Picture of the Week - 10-May-2009 to 24-May-2009 #62

Well coming off a record POTW thread it's time to let that go and start anew. You all don't have to wait you know. It's simple to start a new one and really once the tread is started that literally ends the mandatory obligation. Of course you can comment and post and are encouraged to, but we all know sometimes you get busy. Anyway here we go....

Rules as before:

1) No theme just your favorite stuff.
2) Let's keep it to about 4-6 images per post just so the thread doesn't get too big each week.
3) Any Pentax camera is fine, film, P&S, DSLR (or Samsung DSLR)
4) Date : Sunday 10/05/09 - Sunday 24/05/09 Enter anything you shot last week or this current week until the thread closes.

Previous hosts: 1 Peter Zack, 2 Eaglerapids, 3 rmtagg, 4 Peter Zack, 5 daacon, 6 Bramela, 7 mtnbearhug, 8 dantuyhoa, 9 gawan, 10 roentarre, 11 daacon, 12 Kris, 13 mtnbearhug, 14 SCGushue, 15 daacon, 16 maxwell1295, 17 dantuyhoa, 18 daacon, 19 maxwell1295, 20 Bamela, 21 Syb, 22 & 23 maxwell1295, 24 dantuyhoa, 25 Gawan, 26 Peter Zack, 27 borno, 28 daacon, 29 gawan, 30 Damn Brit, 31 & 32 maxwell1295 , 33 dantuyhoa, 34 daacon, 35 Peter Zack, 36 Damn Brit, 37 Borno, 38 Kevint, 39 Peter Zack, 40 Timbo13, 41 daacon, 42 daacon, 43 gawan, 44 dantuyhoa , 45 daacon, 46 rense, 47 daacon, 48 Rense, 49 borno, 50 Rense, 51 daacon, 52 Peter Zack, 53 Peter Zack, 54 dadipentak, 55 David Whiteley, 56 planedriver, 57 daacon,58 bramela, 59 daacon, 60 gawan, 61 virgilr, 62 daacon,

As usual here are couple to start us off ...

Spring days are here but there are still occasional days where the temperature drops to freezing and some snow falls instead of rain. It has been a really late spring here with most of the trees still leafless. I did notice a few dandelions on some of the grass yesterday so perhaps we are getting ready for an extended warm period. Although the long range forecast looks dismal this week.

Regardless at the local farmers market, the bedding and perennial plants were out, it was a relatively warm day and the crowd was thick, everyone waiting to plant their flowers in the yard.

click on image for larger view





And one from Costco Titled ..."When you haven't got time for the pain" ..

[xjjohnno]

A couple of lorikeets, they way they were behaving I think they were feeding their young in a tree hollow.

and a grass parrot trying to go unnoticed.

[MrApollinax]

The first time I visited OZ I was amazed that what many people here in the states consider pets are considered colorful pidgeons by some locals.

[Oldschool]

Here's a couple from the annual Italian Markket festival this past weekend.....

[Bactman]

I had the good luck of being the photographer for a local arts festival over the weekend and here are some quick and dirty, random/unprocessed photos:

Artist through his work, taken with a DA 40mm F2.8 LTD:



Guitarist of The Twin Cats, taken with the DA* 60-250mm F4:



Mermaid metal sculpture, taken with DA* 60-250mm F4:



Henna tattoo artist at work, taken with DA* 60-250mm F4:



Admiring the work of an scuplturist (is that a word?), taken with DA* 60-250mm F4:

[gawan]

Blueberry flowers, very tiny even for a macro lens

[daacon]

xjjohnno - very colorful birds - only time I see those are on vacation or in a zoo.

Oldschool - nice series looks like those Itallians know how to eat and party always a great combo.

Bactman - busy series well done. Really like the relflection in that first shot. Nice to see some samples from the DA* 60-250 looks like a great lens.

Georg - nice colors on the blueberry plant - was that hand held ?

[daacon]

Bought the boy his grad suit today - man suits are little more $$ than I remember haha - I suppose it's because he was starting from scratch - suit , shirts, ties, socks , yada yada. But he sure looked sharp.

[virgilr]

Well, good to see the POTW off to another roaring start.

Dave- love the Advil fisheye! What a cool funky subject.

xjjohnno- I've always loved the colorful birds of Oz- thanks for bringing us a "day to day" perspective of these guys.

Oldschool- Thanks for sharing the culture of your city. Strong Italian community up here in Montreal, also- third shot of the pastry shells makes me hungry for Canoli. Can't wait for those to get all filled up with that amazing cream and cheese mixture.

Bactman- nice shots of the festival! Like the candid nature of all of them, good eye.

gawan- sheez, stop it allready with the intense, beautifully framed shots! That's just fantastic, great rich colors and patience to get that capture.

Dave- ahh, must be tough seeing all that "kid" in such a grown-up outfit- nice choice, though, and he looks ready to take on the world! Thanks for sharing.

Not much yet this week- long weekend for us Canadians, thought I'd do more shooting but weather was lousy the last two days and today my wife is feeling a bit down with a cold, so staying in even though it's sunny.

Here's one of my cat (again) last night. Gotta love SR, I'll tell ya- 90mm at ISO 1600 f/2.5, 1/4 second shutter.

[gawan]

Dave - thanks for hosting again Nice market shots. Thanks for the comment, yes it was shot hand held but leaning to my bag! Your son sure looks sharp, good expression, I bought a suit to my son too for graduation two years ago, amazibng how a suit changes young man to look so conscious and suddenly so adult!

xjjohnno - those lorikeets are common there, I have heard? Look very exotic from here!

Oldschool - nice and colourful shots, festivals are great subjects!

Bactman - I like those festival shots!

Virgil - thanks, I think I just cannot stop my self.. , Love the mood of your cat shot, looks like a happy cat!

From yesterday:

.

[eccs19]

Nice lot of shots so far this week. Can't believe how well last week turned out. Here are a couple from the past few days.

1. Yet another one of my attempts to get the ultimate hummer shot. Failed again, but actually think this one was a good "fun" shot. Not planned by any stretch of the imagination.



2. Was at a wedding on the weekend, and like the way this turned out. I have a lot of respect for wedding photographers. They have HORRIBLE lighting to deal with.

[xjjohnno]

Dave the lorikeets are very common here in Melbourne and love belting around the neighbourhood squaking their heads off. They are a bit of a bugger to get decent close up pics as they tend to feed in the upper canopy of the eucalypts on the eucalypt flower nectars.

[RickL]

Been away for a couple of days because my phone/internet connection was killed by some pretty severe storms... but got back on after work today and see the new thread is off to a great start. Thanks for sharing everyone!

As someone else posted, I like the Advil fisheye pic Dave! And yes, your man-child is looking sharp in his new suit!

xjjohnno - Nice looking birds! Very colorful. The only time I would see anything like that here would be in a zoo.

Oldschool - I like the parade pics. I would have guess Mexican instead of Italian if you hadn't said anything... just from the Lady of Guadalupe picture.

Bactman - congrats on being the official photographer! Liked the band pic, though the guy could use some work on his hair!

Georg - really liked the blueberry flowers! Those are really little guys, eh?

Virgil - nice closeup of your friend. He/she looks very contented. And yes, I love SR as well, as one of my pics from today will show.

eccs19 - Haven't viewed a hummer through the glass before. Nice capture.

And, here are a couple from me. A cute squirrel in my front yard, and another one of what I call my buzzard tower... but today they are actually putting the antenna's on it, so maybe we'll get a decent cell signal sometime soon. And, I do love SR as well!!! This one was taken with the Sigma 50-500 at full 500 extended, handheld! I wouldn't recommend this, but it turned out very well in my opinion. Just a little cropping to square it up, and resizing it to make it fit here, but that's it. The original shows great detail with really no blur. Thanks Pentax!

[eccs19]

Hey, a new breed of turkey vultures.

[planedriver]

My boy and some of his toys (and his favourite bike)




Realized that one reason I like boats is that they all have different colors...



...and my favourite one is the one and only little yellow sailboat at the nearby port.



Cheers Andras
Flickr: sopiandri's Photostream