I was obviously a good boy in 2019, as at Christmas, Santa Claus flew via Japan and got me a 75mm f4.5 shift lens for my Pentax 67II. Where better to test precise verticals than the clean lines of Milton Keynes?
I'd originally got a Pentax 67 primarily for portraits so that I could use the 105mm f2.4 lens (for me it is a peerless medium format lens, as it creates the spatially separated look usually only found from a large format set up). However it was after talking to and marvelling at the precision and beauty of the work of the mono maestro, Ashley Carr, that I realised how much I needed one ( yes, needed, not wanted).
As it is the first shift lens I've owned, the pre-focusing, aperture setting and meter reading process slows the image taking process down more then usual. Introducing new steps in to my process has meant I've made plenty of errors. To focus you need to open the lens fully to f4.5 otherwise the screen won't be bright enough to see properly. It also means you have to remember to step it down again to the aperture you wish the exposure to be taken on, otherwise you’ll over expose your image. As you extend the shift mechanism you'll get more sky in the image than you originally could manage, and have to adjust your exposure to compensate. I'm sure with practice the workflow will become more intuitive. In the meantime, I'm glad I didn't mess these images up!
Till next time,
Matt Peers