A problem with taking portraits used to be keeping focus while taking the lens cap on and off. A problem no longer – having access to a good engineer who doesn’t mind small jobs is priceless. The extra piece of turned brass, when tightened, keeps precise focus. I have also no mounted the lens with [...]

Up until now I have only used petzval portrait lenses for my daguerreotypy but all that is about to change with my two new landscape lenses. These types of lenses have a cemented crown and flint glass (achromatic) meniscus and while the smaller apertures and slower speed will lengthen exposures, they will allow me greater [...]

In an effort to get more accurate on my exposure times, I bought a gravity shutter on ebay. It allows for fractions of a second from 1/20 to 1/1000th should I start using overwhelming amounts of artificial light like Jerry Spagnoli. At the T setting though its quicker and more accurate that pulling on and [...]