Ryan Fox Wins The Open Championship, Helios 44-2 Lens Flares & Vintage Glass
Posted by Pat Hathaway | July 21, 2026
The coffee is exceptionally strong, the Central Coast fog is finally burning off, and my living room is eerily quiet. It’s Tuesday morning, the 154th Open Championship is officially in the history books, and Big Boy Dan is currently staring at the wall, reevaluating his entire existence.
The Kiwi Upset and Dan’s Empty Wallet
If you remember Dan’s airtight “links logic” from Thursday, he had his entire betting bankroll heavily leveraged on the European veterans. He was convinced that only a local who grew up in the driving UK rain could conquer the winds at Royal Birkdale.
He completely ignored the 39-year-old New Zealander. We watched in absolute silence on Sunday as Ryan Fox stepped up to the 18th hole, completely unfazed by the pressure, and sank a clutch 12-foot birdie putt to finish at 10-under par. Fox snatched the Claret Jug right out of Cameron Young’s hands, becoming only the third Kiwi in history to win a golf major. You can read the official tournament recap over at
The Open’s championship portal, but the summary in my house was simply the sound of Dan tearing up his betting slips.
“The aerodynamics changed on the back nine, Pat. Fox got lucky with the turf density on 18. It defies the math.”
Sure it does, Dan. I’m keeping my Golden Tempo winnings locked away, and Dan is officially retiring from golf handicapping. At least until the PGA Championship rolls around.
Chasing Sun Flares with the Helios
While Dan spent Sunday afternoon sulking, I grabbed the ATV and headed out to the coastal cliffs right at golden hour. I wanted to push my vintage Russian lens experiment even further. The Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 is already famous for its swirly bokeh, but I wanted to test its biggest “flaw”—its complete lack of modern anti-reflective lens coatings.
If you point a modern, $2,000 Sony G-Master lens at the sun, the internal coatings will aggressively suppress the light to keep the contrast perfect. But if you point a 50-year-old Soviet lens at the sun, the light bounces violently around the internal glass elements, creating massive, glowing rings of golden flare.
I shot straight into the setting sun, using focus peaking on the “plastic computer” to keep my subject sharp while the frame completely washed out in warm, cinematic light. You can read about the science of lens flares and vintage glass over at
PetaPixel, but experiencing it through the viewfinder is pure magic. It’s chaotic, unpredictable, and technically incorrect. I absolutely love it.
The Hub and The Judge’s Concession
I spent Monday evening color-grading the best of these sun-flared shots and pushing the high-resolution files into the
California Views Gallery Hub. The combination of the razor-sharp 50-megapixel modern sensor and the dreamy, flawed vintage glass creates an aesthetic that you simply cannot replicate with Photoshop filters.
I sent the gallery link to Judge Roy Bacon, fully expecting him to write a multi-paragraph essay on the tragedy of uncorrected spherical aberration and loss of contrast.
His response came back this morning, surprisingly brief:
“It is a technical disaster, Patrick. The flaring completely destroys the shadow detail. But… I will admit, it does possess a certain cinematic quality that modern optics lack.”
That is the closest Judge Roy Bacon will ever get to paying me a compliment when a digital sensor is involved. I’ll take the victory.
Comments
BigBoyDan: Fox caught a break on the 15th hole when his ball bounced off that bunker wall. Cameron Young was robbed. I’m done with links golf.
JudgeRoy: Cinematic doesn’t mean correct, Patrick. But I suppose a flawed lens is slightly better than relying entirely on AI bird-tracking algorithms.
Video Recommendation
If you want to see why modern cinematographers and photographers are ditching their perfect, expensive lenses to shoot directly into the sun with cheap, vintage Russian glass, check out this incredible breakdown of the Helios 44-2 lens flare.
Cinematic Lens Flares with the Helios 44-2 (YouTube)
