned how to use the 90mm I  feel I owe it an apology for making it a whipping boy instead of just rolling up my sleeves, doing the work and getting to know it. 

If I were just starting my career I'm sure I would be rushing out to buy the "best" lens you could get for the GFX and portraits. It might be the 110mm. At this point, as I'm moving away from all commercial work all the time my impetus to buy stuff just because "it makes sense" or it's the consensus (homogenous) choice is much diminished. 

You might be happy to read that I'm almost fully recovered from my bout with the common cold. Tested negative for Covid. And also, the new microwave has landed and is nearly identical to the old one so I don't have to create a new "custom profile" in order to use it.

That's all the news I've got today. Maybe go outside and play with cameras. It can be a lot of fun. 

The cure for the common cold. Go out for a walk.

 

Housekeeping first. Several kind people stepped in and attempted to "help" me with my conundrum regarding whether or not to purchase a Fuji 110mm f2.0 lens. To a person they strongly suggested that I do so right away. One reasoned that by not doing so immediately I might be placing the holiday season happiness in peril for my readers. Because of "bitching and moaning." Another suggested/demanded that I go immediately to B&H Photo where the lens is currently available new for about $500 off its usual price. Mostly because it's on sale. A third suggested that I trade in Leicas to buy the lens. 

By the time I read through the offline emails and the helpful suggestions in the comments I realized that I should never again discuss any camera gear that I might want in the future or might be considering more immediately. Never. Not again. 

I think I should get credit for not subjecting my readers to the three month long loan of a Leica S2 and a couple of lenses which I liked but not enough. I sure gave that system a run through though. And I think I've saved these folks a lot of time and rending of cloaks by not discussing various dalliances with other brands of cameras I've played with and ultimately resisted. 

In the future, I think it would only be fair if the impassioned amongst us, the people who are fervent about me acquiring a certain lens or body "right now!" would step up and gift me that particular lens. If my reticence to buy yet another lens is so disturbing it would seem a good way to assuage their obvious angst over my buying decisions. After all, a shiny, new medium format lens is probably only equal to a weekend's sales royalties to a famous writer. Only a small part of a paycheck for a keen executive. Just a drop in the bucket for several of the hedge fund managers that I am certain lurk in the shadows of VSL.

And by "gift me" I mean you should purchase the lens and have it sent directly to me. But please don't expect at any point that the object of desire will be returned to you. That's not how it works.

Just to get this new idea; this new process rolling I'll say right now that I am in love with the idea of owning and using a Leica SL 75mm APO Summicron. I'll make it even easier, here's a link for a vendor with one in stock: https://leicastoremiami.com/collections/sl-system-lenses/products/leica-apo-summicron-sl-75mm-f-2-asph?variant=6069837496358 Now, if you send me this lens in the next few days, new in a box, I'll know you've stepped up and become a serious "patron" and that your "love for photography" is genuine. But if you decide that you don't want to play it my way you can always stick it to me by deciding to choose your own damn lens to send to me. Instead of the one I am begging for. Right? (and yes, I know good writers hate it when we hacks use "Right?" as a gimmick... ditto ellipses. And probably italics as well). Yes, you could decide you know best and send along a lens I didn't ask for or write about. Such as the Leica 90mm APO Summicron SL. Just to be kind, in return, I'll include a vendor link for that one as well: https://leicastoremiami.com/collections/sl-system-lenses/products/leica-apo-summicron-sl-90mm-f-2-asph?variant=6069837725734

I think it's only fair to start begging for stuff in return for the amazing and insightful stuff we've been posting here since the early 2009s. Why the research for nearly 6,000 meaty articles alone is breathtaking. And, as a bonus, you get to see fresh mannequin portraits nearly every darn week. It's not like I'm begging for cash. As an additional bonus I promise to post comments without delay! Try to find that on any other photo blog!!!

So, if you think we'd all be better off if Kirk has his crusty mitts on some chouette (https://lingopie.com/blog/15-french-slang-words-and-phrases-you-need-to-know/#:~:text=Chouette%20(great%2C%20nice%2C%20cool,My%20teacher%20is%20cool.) lens that's a "must review" I'm encouraging you to buy one and send it along. I'll take good care of it. 

But it's only fair to let you know that having been pushed, a bit rudely, it'll now be a cold day in hell before I part with my own tightly held cash and buy that Fuji 110mm. Oh look! Here's one: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1333203-REG/fujifilm_600018568_gf_110mm_f_2_r.html

Knock yourselves out. 

Well. That's it for the holiday housekeeping. 

So, I went to swim practice on Saturday morning feeling great. I went with B. to lunch on Saturday feeling pretty good. But by evening I had a drip down my throat and felt a bit...puny. When I woke up on Sunday morning it was evident that I have become the victim of the "common cold." One of mans' most popular viruses. I spent the day (ill advised!) reading Clive Cussler's novel, Black Wind, which locked me into my favorite reading chair, trying to get through 522 pages before a late dinner. Not a bad book. But when you have a cold you tend to be...picky. 

I was reading one of Mark Greany's Gray Man Series novels later that night and was struck by the idea that even the most popular of writers could use a bit more research. Seems his hero is using electro magnetic limpit mines to blow up yachts. But he is doing so by attaching the mines under the water line using the electro magnetic powers of the mines to attach to the aluminum hulls. Yes, he makes a point of describing the attachment points as "aluminum hulls." That's when the dripping nose started for me.

This morning B. went out for a quarantining walk and left me to my own devices. I was going to microwave something for breakfast but nobody bothered to tell me that the microwave had recently stopped working. Apparently another one is winging its way here with all due dispatch. Amazon's email suggests it will be here this evening. But that didn't solve my breakfast issues and with the cold symptoms moving on to a cough I wasn't excited about pulling out pots and pans and exercising my rusty cooking skills. 

I made a point of shaving before I left the house. Apparently, when I don't shave and my hair is all over the place, and I wear that old dull, green sweat shirt with a worn collar and a few holes in it, the people at my favorite coffee shops and taco houses assume I am currently unhoused and in distress and give me those benevolent looks. You can see pity in their eyes. Waiting to see if I'll bring up a handful of change with which to pay for my coffee. (True story, when I walk down by UT there is a coffee shop and when I go there and order a coffee and a pastry one of the young women who staff the counter always rings up my pastry as half price. I asked her why and she told me she knew times were tough and anyway they sell the pastries for half price after five p.m. Of course I'm usually there sometime in the morning). 

They seem surprised when I use an iPhone to tap-to-pay. And then, because I seem to have a need to prove them wrong I leave a big tip. Massive tip. That'll teach em. 

Anyway, when it's 60° outside and it's a sunny day I convince myself that a long walk will do me good and that the rampant vitamin D splashing around all over the place will, in fact, be medicinal. I drove to downtown with my _______ camera and a 50mm ______ lens and headed over to Torchy's Tacos for a bacon, egg and cheese taco. Again, I got the look when I asked for water... But I had to, since their coffee just flat sucks. 

Protein and fat acquired I was ready to walk along and photograph. Today I did one thing differently than I usually do. I shot with the _______ camera set to Jpeg fine+DNG. I wanted to shoot black and white Jpegs ---- well, just because --- and I also wanted to have a color file available for images I wanted to shoot BECAUSE they existed as color and attacted me with their color. Some would pooh-pooh this but I think it's perfectly fine to change gears depending on the circumstances of your art object. Right?

Below I've posted some photos so you can see how well the ________ camera and ______ lens perform together. And in some instances I've posted both the black and white Jpeg and the color file just to show how the color affects the perception of the subject in an entirely different way. 

I don't know whether is was the cool, fine air or the walking, or the medicinal nature of casual photography but for the whole time I was walking through downtown all of my cold symptoms vanished. Gone. Nose clear. Throat happy. Chest un-coughed. It was wonderful. 

I came home to wash the studio floor and finish setting my space back up again. I have an old friend/long time client coming over tomorrow afternoon for a portrait. I'd like the space to be sparkling when he arrives. We're very close to achieving that now. 

One bit of joy. While typing this; somewhere between my 7th and my 13th rewrites, the Amazon truck pulled up and the driver delivered a new microwave oven to my front door. Hallelujah! You don't miss your microwaves till your emitter runs dry. 

note: If your "donation" of a fine lens or "must have" camera body requires a signature upon delivery kindly drop me a note and let me know to expect it. I'd like your "donation" to be as seamless as possible. Thanks! 

Not sure the Christmas tree in front of the State Capitol works so well in black and white.

Lost to monochrom is the very manly, very Texan pink banner across the bottom.

Light reflected off a building sign and projected onto a city street. 

There used to be department stores along Congress Ave. 

This was the site of Yarings. Their closest competitor was

Scarboroughs, just down the street. Now both adapted to 

office space. 

Boy o' boy!!! That _______ lens is really good at handling flare. 

My first real attempt at macho mannequins. Robots at the ready.

 I do know about the lymphatic system in the human body but I have no idea what 

"Austin's First Lymphatic Experience" might be. Maybe a new beauty treatment 

with which they enlarge your lymph nodes? Not sure that's a good thing.

Dining room table clutter. B. is pretty tolerant about one camera at the end of the kitchen table. A bit unsettled when two cameras nest there for several days. And downright spitty about four or five camera vying for my attention as I decide which way to go from day to day. If you send along a 75mm APO you'll help a lot because I'll want to choose a Leica SL2 body for at least a full month. You know, to try out the lens properly. That means putting away all the other contenders.

The common cold lingers. It's a race against time. Will I be well enough to swim tomorrow's morning workout? Will I make it to noon practice instead? or will I be sidelined until Wednesday?

currently taking bets over on my betting channel...

Portrait of Renae.

 This was originally shot on a medium format film camera. The original image was printed on a double weight photo paper which was then toned in selenium. The exif info for this file shows the originating camera as an Olympus digital but that was just the camera used to copy the print and translate it into a digital file. 

The image was lit with one large soft box using electronic flash. The edge print is not a digital construction but is the inner edge of the frame of the film holder which was filed down to allow a small margin of the film edge to show. 

Since I used a simple metal file and I'm not always precise the effect of the filing is that the holder has variations in dimensions and smoothness. The negative was also partially diffused for part of the print time under the enlarger which accounts for the soft edges and whatever ghosting you might see.  Each print made with my Pictrol(tm) diffuser is different; unique. The device was not mechanically attached to the enlarger but was hand held and moved during parts of the overall exposure. 

This is the style of portraiture that I have always liked best. 

Do you want a very well corrected, very fast, short telephoto lens for your medium format camera? Well then, don't get a TTArtisan 90mm f1.25. But......

I've been mucking around with full frame cameras for months now and, except for work, have been ignoring the GFX 50Sii that I bought mid-Summer. The camera is great. The sensor is great. The problem is with me. I just can't seem to pull the trigger and buy the lens I really should use with this system. That would be the 110mm f2.0. Rave reviews everywhere and at a full frame equivalent of 88mm it would seem to be the perfect choice for me. But for some unknown reason I'll continue to waste time and money looking for a "miraculous" low cost alternative while trying to convince myself that lens "X" or lens "Y" is just as good as the 110mm, if only I just put more elbow grease (and post processing) into the mix. 

The sad reality is that the Fuji GF 50mm lens and the 35-70mm kit lens are both really good performers; just not at the right focal lengths for me. So far I've mostly wasted money and time buying first the TTArtisan 90mm f1.25 lens and then the Mitakon 135mm f2.5. Both are available in both Hasselblad and Fuji medium format mounts. That would strongly imply that these lenses would be suitable for those camera systems. That they would cover the full frame of the MF sensor well. But....nope.

So, if perfect lens geometry is important be sure to pass on the 90mm. And, if zero vignetting is a must then consider both of these lenses as abject failures. Profound failures. I know this for sure now because I spent hours walking around yesterday photographing with the GFX 50Sii + 90mm, and another few hours staring at the resulting files in Lightroom and wondering just how much tolerance I really have for mostly crappy lenses versus just spending the money to buy the right stuff the first time. 

So, as pertains to the 90mm f1.25, what are my gripes? The universal black marks against this lens are threefold. First, it weighs a ton. Well, more like three pounds but that might as well be a ton if you are working a full day with this beast, handheld. Second, the vignetting is just awful. Amazingly bad. Stunningly bad. When I tried building a profile for this lens I found that +75 in the vignetting controls in Lightroom was just almost good enough. Really, +90 to +100 would be better. And here's the crappy deal with vignetting in a simply designed lens like this --- the amount of vignetting is variable and depends on the aperture setting and the distance setting. I guess that's true for a lot of lenses but this one goes from really dark but soft corners near wide open aperture settings to really dark but harder edged corner vignetting as you stop down. The final flaw is the easiest one to fix; mostly. It's the presence of a bunch of barrel distortion. You can correct most of it with a +7 or +8 increase in the distortion controls in post but you should also be aware that there are still mostly unfixable touches of "mustache" distortion that are not tamed by the magic of software corrections in most programs. 

One hopes that someone (Adobe or TTArtisan) will make a lens profile for this pudgy beast that actually fixes some of this stuff. But I think the market for the lens is so small that this will never happen. 

My next question, if I were a potential buyer, would be: "Are there any "pros" to this lens? Any conceivable reasons to buy and use one? 

Well, yes. 

Even wide open, at the center of the frame, the lens is very sharp. Stop it down to f5.6 and it's sharp everywhere. (But why would you carry around a three+ pound, ultra-fast lens if you need to shoot it at f5.6 to make it work? If you are shooting objects or scenes near infinity the lens works fine even at f2.0 and f2.8; except for the far corners. You'll still have to fix vignetting and distortion but in all fairness most lenses for current mirrorless cameras (Leica Q2 and Q3 included) lean heavily on in-camera software to make a lot of corrections to their lenses. A lot!!! The only difference, really, is that this particular 90mm is left to its own devices in use rather than being saved by intricate software fixes. If you had a "go-to" profile for this 90mm in your post processing program it might be a bit more popular. And perhaps more people would be walking around with bulging biceps from hand holding it all day long...

I keep the lens because I think it can be redeemed as a portrait lens. I've been using it to make controlled portraits with for a while and I actually have come to like it in these applications. I crop the images in camera to either the square or the 5:4 or 7:6 aspect ratios and the vignetting mostly goes away, along with a percentage of the frame. If you are a 3:2 fan you'll mostly remove the vignetted corners in that crop as well. The distortion correction of +7 works fine for all portrait work. A little, tiny bit of residual mustache distortion doesn't destroy portraits. 

It was a lovely afternoon here in Austin, Texas yesterday. Neither too warm nor too cool. Partially sunny but with fun clouds passing by. I took the lens out to see if I'd been blaming my own poor technique on the lens or if the lens was really as bad as I remembered. I shot a lot of frames. I walked a lot of steps. I took my time focusing and generally used the magnification feature to make sure things were really sharp. 

Here are some examples from the time spent with the lens. Please note that most of the frames have been mostly (but not completely) corrected for vignetting. The lens is fairly color neutral and I do like the center portion of most images shot with it. Just don't buy one for use as a precision architectural lens; especially if you intend to use it wide open. And copy work? Forget it. There are better options. Really. 

The one thing this lens is really good at is doing portraits with a wide open aperture and letting the background just vanish. That's its special feature. And that's probably why most people who buy one and keep one do so. It's a great look --- when it all works.

I'm in love with the Texas skies. When they behave as I'd like them to. 

I'm including this image because it's a great example of the center sharpness even when using the lens with the aperture at its maximum of f1.25. I focused on the center type and by the time I get to any corner it's just so out of focus. This was also shot at near the closest focusing distance. 

Fairly sharp at f4.0. Very usable.

this was shot long after the sun set and is a good example of a situation in which 

f1.25 can come in handy. The exposure was ISO 800, f1.25, SS= 1/13th. That's 

a pretty dark use case....

this was shot to show the bokeh of the lens at wide apertures. 

Notice the "cat's eye" bokeh in the corners. 

The sky changes so quickly just before the sun is gone over the horizon...

Holiday lighting at the Seaholm Power Plant. 

Same as every other year.