Dead Poppy Heads

Some months ago I bought a 180mm Petzval lens which I have had some difficulties sorting with a lens board. In the end I made one (at least to try out the lens). Although this is a little dark, this is the first shot I tried with the lens and I am pretty pleased. There is a line on the left side (still not clear what caused this) and there are a lot of flecks (need to do a better job cleaning this old workhorse). I used the cap from a tube of Wilson tennis balls as a lens cap and set the f-stop and lighting to give me a 2 second exposure. Was quite surpsised by the selective focus effect without any tilt/shift. I want to improve on my still life work and will also try this lens with a portrait. I intend to contact print this shot with one of the 'alt' processes. Thanks for looking.