I am blessed with 3 of Mr. Pinkham's lenses.  2 Series IV and a single 9" Series V Synthetic.  I have not done the Synthetic justice before now.  Last weekend I got to do 2 shots with it.  A case of being perfectly happy doing something else, seeing light interacting with a possible subject, and acting on that by setting up the equipment to get the shot.  This is on 8X10 with a good long bellows extension.  Wide open, I calculated and equivalent f9.  This has whetted my appetite for this lens, it is simply marvelous!

oil decanters #1

Made with unmodified but damaged Turner Reich 12 1/4" f7 lens wide open.  On one of the groups there is a bizarre pattern in the cement very much like the intricate swirls of a finger print and about that fine.  It covers the entire optic and has a marvelous softening effect.  When you stop down it gets blurrier....but with increased depth of field.  A very weird lens that I need to PLAY with much more.

Jonathtan is of course Mr. subtle good taste so I feel it's my duty every now and again to post something truly awful.

I call that one Jim in the Peach tree....

and this one Pam in the Vortex.

The purpose was to illustrate purposefully making an image that swirls.  I used my 9" Verito on my 8X10. 

Eight new paper negatives of this set up today.  But I happen to know my friend Jonathan is just a wee bit partial to Pinkham & Smith lenses.  This one is I believe the first image my new-2-me Pinkham Bi-Quality 14" lens has made for me.  I used good old Kodak RC Polycontrast paper with an Aerial Recon yellow filter in the light path.  That cuts the contrast to about half.  Paper negs usually suffer from too much contrast.  These have luscious tones.  I would urge you to click on the link for a larger version of this scan.  It's trite to say you can't see it all in a 90kb .jpg, but in this case the Bi-Quality has packed a powerful punch that may only be seen in a print held in your hand.

apricot blossums 

A larger version of this may be seen here;

I hope that while I'm lucky enough to be the current steward of this lens I can tap just a small portion of it's capacity. 

Yes!  Well let him out!  If your grandparents were typical US kids they played this joke on their grocer.  It's one of those old jokes that has become like urban legend. 

This can has sat atop this workbench since our grandparents were kids.  No one has disturbed the contents of this old mill building since perhaps 1936.  I used my sweet little Cooke 8 1/2" on full plate size for this.