My New Vintage Lens, Lovely Lesbians and A Rant

I saw this lens at a flea market on a table with a bunch of photo junk. The dealer asked $5 for it. He was firm on the price, which I usually consider a challenge to my ethnic traditions, but in this case I kind of had an idea of what that lens might be, so I popped the five bucks and walked away with it.

Turns out the lens was made by a company in England and I since found out, was made for 16mm movie cameras. A friend who is incredibly knowledgeable about such things told me it is a “Petzval Portrait” design that originally dates from the 1890's and there really was a Dr. Petzval who came up with the design long before that. Anyway, that English company copied it and produced the 'new' version in the 1930's.

Now, as it happens around the beginning of this year I switched my professional gear to a relatively new line of cameras. They are smaller and lighter and have some spectacular technical capabilities. And they are lighter. Lots lighter. Also, because of some technical design stuff that I won't get into, I can now use a whole slew of lenses on these cameras, lenses that were never intended for digital cameras. Like this one. My new lens lacks any automatic features which means I actually have to focus and set it. Kind of what I did with film cameras for my first 40 or so years in the business. My sympathies to the kids who don't know how to do this. Tough! That's what they pay me for! Go do something else with your life!

Where were we? Oh, yeah: so for another $1.77, I got an adapter direct from China to me via eBay and now we are in business.  And on that same site, I saw this lens for sale for $365!  So now I feel lots better paying retail.
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 I tried it out for the first time this weekend. First on Jake since he was closest, then at the Pride Parade which, unfortunately, was almost as close (see Rant, below). The results are soft, and flattering, do in part the result of an optical factor called 'spherical aberration,' and mostly to Dr Petzval's skill. Portrait of Jake and some lovely lesbians. No doubt more will be posted. Meantime

AND NOW FOR MY RANT:

OK, I have officially had it with the “Pride Parade!” E-friggin'-nuff! I live in the Village, the parade route is right past  my apartment building. I mean right past the friggin' front door. OK, so you think" big deal?"  It's the Village, right? Most of us here are either in the parade or we take off for someplace far away on parade day, right? Hey, I have walked the parade to photograph it several times and actually marched in it a few times as part of the police contingent. Past parades were sort of fun. Those fun parades are  friggin' history! Good times past. The parade has grown. This year there was live TV coverage.

This year the friggin'  parade ran for over 9 Hours! Further more, it wasn' t really a parade anymore: it was hours of horrendous, cacophonous, ear-splitting mish-mosh that left a trail of physical, moral and emotional damaged throughout the neighborhood. Fact is. this year's so called “Pride” parade was actually a cover for the largest gathering of the most destructive weapons-grade monster sound trucks in history!

These trucks were multi-mega-mega sound generating weapons, the kind that dictatorships use to evict native populations and discourage Jehovah's Witnesses. You could actually taste the sound. You could also count your fillings as they popped out. Sound systems like this are not usually sold to the public, but somehow these folks got a hold of 'em. Lots of em! Sometimes 3 or 4 blasting away at the dame time on a single block! It was friggin' devastating!

And they were not there for any sort of social or political cause: they were there to sell! Gay has become Big Business. Corporate logo's adorned the monster machines to show just where their heart was. Seems like any company with the bucks to lay out had their logo's large and in your face. Gay or straight, they all wanted us to know they loved our money. My personal favorite: the frigging M&M candy folks had their own sounds blasting away for the cause. No candy, just friggin' noise!

And by 6 PM there were more people marching than there were watching. Smaller groups with signs that were less readable. And more sound trucks

. Fifth Avenue stayed closed until after midnight!  Cops worked 14+ hour shifts.

Next year a group of neighbors is planning on removing Fifth Avenue south of 14^th Street the day before and not returning it until the next day. That'll show 'em!

...........And you did not friggin' read that here.