Welcome to Picture of the Week (POTW) for the period 11 - 24 January 2018. I’m pleased to be again hosting this wonderful and diverse thread, and all are invited to contribute.
POTW is a great spot to show off six or fewer shots you take or are editing within the thread's date range. In other words, you can post your shots from this week AND last week.

To post your great photos, just hit reply and attach away

feel free to start immediately, if not sooner

Please:

• consider including in your post any special circumstances or tips on technique or equipment which might be interesting to others.

• identify your camera and lens if that information is easily available to you.

And please invite other Pentaxians to join us.

Some rules:
1) No theme, just post your favorite pix
2) Six or fewer images per person per thread to prevent thread bloat
3) Any Pentax, Ricoh or Samsung camera, film or digital

The current host will invite a new host via Private Message (PM), but if you are interested and willing to host POTW, please send me a PM, before I contact others.

Read more at: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/129-weekly-photo-challenges/358970-weekl...#ixzz54Wz2KBoH

If possible, the new thread will be linked to the previous one. If the thread doesn't start, please contact the host, via PM. Here are the records of recent POTW thread hosts: 390 smf, 391 smf, 392 smf, 393 smf, 394 smf, 395 smf, 396 smf, 397 smf, 398 smf, 399 smf, 400 smf, 401 smf, 402 smf, 403 smf, 404 smf, 405 smf, 406 smf,407 ramseybuckeye, 408 ramseybuckeye, 409 stubyles, 410 stubyles, 411 stubyles, 412-423 SD_Bob, 424-427 dave kitson 428-451 smf 452, 453, 454 StephenHampshire 455 Aslyfox, 456 StepehenHampshire, 457 noelcmn, 458 noelcmn, 459 noelcmn, 460 noelcmn, 461 noelcmn, 462 noelcmn, 463 noelcmn, 464 noelcmn, 465 noelcmn, 466 noelcmn, 467 Aslyfox, 469-470 aaacb 471 Madmathmind, 472 Madmathmind, 473 Eva, 474 rjbrett, 475 Aslyfox, 476 - 485 noelcmn, 486 rjbrett, 487 rjbrett

I’ve been out over the last week photographing street and garden trees with my small clutch of Takumars. These fig trees have always impressed me (they’re actually 2 trees planted close together) and from the size of the trunk I’d say predates this suburb, and may have belonged to the homestead that preceeded. The Ivory Curl tree is another favorite, a medium size flowering tree often used on the roadsides and median strips around here. I’d never noticed before but the flowers actually have a strong scent of spiced (cardamom?) honey. Both these trees were photographed using the 28mm Super Takumar f3.5, at f11. The Ivory Curl flower was taken using a Super Takumar 135mm f3.5 at f8.

Practicing with my KAX 2x teleconverter I caught a nice clear shot of a mynah with the Takumar Bayonet 135mm f2.8, and also this grasshopper bedding itself down in the petunia for the night with the SMC A Pentax 50mm f2. Both shots were at f5.6. I’m wondering if the grasshopper is color blind – it’s not very good camouflage.

I picked a rose for mum, and she was so pleased with it I took this photo with the Auto Takumar 55mm f1.8 at f11. I used a piece of black cotton cloth as a backing, but thinking of printing swapped it out for a textured background in Topaz. The software seems to have automatically added shadow and some reflection on the outer petals, not something I’d have thought to do. I think it mostly works. Since then I have cheerfully washed the cloth, and put a nice set of wrinkles through it with the dryer, and am not sure if I can iron them out without wrecking surface. Another rookie mistake to add to my growing list……

Being impressed with the silver gelatin photos I’ve seen on the black and white and monochrome thread I thought I’d try the effect on another gardenia shot taken with the Industar 61 50mm f2.8 at about f8. I used the B & W topaz plugin and Interestingly I got better results from turning the contrast down, rather than my usual boosting of every slider on the screen for B & W.















Yeah I lost count in there somewhere...

[noelcmn]

Thanks for hosting again rjbrett , i'm loving those opening shots you got there, especially the grasshopper.
A contribution from me
From today




Struck it lucky again with a Jumper


A weaver posed for a minute


Day Lily macro


Playing with flowers and sunsets


Super excited to see my 2nd crab spider, difficult to nab the exposure on this one, as it was directly in the sun.


And it has been hot


I'm following the host in not counting or getting lost with the numbers. The grey matter only sometimes works

[aaacb]

And it has been hot

From earlier this week, quite the opposite over here.

[Tbone51]

Snow Squall on Great Lakes Beach

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Last edited by Tbone51; 07-07-2018 at 08:13 PM.

[derelict]

[rjbrett]

That's brilliant Tbone51! I love it! - was it a slow exposure?

We're only having a middling hot summer here Noel, nothing to write home about - those candlesticks look a bit scary. I actually like the blown highlights on the spider shot, it looks almost alien and could well be from Mars. Love the flower in sunset shot, and insects are sharp, colorful, and detailed as always.

I do like good frost and snow shots at this time of year - through the hot summer here I find myself watching films set in Canada and Scandinavia, and documentaries on Antarctica. I could almost reach out and touch the sun in those shots aaacb, it has such a tangible presence. Those very fine light misty tones are so atmospheric derelict, wish I could gauge exposure as well as you two do….

[clackers]

K-1, FA*300 f4.5 at Healesville Sanctuary.

[eva]

Snow day

[clackers]

Great pics, Eva. Once you expose correctly for all the snow, there's beautiful reflected fill light on the subjects from everywhere!

[Binocular Viewfinder]

Learning how to post pictures...

[clackers]

Learning how to post pictures...

Success!

And underexposing gave it mood - the rim lighting really stands out, BV!

[rjbrett]

Nice to see your candid shots Eva - they're always so good! - light reflecting off snow? - thanks for the tip Clackers. Am beginning to think more about light and have been reading into it. The detail on that bird's plumage is phenomenal by the way ....

[clackers]

Nice to see your candid shots Eva - they're always so good! - light reflecting off snow? - thanks for the tip Clackers. Am beginning to think more about light and have been reading into it.

No worries, Rjbrett. Beach sand or a concrete path can act as fill, too.

If you've got two walls in an alleyway, pose your subject in front of the dark one and let them be lit by the light one.

Like the snow, it'll be soft, even, and eliminating shadows - a nice glow to the skin tones.

The detail on that bird's plumage is phenomenal by the way ....

Thanks, mate. 300 on full frame isn't long, it's like what you'd get out of a 55-200, but if you can get close, captive birds used to people or wild birds from a hide, that's where the detail comes through.

[noelcmn]

Stop it ya all, with these fabulous snow pics. The envy is LARGE!
Clackers, what is that last bird with the dangerous weapon behind its ear? Fab shot too!

[eva]

Great pics, Eva. Once you expose correctly for all the snow, there's beautiful reflected fill light on the subjects from everywhere!

Thx for tip and comment.Yes somewhere between +1 to +2.... I Forget...I'm not enough on the snow lately.