Testing Baby

Not a real baby but a Lensbaby Velvet soft focus lens which I have on trial with a view to using for flower images. It is totally manual with no auto connections to the camera except for through the lens metering. Used wide open at F1.6 it produces dreamy soft focus images with a sharper centre. Stopped down it is  sharp corner to corner but I guess no one would buy this lens to use in this way.

My usual testing ground is Osborne House so I wandered around the grounds to try the lens out on various subjects. It is a steep learning curve but early impressions are favourable. In fact it could be called an Impressionistic optic.

I tried a few flower shots not made easy with a cold wind blowing. I think I will be keeping this new baby as it seems to suit my present style of flower work.

A couple more tulip shots are in the new Extra Photos feature which has just appeared on Blip.