I passed three lenses on to a friend this morning who will use them more than I will. I sold two Panasonic zoom lenses to another friend last week. Why?

 

To make room for a new toy.  Tool !!!  ( I really did mean "tool" - honest). As you probably know I have a thing for normal lenses. Meaning, of course, 50mm lenses. I've been doing my research and there are two 50mm lenses that are widely regarded as the two top lenses extant for sharpness and lack of issues or compromises. One is the $9,000+ Leica 50mm APO Summicron and the other one, pictured above, is the Voigtlander 50mm f2.0 APO-LANTHAR. Which is all of $999. I added $16 bucks to my ticket to get it here tomorrow. Brand new. In the box. From an official dealer. You know them --- they're big. But they aren't paying me to advertise for them...

I'll use this one on the SL2, the SLs and the Panasonics. It's supposed to be blistery sharp even wide open. Love the focal length. This is how you know you are truly addicted...you keep buying versions of the same focal length lens over and over again.

With this addition I will have assembled a nice little collection of M mount lenses which can be easily used on the SL cameras and will lie in wait should the day ever come when I convince myself to venture back into the hallowed camp of Leica M camera users. I guess I'm waiting for M10s to drop in price. Maybe I'm waiting in hopes that some rational person will pull me back from the edge. Or that I win the lottery and can afford a couple of those pretty M11s. Yeah. It could happen...

In other news I seem to have skated around the edge of retirement only to plunge back into the mix of corporate work. I completed an assignment here in the studio last week for Abbott US, the big medical products company, I have another assignment for them booked for tomorrow and on Thursday I'm scheduled to do five or six environmental portraits for a fun/nice/big public relations firm. Should go a long way toward cash flowing my Summer.

More on the horizon. But not too much. I'm getting too comfortable with my scheduling freedom to wish for a return to my old work schedule. 

And, yes, I did tell both of this week's clients that I could not start the projects until after swim practice. We're aiming for a very civilized 10:30 a.m. start on both days. After all these years I'm finding out that you basically just have to ask for what you want and usually it works out. 

Meteorology chat: So last week it was the northeastern states that got hammered by the nasty smoke from the wildfires. We've dodged the smoke but mother nature is gearing up to take a swing at us central Texans by both jacking up the temperatures and tossing in heavy doses of humidity. We're already under a "heat advisory" for today and it's only going to get worse going forward. Highs on Friday, and through the beginning of next week, will be 105°-106° without factoring in humidity, and if you add in the effects of the nearly liquid air we're going to experience "feels like" temperatures in the 114°-116° range. Nasty stuff, for sure! 

I'll be hitting the pool as early as possible each day and saving the afternoons for time in the air conditioned gym. Already drinking lots of water....

The weather is just a mess. But then again, this is Texas in the Summer. Hard pressed to sell Austin as a tourist destination right now --- when heat stroke is one of the major events on offer. 

Thank God for air conditioning. Hope the grid holds.... (sigh.).