We've had a couple of weekends of unseasonably warm weather in London. I say warm - 15 to 20 degrees C which to be fair is almost hot for mid march. I decided to take advantage of it by going to Kew Gardens (along with most everyone else that lives in SW London it seemed!).

It was only about my third outing with the K-3 and I was generally very impressed with the way it handled. The two lenses I had were the DA* 60-250mm and the DA 35mm Macro Ltd. One thing I did notice which was really weird is that the DA* required between 0.7 and 1.0 stops of exposure compensation. I'm not sure if it was the strong light that was somehow fooling the exposure system - or maybe my personal preference for very slightly brighter photos (compared to the cameras preference). The DA didn't exhibit this so much. Has anyone else noticed this?

But my oh my is the DA* sharp. It's a phenomenal lens and its resolving power is, I think, actually better than the DA and rivals my 43mm Ltd. Speaking of which I ran a role of EKtar 100 through my Pentax MX with the 43mm alongside these photos. I am getting it developed in the next couple of days. It's the first time I've ever shot 35mm film so I am quite nervous to see what those look like!

Hope you enjoy the photos

[KRaZiGLiTcH]

All these flowers are so beautiful ^_^ my fave is 7 the pink and blue just stands out so much.

[Kerrowdown]

Spring has Sprung!

It's good to see it's return, fine imagery here, well done.

[Caat]

All these flowers are so beautiful ^_^ my fave is 7 the pink and blue just stands out so much.

Thanks!

---------- Post added 03-19-14 at 09:54 AM ----------

It's good to see it's return, fine imagery here, well done.

Thanks! I suspect it isn't quite here to stay yet...

[tessfully]

What gorgeous, happy, hopeful series of spring photographs! I love that tree in the 2nd and the blossoms against the blue sky are lovely. Thank you for sharing

[slowpez]

So glad to see spring has come to your part of the world and hope it stays around for a bit. Love the softly beautiful colors here and the pink against the blue sky is quite pretty.

[Caat]

What gorgeous, happy, hopeful series of spring photographs! I love that tree in the 2nd and the blossoms against the blue sky are lovely. Thank you for sharing

Thank you. The magnolias are really beautiful at the moment.

---------- Post added 03-20-14 at 01:01 PM ----------

So glad to see spring has come to your part of the world and hope it stays around for a bit. Love the softly beautiful colors here and the pink against the blue sky is quite pretty.

Thanks!

[Caat]

I've got my roll of Ektar 100 developed and scanned. The two shots below are the two flower shots I took on that roll - the rest were generally of the green houses. I like the placement of the plane in the pink magnolia shot.

[SkipperRi]

Absolutely fantastic! Congrats!

[KRaZiGLiTcH]

I've got my roll of Ektar 100 developed and scanned. The two shots below are the two flower shots I took on that roll - the rest were generally of the green houses. I like the placement of the plane in the pink magnolia shot.

I love the way film looks ^_^.I need to get a SLR but not sure what one haha

These photos are very beautiful.

[sherrvonne]

Beautiful, love the 2nd photo of the big trees with little pink flowers.

[AquaDome]

The airplane among the flowers is a nice surprise!

[kcasler]

What a lovely set! Being a place where spring most definitely has *not* yet sprung, these brought a smile today. Love #4 especially. Thanks for sharing!

[paulh]

great shots, like them all, esp #1

[Sailor]

Wow - all of these are so well done. I'm particularly taken with the 1st and 3rd ones in your OP.

Jer