I've recently enjoyed going on two great photo shoots here in Arizona- one to our local zoo and botanical garden, and one to the colorful visitor's center in Tucson.

Below are links to the full galleries if you'd like to see more photos in addition to the ones in this thread.

Some of Mo's Best Photos

Nature Gallery - Phoenix Zoo and Desert Botanical Garden

Here are some of my favorites from my trip to the zoo! Comments and critique are welcome:



















And a few from Tucson: I wish I'd gotten a bit less fringing on the last one!

[Adam]

Some brief technical data:

I took the zoo shots with the K20D and the FA* 400mm, all hand-held but at ISO 400. This lens turned out to perform surprisingly well as it was my first time using it.

The first butterfly photo was also taken with the 20D, but instead with the FA 100mm macro. The second one was from earlier in the year when I still had my K10D.

The 3 last photos were hand-held with the FA* 85mm. I also took several shots with the 300/2.8 that day, some of which are in this gallery: Building Photos from the Tucson Visitor's Center

Enjoy!

(After going on a weeklong trip earlier this year with only the DA* 50-135, I've pretty much been permanently discouraged from using it, and thus I didn't use it for either of the shoots above. From what I could tell, its image clarity or sharpness is nowhere near that of my trusted FA* primes, although I must say that the weather-sealing and resilient build comes in handy in certain situations.)

[stevebrot]

I think I see why this month's photo contest theme is "Complementary Colors"...

[Adam]

Complete coincidence

Adam
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[G M Fude]

All awesome shots, Adam. And don't orang utans love the lens? I've seen supermodels that don't work the camera that well, and these guys don't need to sign releases.

[distorted_vision]

all of these are great shots!! well done mate! i love the 1st 2 shots especially!!

[bdavis]

Adam, I think you've done a great job with the second squirrel monkey and the first butterfly shot. Both are difficult subjects, but you've done well.

The focus is a bit off on the first image of the squirrel monkey, and the flamingo (?) looks a bit soft to me too. Actually, save for the second squirrel and the first butterfly, I don't really feel you've nailed the focus (total miss on the first lamp) on most of these. I can see some halos on the 'tang, and second lamp shot; although these might be the forum. The first lamp shot has a weird perspective, and the lines of color don't do anything for it.

Can you expand on the second Tucson shot? The proportion of the three bright colors is pleasing, but why else did you find it interesting? I find the line within the stucco on the yellow block is a bit distracting.

[dantuyhoa]

You got the 400/2.8 ?????????

I think I will begin to hate you

Love the last one ! I would just walk right pass the dang thing !

[Adam]

Adam, I think you've done a great job with the second squirrel monkey and the first butterfly shot. Both are difficult subjects, but you've done well.

The focus is a bit off on the first image of the squirrel monkey, and the flamingo (?) looks a bit soft to me too. Actually, save for the second squirrel and the first butterfly, I don't really feel you've nailed the focus (total miss on the first lamp) on most of these. I can see some halos on the 'tang, and second lamp shot; although these might be the forum. The first lamp shot has a weird perspective, and the lines of color don't do anything for it.

Can you expand on the second Tucson shot? The proportion of the three bright colors is pleasing, but why else did you find it interesting? I find the line within the stucco on the yellow block is a bit distracting.

Interesting that you say that about the focus- every shot, except for the chimp (and the lamp in the 1st Tucson shot ), is actually tack-sharp. I can see that parts of the monkeys are a bit out of focus, but since your eyes should immediately jump to the head, I'm thinking that's not a bad thing at all. I guess the reduced image size killed lots of the detail and is making the pics appear soft- I'll try to fix that and perhaps also apply a sharpening filter so they look a bit better in lower resolutions. Thanks for the comments.

Did you notice the variation in texture on the 2nd shot, especially in the red area? It might be a bit hard to discern if you've got a brich monitor.

[Adam]

Here are a couple 100% crops- I unfortnately had to use ISO 400, but I think the camera dd a good job of keeping noise to a minumum.

It sure is difficult t post fullsize crops that are under 800 pixels wide when the original is 14.6 MP!

[Adam]

You got the 400/2.8 ?????????

I think I will begin to hate you

Love the last one ! I would just walk right pass the dang thing !

If only Pentax made an autofocus 400/2.8- the FA* is F5.6

[thomasjmpark]

Well they are wonderfully colourful shots Adam I also like the oran utan shot too. I understand the previous posters remark about the OOF areas on the 1st and 2nd monkey, but so long as the eyes and head are in focus then you get away with the rest.

[J.Scott]

These are great Adam! I really like the orangutan; he/she has a real playful look to their eyes that makes the picture standout. I also like the colourful stucco shots. Although very simple they are pleasing (soothing?) to the brain.

Thanks for sharing.

[Eaglerapids]

I think what may be throwing some off in particularly the first photo, is Adam's point of focus. It's genius really and I've seldom seen it. We're used to seeing the subject in focus and most of the depth of field behind the subject, here the depth of field is in front of the subject and extends back to cover the little guys face, I love the effect. And I don't think it's an accident, there's stuff to be learned here guys. Awesome pics Adam, it's been awhile since I've seen any of your work.

[Bud]

Adam - excellent series of shots! One of the things that pleases me most with the K20D is the colors and you've represented that extremely well here.

My son and I were at the Sonoran Desert Museum last summer... one of the best "living" museums I've ever visited... that area is a nature-lover's paradise! Thanks for sharing your work.

Bud