When I started taking pictures, I would just call up B&H Photo and buy a new one, the best and fastest one. I just bought what I wanted. I was on fire with my photography.

That era didn’t last long, and I get new lenses very differently these days. I barter, prowl, dicker and gamble. And sometimes, I just wait for one to find me.

Waiting is a relatively new experience for me. I waited years for a lens I got today.

Each different lens triggers a whole different kind of photography for me, and I am getting positively shrewd about how I get one.  Today, a 10-year-old Zeiss 50 mm lens arrived from an online photographic exchange company I like to do business with.

I’ve heard great things about this lens, and borrowed it from a friend once. I fell in love with its clarity and sense of scene. It is a Zeiss prime lens.

The company I deal with is a fine symbol of the new digital economy, I have never spoken with a human being  there or discussed with any human what I am looking for or selling. I’m not sure there is a human at the company, or even a material building,  just AI software doing the hard thinking and all of the trading and communicating.

I speak with software programs and  icons. They are not warm or friendly, but they do get the job done.

Some years ago, I registered for a feature on this company that gives a web company permission to scout the Internet looking for a particular lens, and when they find one, to notify me, the obsessive photographer, always looking for a good lens.

I wanted a Zeiss 50 mm, and I have waited three years for it, an eternity for me.

If I want the lens, I can buy it outright or trade one my existing lenses. I had a nearly new Sigma 85 mm portrait lens I didn’t really like much,  and this company had the lens I have been waiting patiently for – the Zeiss Plantar 50 mm, a short, heavy, stubby lens with wonderful glass. They said it was almost like new.

They have never lied to me. What they do is have their software scour the Internet for a lens like the one I wanted. They seem to be able to go anywhere.

I asked the software program to hold it for me for 48 hours. They did, and I traded for it.

As the sun set, I unwrapped it and held it up, I  took the photo above with it, my first one, of the kitchen gallery, one of Maria’s many art galleries scattered all around the house.

It is nice and heavy, a manual focus lens. Very sharp. This was all done quickly and without human intervention. And yes, I know I haven’t mentioned the name of the company, I just have this instinct to keep it a secret, it seems more exotic that way.

Last week, I  received an e-mail saying my sought-after  Zeiss used lens had been found, did I want to buy it or trade for it? I don’t buy new lenses any more, I trade. It saves a great deal of money, and is exciting.

Buying a new lens outright seems boring to me now. Ever once in a while, I take some lenses down to B&H photo in New York and haggle with the Hasidic Jews there. They know how to negotiate, for sure.

I described my nearly new Sigma to the company software, and within seconds, I got an e-mail quoting a price and offering me a trade. They offered me $650 for the Sigma, and my used Ziess, in “very good” condition, I was told, would cost $670.

New, this same  Zeiss lens sells for about $1,700.

I owed $34 for my new lens, plus shipping  and tax.

I have never owned a new Zeiss lens, this is out of the question for me. But I have another used one, and it is  phenomenal. I intend to use it and the new Zeiss only with the black and white monochrome camera.

We had a deal.

Last Wednesday, I packed up my Sigma lens – I’m not sure I ever used it – and sent it to the company. Today, the new lens arrived, just at sunset.

I got to take one photo before it got dark – this one of the kitchen windowsill above. I’m eager to get out there tomorrow, even in the rain and gloom. I want to use it as a scene lens, much like the 35 mm was once used. I want to use it exclusively on my black and white monochrome camera.

Lenses are an almost sacred thing to me, they help me to see the world anew each time I get one. And there is no better glass in a lens on the planet, so far as I know, as Zeiss glass.

Tomorrow,I’m eager to get outside and use it.