My current photography has changed somewhat from the bulk of what I’ve shown you in this Cuba series. Not only in image style, but also in technique and even equipment. When I went to Cuba in 2024, I was still shooting predominantly Sony, but had bought the first couple of Leicas and started dabbling in manual-focus lenses. The Cuba workshop was led by a Sony Artisan, and I brought my Sony gear because it’s what I’m most comfortable with. I wasn’t ready to recklessly shoot manual focus with Leica.

However, I brought one lens as an experiment to dabble in manual-focus, shallow-depth-of-field photography. It was the TTartisan 50mm f/2, an inexpensive but solidly built manual focus lens that worked on the Sony E-Mount. As I recall, it was about $70, so it was worth the risk of buying and was small enough to bring.

I didn’t use that lens much until the last couple of days, when all my pre-planned portrait sessions were over, and I had captured all the street photographs I needed. The last few posts and all of the pictures in this post are with the TTartisan. The images are softer and with more character, and at f/2 give a shallower depth of field than the Sony 24-70mm zoom I primarily used.

Ironically, I now shoot more like this. Although I use other non-Sony cameras, I also use 50mm f/1.2 lenses. I’m moving away from technical perfection and toward images with more mood and character. Tack-sharp performance isn’t what excites me as much anymore.

By the way, if you’ve missed my gear-oriented blog posts, which I used to do more of, you’ll enjoy my Substack here . It’s turned into a secondary blog, a bit more gear-oriented, and much more current.

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