New toy....

Have acquired a new lens - a type I've been considering for a while.
The lens was previously owned by Blipper Ken Hoyle who sadly passed away a short while ago. So, firstly, my condolences to Ken's family.

Ken was a frequent visitor to John Gravett's Lakeland Photographic Holidays. John has, on behalf of Ken's daughter,  taken on the task of selling, the vast amount of Ken's equipment. 
Some of Ken's kit

John introduced many people to Blipfoto. Thank you to John for arranging this and send the lens to me.

The len's I bought is in the image linked above - Nestled away is an EF mount Tilt/Shift lens. Not a Canon lens but a Samyang 24mm. The Canon equivalents cost 3x the price, even used, so, not an amount you want to spend until you're sure you can get to grips with the complexity and flexibility that such a lens can give. 

I had never used a Tilt/shift lens, but wanted to investigate how they work. Frequently used by architectural and commercial product photographers, they are supposed to be good for landscapes and more artistic creative imagery. So, the challenge is on.....
I spent a short while playing with the lens and soon realised that a structured approach is needed to working out how get to grips with it. The image above is just one of that first session - probably the only one to be honest.

A few hours reading and watching YouTube videos. Many of those are very cursory with little in the way of depth. But, if anyone is interested, Keith Cooper, a photographer I know in Leicester does some very in depth tests and reviews on his website Northlight Images and his YouTube channel has some great and informative videos. 
Tilt/Shift lens video

What all the material says though, is, Tilt/Shift lenses take you back to entirely manual photography. You need to understand how these optics work and have a consistent workflow to get the best out of them.

First impressions of the Samyang is that the optics are a little soft, so great care is needed to get the best from it. Suspect I will be playing for a while yet.

My first image here is was playing and not knowing what I was doing - Just a shot between our house and next door - a narrowish gap. I had some left shift applied along with some tilt to create a narrow area of focus. It was a dull grey day for July which I was trying to reflect.