Addiction in action

It started with one, and now it’s grown to three of these wonderful old brass barrel lenses (Petzval style), from the 1800′s. Like children, each one has its own particular quality that makes it worth keeping. Now I get it why people collect guitars; each one has a certain trait. I first started using them with wet-plate, but now I’m finding a (crude) way to use them with 8×10 B/W film. The other weird thing about this practice — with many of these lenses, you never really know what the real F-Stop is; you might know the focal length though. That’s half the fun of it.

Update: My friend Dale Bernstein just sent me his Evidence of Addiction as well. Each lens, with its own individual personality and quirkiness.