There is something thrilling to me about using a lens that the very first photographers in the world used, their photos, especially the ones known as Daguerreotypes, present the world in a soft and otherworldly way. They still captured the magic of paintings and drawings.

It is exciting to be holding the lens the first photographers in the world used, we are arrogant, we think nothing that was old could be as good as what is new, but when I look at the first photographs, I see a mystery and magic that I rarely see in my own modern photography.

This lens was invented in 1839, by Charles Chevalier and Louis-Jacques- Mande Daguerre, and for all practical purposes, the glass and the structure of the lens is the same one they created and used to invent the first practical photography. The Daguerreotype Achromat 2.9/64 lens has no bells or whistles on it, everything about the photo is manual and dicey. I like this portrait of Maria a lot, it is soft and somewhat magical.

But I have a lot to learn about this lens and  how it works.

I love my digital photography, but it’s literalness sometimes bothers me and makes me feel that my photos are sometimes cold. I took this portrait of Maria today and it is one of the three photos out of many that I liked. This lens is tough.

I liked the softening of the photograph and the fact that i can’t take a single picture for granted, I have to work hard on each one and really learn about light and focus and depth of field. I wish I had the eyes of a 20-year-old, but mine are stubborn and willing.

I have two weeks to decide if I wish to keep this lens or not, we’ll see what I am made of.