porcelain coffeepot and fall peach sprigs

Pinkham & Smith Series II SA @ f6 on full plate aerial recon pan X

I think I'm getting the hang of this thing.  Sure, better will no doubt follow, but I think this is fetching.

Images 5 and 6.  As before.  I think #5 is a keeper.

Tribute to Mary Colter

Tribute to Mary Colter f11

old shoe

old shoe f11

Mary Colter was the designer that did the Fred Harvey restaurants in the early 1900's all along the Santa Fe Railroad.  We feasted at the elegantly restored La Posada in Winslow one evening and I bought these mugs for my bride who couldn't come with me.

That's all for now.  Maybe tomorrow I can get some more work done with this lens.  When I share like this, I'm just letting everything hang out.  No culling, you get the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I decided to have mercy and do these entries 2 at a time.  In each case I simply stopped the lens down to f11 to see what the effect would be, full wide open f6, and f11.  Images 3 and 4.

Lionel & Ives f6

Lionel & Ives f11

5 apples II f6

A few comments thus far.  Am I excited about this lens?  YES!  It is different in execution and results than any other soft focus lens I own.  I have lenses that are softer, but this one is.....how shall I say it..........frought with possibilities.  I can only wonder if I'm up to the task.

5 apples

bamboo shoots

These represent image 1 and image 2 with a lens that is considered very difficult to use.  I have only scratched the surface here.  Both were done wide open at f6.  The apple image had 28 inch bellows / 15 inch lens so approached 1:1 on 6.5X8.5 format.  The Bamboo image had about 22 inch bellows.  Of note I focuses on the near part of the curly bamboo area but the image showed best focus on the 'back' side of the curl.  So chemical vs visual focus is a factor indeed.  I have much to learn with this lens.  Sheer pleasure.  Please pardon the quick and VERY dirty scans.  It's well past midnight and I'm going to bed.

I find myself purposefully looking for 5X12 aspect ratio scenes.  This is done with an ancient Darlot landscape meniscus.  Long before anyone ever thought of making a soft focus lens on purpose, the landscape meniscii would have a lovely glow unless you stopped them well down.  They were never intended to be used wide open as I have here.  12" f6

We don't have any forests to be enchanted so we have to do the best we can with the occasional survivor.