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Today Ale helped me change the rear air springs on my car... Yesterday, we celebrated his 11th birthday and we got home in the early hours. His face gives him away.. 😁

Shooting with primes will make you a better photographer, but they won't make you take better photos. Modern (as in the last 20 years) zooms are so good that primes are vestigial beasts best left to eccentrics. There are exceptions to this rule of course, mostly super-teles that operate in a range outside of any zoom. Personally, I muck about with primes because I find them interesting. To me cameras are fiddly devices that get between me and the photo I want to take. Lenses are tools to make art. While I use modern (or "modern") autofocus lenses all the time, for me the real joy is ancient manual focus ones. Also, I haven't posted any of my own photos here in like six months. Two of my favorite bits of vintage glass are Asahi Super-Takumars: A 35mm F/3.5 and 50mm F/1.4. It's a tossup which one is more crackheaded. The 35mm, in spite of its woefully slow aperture for its focal length, has a really fat ass and will not fit properly in Nikon or Canon DSLR bodies. It will fit in a Canon cropped sensor body, and presumably most mirrorless ones. I've posted shots with it in this thread many times over the years. I liken the images it produces to a horror movie. The 50mm does the same thing, but much more so. My particular copy is a third iteration (IIRC) and it's notable for being radioactive. Glamour shot taken with my 100mm F/2.8 Macro. The 50 has a permanent warming filter (that gets more warm over time). It's useless for anything serious, but endless fun for goofing around. For me this is definitive example of "Takumar horror." The color temperature, weird rendering of OOF highlights and slight vignetting are all produced by the lens. I did only minor tweaks in Photoshop. The same view, taken with the 35mm mounted to a 7D Mk II. Not really horror at all. First and foremost, I stopped down and used infinity focus. Also the 35 is not radioactive. I have a long term goal of buying a full frame body so I can mount the 35 to it and see how bad the corners are. Yes, buying a $3K body to mount a $75 lens. Makes perfect sense. I mentioned in the snow thread that we got absolute decimated here in February. I promised to post photos and never did. The AF system on my 5D IV was not impressed with the condensation on the outside of our windows. One nice thing about old primes is that most of them have a hard infinity stop. Modern glass often lets the user focus beyond infinity (calm down, Buzz Lightyear) meaning they're a PITA to use in low light and other difficult circumstances. This shot is in focus, but still quite blurry because of the water on the window. Looking out my front door. No giants doing cartwheels or a statue wearing high heels. Quite the whiteout, however. Taken with the TTArtisan 100mm F/2.8 "Bubble Bokeh," which is a Trioplan copy, more or less. I have mostly used it as an actual 100mm and ignored its abilities with OOF highlights. Our poor, battered thermometer. Back to the OG Canon 50mm F/1.8. My ca. 1988 copy is one of my most prized lenses. Back to the 35mm Takumar and 7D II. Not exactly horror movie, but exhibiting how the 35 is not entirely sharp at any aperture. The images it produces have a slight uncanny quality in more or less all circumstances. One of the casualties of the nor'easter, which had some very powerful winds. As of this writing, the boat is still there. The mighty Canon 135mm F/2L. Designed as a portrait lens, it's good at photographing more or less anything, provided the photographer is up to making use of its FoV and DoF. Oh, hey. Actually using the TTArtisan 100mm for its intended purpose. The late afternoon sun reflecting on the pond and some early spring buds.

The Wigmore Hall Recital by Antônio Meneses (2013) https://open.qobuz.com/album/rt6bp6hxqcjgb Example: A pretty and mostly mellow listen and then there was this powerhouse of a Brahms work. Very symphonic for just a piano and cello.

Ledbetter Heights (30th Anniversary Sessions) by Kenny Wayne Shepherd (2016) https://open.qobuz.com/album/mu1i89de8zeac Example: It has been awhile since I have listened to any Kenny Wayne. Too long I would say. This is a very nice blues guitar album.

It takes a lot for me to feel pride in America, but Eurovision is always up to the challenge.

Magnus Öström "Thread of Life" (Drummer E.S.T.) Every time I listen to this album... I get goosebumps. Especially "Longing". It gradually builds in intensity, the final minutes.... ufffff a masterpiece. And then; Dan and Magnus together again...

I will likely never graduate to primes, it's just too much to carry around and switching in the field drives me insane. So the current bag has: A7V, 12-24 F2.8, 24-70 F2.8, 70-200 F2.8, and 2x doubler (only works with the 70-200). That kit has sufficiently murdered my wallet over the last several years and shopping used very carefully.

Had a MRI. I passed. (Apparently, I'm very good at laying very still.) They want me back to repeat the procedure on different equipment, so they can calibrate the equipment. 🙃 Kinda reminded me of a concert I saw where Pan Sonic played one long drone and manipulated the timbre so that different parts of audience members' bodies resonated. (The concert was a very visceral experience.)

RIP -- It served us and myself personally with honor. 🫡

Have listened to this four times in the last 48. Cluster & Eno's Cluster & Eno.

Party on Chris! Cheers!

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday! (party favour noise)

Ha! Listened to this yesterday. Was going to post but now I don't have to. I like him more than SRV.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to you, Chris!

Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday, Chris. I wish you have a great one.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Chris! Have a wonderful day.

Cheers Chris - Happy Birthdays --

Happy Boythday! (I’m in New Joisey 😊)

Happy birthday! Ride on!

Goodbye old friend. You were the perfect place to meditate.

So How proud did the Grand Final make you feel @blessingx You're Welcome

The Last Ride of the Skanky Van... to the salvage yard. RIP RIP trusty steed.

RIP to my aunt, Gladys "Goldie" Schultz, 87. She was an amazing woman, very calm and logical, yet with a deep compassion and a wonderfully dry sense of humor (I was recently told she was a tiny bit on the spectrum, makes sense now). She was an early woman in tech, mother of 3 wonderful kids, and so much more. She will be missed....and my dad is now the last living person from that generation.... She now joins her husband, my Uncle Ron.