Gladys Lasky

I came across some really old photographs. These were shot at Gladys Lasky's ballet studio on Mulberry Street. Her studio was upstairs, hardwood floors, huge windows at one end of the room, a wall of mirrors.
So much character. I fell in love when I walked in the downstairs door and headed up those long narrow stairs the first time. Such a great place to shoot.

Then I fell in love with Gladys. She came to Macon in the 1950's from London after falling in love with Pulitzer Prize winner George Weller. Gladys was a strict task master for her students, and for any photographer who came her way. I knew nothing about ballet, just wanted to make some neat photos. I learned from Gladys how cool it is to learn from your subjects. Something I still love about this job.


A good photographer is a sponge. He listens before he shoots, learning about his subject. How else do you know what to do with them. Lets you put them more at ease, and capture their true essence. You store that knowledge, and become a bit more rounded. A good thing in this life.

The Mirror Lens

I have rediscovered an old friend. An old Nikkor 500mm f8 mirror lens. Back in the old days(the 70's) I shot lots of sports with this lens. It is a fixed f8, so you need a lot of light to shoot it. It is also manual focus. Ouch.
A mirror lens is much shorter and lighter than its typical lens counterpart. A regular 500mm lens has bunch of glass elements stacked together to produce an image. The mirror lens uses mirrors to bounce the light to cover the same distance for the same magnification. They also focus really close. Compared to today's more modern lenses they are quite dark.

The images you get are very distinct. There is very little depth of field, and out of focus points of light in the background appear as circles. I have been shooting some feature stuff with the lens, but got it out for a soccer game. I have not shot any sports with a manual focus lens in a long time. Did much better than I thought I would.
This was always a lens that folks either loved or hated. Most people hate them. They do make you work harder. I still love it.