Today something very special happened.

If you want to produce ordinary work, use ordinary tools.  A craftsman will hunt out and purchase the very best tools for the job, ones that will last and be loved and used.  Sometimes it takes weeks, months, even years to find the right piece of equipment to enable you to fulfil your artistic intent.

Well today, after many, many months of hunting I found something that I have been searching for a long, long time.  This is a 450mm f/4.5 Wallet and Hermagis petzval lens made in 1850.  Not only is this lens over 170 years old but it renders images in the most incredible way.  With its field curvature, razor thin depth of field and super long focal length it can produce images oozing with character.

Once it arrives, hopefully in the next ten days or so, my work will begin on building a camera for it.

Although this contraption made of brass and glass is only a tool, it does make you wonder what it has witnessed throughout its history.   What images it has created and who’s souls has it captured…

More to the point, over the coming months and years, what it’s going to create next?

Watch this space…