Call it by name.

When I say I'm honored by the community I've been building up on Patreon, this is what I mean: one of you Patrons was so moved by my passionate research for just the perfect copy of the Zeiss Planar 85mm f1,4, that he spontaneously offered to help me out in buying this specific lens.
He feels that my work is important and necessary in this world, for how I revere the female body (this is the short version of his kind mail).
In the mean time, the third try to buy this milestone in optical performance has landed in my lap, just in time to be used for the shooting I have on Monday.
I was flattered by his offer, and embarrassed at the same time, but I want to see it like an item on a wedding list, something that will remind me of a beloved uncle every time I use it.
And his choice of lens to sponsor is a good one, I believe, because it is going to become a popular lens in this nude project from now on.
After all, a lens is truly at the heart of photography, a sacred object that can virtually survive every camera it was attached to, and bring its unique visual signature despite the new technologies!

In the end I Have chosen to go for the more recent Zeiss T* 1,4/85 mm Planar ZF, launched in 2009, but still traditional and manual focus, hoping that it can maintain most of the magic of its Contax predecessor (built from 1975 to 2005).
This copy of the lens is in "like new" conditions, but missing the original lens hood I had to order separately as a spare part, and I'm still waiting for.
On Monday I will have to use it without the lens hood, that is like driving a Ferrari wearing flip flops, but I will be careful with nasty lights hitting the front element.

Pop culture frequently allude at the bullet with your name written on, but from now on this lens will have the name of its godfather written on (figuratively at least), and I will cal it "Martin" from now on.
I don't usually speak publicly about my Patrons, because my subject is of sensitive nature and they might not desire to be called out in public posts, but I guess inside the community is all right...

One word about today's post, I'm confident this new lens is going to grant us with some memorable images, like this one I took of Bianca, shot through the Voigtländer Nokton 58mm f1.4 SL II.
If her blue eyes are still haunting us in our dreams, it is thanks to the quality of this lens, and the new Planar on the GFX medium format sensor should outperform all previous combinations.
We'll have to wait and see...

If you want to learn more about the Bramley Apple Project or Archives, or DA subscriptions, ask me on bramleyapple@yahoo.com