Just for Fun No C&C will be given: A job I never wanted to do....

[Jim Galli]

Dave​

My friend Dave died suddenly this week, no real warning. I'm preparing a large version of this, the best image I have of him, for his widow. This was made last summer. I had a new2me Struss Pictorial lens I was playing with and a common friend of us both mentioned to Dave that I was out playing with the camera stuff. He had a new D300 so searched me out. I had him pose framed in the window opening of my old Ford pickup. The last thought in either of our minds was that this would be the last portrait I would ever take of him.

Life is fragile, and short. Get your friends in front of your lens...........often.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Re: Karl Struss Pictorial Lens

I found this gem here

One sold recently on Ebay. It appeared to be a single meniscus group at the back with an aperture up front. It also interested me that the general physical look of the lens was remarkably similar to the Pinkham Smith Semi Achromat lens in an unpainted aluminum barrel. Both had identical engraving.

Did Struss buy some commercially available lens like perhaps an older landscape meniscus and then re-polish / re-shape to suit his particular formula? I doubt we'll ever know. Did anybody ask him 20 years ago while he was still with us?

I would add that at todays prices I can't afford either the Struss or the Pinkham but I have had excellent success with soft focus images using an un-modified 1860's Darlot landscape meniscus wide open at f6. It has the identical look of Struss' soft images.

Jim Galli: Dave: In Memoriam

Karl Struss Pictorial Lens​

When I first looked at the picture, I thought it was the task of pushing a stalled car that was your unwanted task. So this is, in a way, an undesigned metaphor for stalled life.

Is sudden death a good thing? Certainly prolonged suffering is not the ideal way to go. I just hope we spend out lives making the most of what God or fate has given us. This simple act of friendship in taking this picture, is in fact a fellowship between one person and another and your good deed, although you did not know it at the time.

Asher

 

[Jim Galli]

​

When I first looked at the picture, I thought it was the task of pushing a stalled car that was your unwanted task.

Is sudden death a good thing? Certainly prolonged suffering is not the ideal way to go. I just hope we spend out lives making the most of what God or fate has given us. This simple act of friendship in taking this picture, is in fact a fellowship between one person and another and your good deed, although you did not know it at the time.

Asher

Dave was lucky in death. The doctors told him he was bad off, real bad off. He called his family together and said his goodbyes. He went to the hospital to try to give it a shot and died within 2 days of the first mention. I couldn't imagine a better scenario for myself when my time comes. No suffering, no nothing. Easy for Dave, not so easy for all of us that loved him. I always tell my kids that there's a 100% mortality rate. They never listen once.

 

[Jim Galli]

Thanks for the magic carpet ride Asher. I had forgotten that I'd written those paragraphs. How interesting that I despaired of ever owning either, and have had the great privilege of owning and using both the Struss and the Pinkham's.

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Hi Jim

Not much to say in these circumstances, but it's a reminder to make the most with the time we're given. Keeps things in perspective when we're tempted to chase the next thing.

I'm sorry ot hear of your and Dave's family's loss, but pleased he had the time to say goodbye and didn't go through a long drawn out suffering.

Mike

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

A very beautiful portrait and fine remember of a good friend-

Charlotte-

 

[Rachel Foster]

Beautiful shot.

 

[John Angulat]

Jim,
I'm sorry to hear of your friend's passing.
You have a wonderful image to remember him by.
Peace,

 

[fahim mohammed]

Sorry to hear of your friend's passing. He shall be with you in your memories and the beautiful picture
of him shall remind you of the wonderful times you shared.

Regards.

 

[Nigel Allan]

I can only add my condolences to those above. There is nothing really I can say except how touching this is and yes life is fragile and ephemeral and we must make the most of every moment. One aspect of photography is that it allows us to live on in other people's memories.