Ttartisans17mmf17

In the queue at the Cape Town International Convention Centre for my first COVID shot yesterday. It’s a huge, well-managed, friendly operation. With the current dominant variant, it’s a long way from a guarantee that we won’t get the virus. But there’s a much better chance, and an even better chance that the virus will pass mildly and leave no long term effects. It’s not a castle. It’s a shield. But a critically important one that would be impossible without the dedicated efforts of thousands of independent, university-based scholars and masses of tax-payer funding globally.

Across the road is a vast contiguous property with massive security. We call it ‘The Cult Compound.’ @withoutaleaf once took an interview with Gwyneth Paltrow’s brother in there and has glimpsed its secret interior. Today this huge load of soil was dropped off. With a bit of internet sleuthing, following up on the truck, getting to the manifest - some hacking was required - I discovered this soil originated in the Transylvania region of Romania and is described as ‘Vintage Funereal Soil - 1,200kg’ What could they want with over a ton of grave soil? And what does it have to do with the four crates that were delivered yesterday afternoon? Maybe just some very exotic gardening? ...

I realised I’ve never owned a fast wide-angle lens before. And I’ve gotta say, I like it. Mr. Crumb was assisting me by totally destroying the corner of the bed as he likes to do. One thing no one’s mentioned about this fantastic little ttartisans 17mm f1.4: it has a screw-in metal lens cap. Everyone talks about how inconvenient that is. But in this case it screws tight with a half turn - making it in some ways easier to manage than a clip-on cap. The 50’s cap takes multiple turns and is totally impractical as a working lens cap. But this one on the tiny front element of 17mm is actually great.