When you turn forty, you need glasses. This is the way it is for many of us. Yes, I know my youthful good looks belie it, but I am in fact… oh, who am I kidding? Yeah, I am well past 40.

So I need glasses to see my camera. But to see anything a couple of feet away or beyond, my eyes are great. So all day I put my glasses on, take them off… put them on, take them off… ad infinitum. My head has indentations where they live half the time.

There is now a solution. Hoodman, they of the excellent Hood Loupe you cannot live without (and I mean that!), now have these:

Hoodman Photoframes glasses, photo Michael Willems

So, photographers’ glasses, made with titanium, one size fits all. They are flexible at the back, so really will fit all. And they come in a sturdy case. To make them work, you have your optician put your own lenses in (a simple job: I had it done at Great Glasses here in Oakville).

Why?

Here’s why!

Hoodman Photoframes glasses, photo Michael Willems

A-ha! That handy little tab allows you to lift the glasses, one eye at a time. That way you can:

1. Look through the camera with one eye, and keep looking at distant objects with the other
2. Lift the lens to take a photo, instead of “remove the glasses to take a photo”.

The first point does not work for me, since I am left-eyed. (Yes, we are left- or right-eyed, did you know that? Handsome, intelligent people are left-eyed.. oh who am I kidding!). But the second point works just great. Now when I do a shoot I flip my left eye’s lens up, look through the viewfinder, and shoot. And flip down when I am done. Or to review, use my right eye, so no moving-of-glasses is necessary.

So, one more indispensable tool from Hoodman.

Michael’s Quick Judgment: excellent tool for use during shoots, and you will see me with these!