I thought this fly seemed so tiny against the size of the flower bud.

[ToddK]

Very nice close-up/macro shot! That lens is a must-have for a trip to a botanical garden.

[K2 to K50]

Very nice close-up/macro shot! That lens is a must-have for a trip to a botanical garden.

Thanks Todd. Yes - I took all three of my new (six months new!!) lenses to these gardens: the macro for the close-ups, the 16-85mm for the landscape views of the garden, and the 55-300mm PLM for bird shots, for which these gardens did offer a number of opportunities.

I do have some old (1970s) prime lenses from my Pentax K2/ME days, but find it very difficult to nail the focus with those, even with the focus assist "beep"

So I use my three new glasses almost exclusively. Maybe some time later in the coming new year I will invest in the Pentax 1.4x teleconverter.

[PJ1]

A good close up of both the fly and the flower. Nice 'diffused light' makes the shadows less harsh and creates a back lit effect. I presume there was strong high level smoke haze (there has been in Sydney for the ten days I have been here so far, but it has come back down to ground level here this morning).

[K2 to K50]

A good close up of both the fly and the flower. Nice 'diffused light' makes the shadows less harsh and creates a back lit effect. I presume there was strong high level smoke haze (there has been in Sydney for the ten days I have been here so far, but it has come back down to ground level here this morning).

Thanks PJ1. On that day there wasn't any real smoke haze: a different story since then, of course. The day was intermittently overcast, and some of these flowers were in shaded locations.