Exploring Dreams with the Daguerreotype Achromat Art Lens
8 Share TweetThe nocturnal heavenly bodies have taken over the sky, and the earthly ones have drifted off to a state of altered consciousness. The tangible world shuts down, and those in our minds come alive. Dreams then transport us to places we’ve never seen before.
They can be small and simple – flashes of scenarios that we end up piecing together. They can be big and bewitching – a vision for the future that we dedicate our lives to achieving. Whichever they may be and no matter how rare or often they visit us, the fact remains that dreams paired with passion and hard work can create impactful changes.
Such was the case for Louis Daguerre and Charles Chevalier. With the former creating the Daguerreotype camera and the latter handcrafting the optic lens for it in the 1830s, photography became a dream come true for humankind. It altered the course of history, and served as a stepping stone towards where we are today.
More than a century stands between that pivotal moment and now. Needless to say that photography has undergone significant changes since then, and the delicate yet detailed images produced by this photographic cornerstone may have gotten lost along the way.
Rooted in the power of dreams and the will to turn them into reality came a revival by Lomography. Whether your purpose for photography is to recreate the images that came while you were sleeping, or to attain the big picture of yourself as a creative individual, the Daguerreotype Achromat Art Lens will be with you to make all kinds of dreams come alive.
Recalling dreams can feel like a blur, but sometimes the memory is so vivid that it feels like the dream had happened already. With a versatile aperture range of f/2.9 to f/16, the Daguerreotype Achromat Art Lens was designed to encapsulate any and all of your visions. Use f/4 and below for hazy and dreamlike images with an ethereal soft focus, and f/5.6 onwards for realistic and intricate photos that have a stark contrast.
To dream is to travel across multiverses, too. More often than not, we wake up with the desire to revisit and explore the worlds that our dreams built. Having our photographs mirror these worlds can make them last far longer than the night.
The lens’ array of special effects assists in capturing stories beyond our wildest dreams, and in showing an extensive variety of atmospheres through both still and motion photography. It utilizes a Waterhouse Aperture Plate system that lets you play around with depth of field and bokeh effects. In front of the lens elements is a shaft to insert these plates in. Go for the Lumière to get that celestial and radiant glow, and the Aquarelle for a textured and painterly outcome. This easy and manual step of controlling your aperture is a way to optimize the allure found in your imagination.
The looks portrayed by the Daguerreotype Achromat continue to represent dreams and reality, and though much has changed since Daguerre's original creation, it would be a shame to deprive creatives of experiencing it in all its glory. This is one of the reasons why Lomography made it a point to maximize the handcrafted reinvention’s compatibility – the Daguerreotype Achromat Art Lens can be used with analogue, digital SLR, and mirrorless cameras.
When pursuing our dreams it can sometimes feel as if there’s a huge gap between where we are and where we could be. The way to narrow this gap is by constantly doing and having the courage to try. It’s more about the person than it is about the equipment, but having the right tools like the Daguerreotype Achromat Art Lens can undeniably ease the process. Your dreams may seem far away at times, but they will grow closer the more you chase them. When others tell you to dream on, you owe it to yourself to do just that.
How do your dreams inspire your photographic process? Sound off in the comments!
written by kylavillena on 2024-09-08 #gear #gallery #dreams #daguerreotype #art-lens
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