2018-19
A little Jet ant (Lasius fuliginosus) enjoying a beautiful day in the forest… Photos taken with Pentacon, this lens is about 45 years old (made in East Germany), and really nice to use. It’s not super sharp when shot open wide at f1.8, but that wasn’t the purpose of these shots anyway. 😉
“Sharpness really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in my book. I’d rather look at an image with soft gloomy highlights with aberrations all over the place, than a clinically perfect super shot. It’s the same with human beings. It’s our flaws that make us unique. It’s these flaws that enhance beauty by giving us an immediate reference through presence of the less-than-perfect.”
Jonas Rask – official Fujifilm X-Photographer
The plant is known as cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), it’s a herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial plant in the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae).
caleephotography 
Your images, Camilla, have a kind of hypnotic dreaminess about them that really draws me and entrances me. I love the notion too that sharpness is not necessarily the ultimate goal of photography. Sometimes it is and sometime it is not.
May 13, 2018 at 12:19 PM
Thanks so much for your kind words, Mike! I fully agree, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. With this lens it’s all about “atmosphere” for me.
May 13, 2018 at 12:41 PM
One for the book!!!
Regards,
Mercedes
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May 13, 2018 at 12:27 PM
Thanks Merce! 🙂 No, these are for something else.
May 13, 2018 at 12:42 PM
Hi, Camilla. These are great. I like the way that you have bent most of the conventional rules you hear about how to take a good image – composition, sharpness, depth of field – let alone the placement of the main subject within the frame. And yet – they work! They draw you in and make you look more closely. Great stuff! Love it! 😎
May 13, 2018 at 12:52 PM
Thanks so much, John! This lens is so much fun to use, I don’t know what it is exactly but it makes me want to scrap all rules and try to be creative. Some work, some don’t, but all were fun taking 🙂 Have a good week ahead!
May 13, 2018 at 1:12 PM
I love what you’re doing with this lens! And the colors are interesting: soft and subtle. What you said above to John makes sense – when I’ve used my vintage lens I’ve been more creative too – things work out better with these lenses when you loosen up and experiment. They shake the cobwebs out of your brain, right? 😉
May 15, 2018 at 5:36 PM
Thanks so much, Lynn! Yes, it’s strange but that’s what’s happening when I put this vintage lens on.. It’s almost like it has a will of its own! I like it a lot, it’s fun when the outcome is a bit unpredictable 😉
May 16, 2018 at 6:18 AM
It all depends on the mood, right? And that just shows how versatile and open minded you are, Camilla! 😉
May 22, 2018 at 8:56 PM
Thanks so much, Lynn, you’re far too kind. 🙂 As you already know, one need to keep an open mind if wanting to produce something new 😉 I think we both enjoy a bit of trial and error in this field.
May 23, 2018 at 12:58 PM