Welcome to Picture of the Week 05/24/09 - 06/07/09 #64

Another great POTW and some excellent images. Nice to see everyone's stuff and so many of you willing to share. Doesn't matter if it's a snap shot of the kids or a masterpiece that will make you famous. We wanna see what's been in your viewfinder.

You can see last weeks POTW here.

All of the past POTW's are now linked below under the name of the host. So it's easy to go back and view some past weeks.

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 05/24/09 to Sunday 06/07/09. Enter anything you shot last week or during 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 19(2) daacon, 20 Bramela, 21 Syb, 22 maxwell1295, 23 maxwell1295, 24 dantuyhoa, 25 Gawan, 26 Peter Zack, 27 borno, 28 daacon, 29 gawan, 30 Damn Brit, 31 maxwell1295 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, 63 RickL 64. Peter Zack

So to get things started. We have a new statue in Charlottetown. Yeah I know, boring... well not so much. It's fun to watch the passers by sit with him and how some are taken by surprise at his stare. Unique and it works well. This is our first Prime Minister Sir John A Macdonald (1867) and a logical choice since this is the city where Canada began.



I liked how the 2 old guys were sitting in the background as well.

[eccs19]

I've been trying for a while to get a half decently sharp hummingbird shot. I don't think this one turned out to bad for being not that close & 100mm lens. Not even remotely close to a pretty object that he's sitting on, but can't get everything.

[daacon]

That's great the way you got that bird. Was that almost planned, or just really lucky? What size lens did you use? Nice shots.

Thanks eccs19 - I am not happy with the sharpness , especially since it was a tripod. As I mentioned I think that combo is a little too mucch for the Manfrotto 190XPROB. It is rated for 5kg and the Ball Head / K20D / Sigma 50-500 (Bigma was the lens used) comes in at ariound 4.8kg ... should have used some center weight.

As for did I plan it ? Not at all I did not even notice the spec until I got the shot on my computer. 100% view showed it was indeed a bird.

[Scottnorwo]

SWEngineer - Lamb chops yum. nice shot
Virgilr - nice series, like the blue pool colors
Macgirl - sure looks like she enjoys the horse
gawan - nice shot, now did the mom chase you away
tpeace - incredible shots, looks like a great trip. like the sketch artist photo
eccs19 - nice bird shots, the humming bird shot is great. and in my photo the wind was blowing strong moving the flowers back and forth and I got that image. Nice moon
RickL - the flowers are Wow! sunset not to bad either
daacon - spring has certainly sprung. like the pink in the first photo, no injuries in the soccer photo, but he got it there in baseball practice last weekend, ouch
mrcrontab - welcome, nice shot of the man on top of the world, though it went right to his gut
planedriver - one cute guy on the phone, and a nice vineyard
scatron - nice shots of your kids, those flowers just pop off the screen
daacon - i thought it was the man on the moon, not the moon giving us the bird, nice shot though
Rense - sharp scooter
tpeace - nice series, your trip certainly looks like it was exciting. like the last photo
daacon - flowers look oh so nice.

I think I got them all, phew.

[mrcrontab]

This is a great one!

Really like this one. That guy looks like he has the world on a leash!

Steve

Thanks to everyone that liked my fat man (https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/622975-post66.html). I wasn't sure if the feel of it would come across as I saw it. 3 people have picked up on how awesome this guy thinks he is, he has such a confident step like nothing can stop him and he will roll right over you.

An Australian friend of mine saw it and said "AMERICA!", that made me laugh.

Really appreciate you guys pointing out that you see it too, so I know I'm not crazy

[Rense]

We have something looks sort of similar to this in N. America. The common name is "Indian Pipe". I believe it is some sort of parasitic heath.

Edit: On second thought...that really doesn't look like an Indian Pipe. So, Rense, what is it?

Steve, you're more or less right, it is a parasitc plant, though not from the heather family like Indian pipe (which is really saprophytic I think, and not parasitic). It's scientific name is Orobanche caryophyllea. It looks more like the North-American snow plant Sarcodes sanguinea I've seen in Yoshemite, but that's a relative of the indian pipe, and not of my plant....

Edit: I checked on the Idian pipe and relatives, and it is not saprophytic, but parasitic on fungi.

[xjjohnno]

a few eucalypt flowers

[RickL]

Keeping with the flower theme... a nice yellow rose.

And Peter, it looks like you're going to get your wish early... closing in on 100 posts already!

[stevebrot]

Steve, you're more or less right, it is a parasitc plant, though not from the heather family like Indian pipe (which is really saprophytic I think, and not parasitic). It's scientific name is Orobanche caryophyllea. It looks more like the North-American snow plant Sarcodes sanguinea I've seen in Yoshemite, but that's a relative of the indian pipe, and not of my plant....

Edit: I checked on the Indian pipe and relatives, and it is not saprophytic, but parasitic on fungi.

I also have seen the Sarcodes in Yosemite and that was my next guess...also wrong...Aren't plants fun

Steve

[MacGirl]

The Bluebirds are back for their second nesting this season and they have one of the earlier offspring in tow. I pulled out the Tamron 70-300 to see how it did on the K20D and well, I got PF, bad! Yeah, the edge of the nestbox is not blue.

[scatron]

Three more from me:

(click for larger view)

1. One more from Bryce - Inspiration Point. The clouds really help this shot - gives it a sense of depth that wouldn't be there without them. This really is best viewed large:


2. Barn owl at the zoo. I know, distracting background. I was during a bird show, so I couldn't be choosy:



3. Giraffe at the zoo:

[planedriver]

Today's pictures-the first two are with the FA50 1.4 the third is with the usual DA16-45 and the Hoya polarizer.

Cute but determined





Andras
Flickr: sopiandri's Photostream

[jezza323]

here are some i took a couple of days ago, again around brisbane on my lunchtime walk was a bit of a cloudy overcast day, all taken with my newly acquired Pentax M 50 f1.7









trying out f1.7

[daacon]

Scott - Thanks for the comments - I thought I had discovered new life indeed. Well no matter how that area gets hit , it hurts! Nice flowers and what I call 'fluff' shots. Lots of fluff here last week - alergy sufferers worst nightmare.

eccs19 - you did it. That is an excellent humming bird shot.

xjjohonno - nice series of eucalypt flowers and kudo's for knowing the names.

Rick - now that is mellow yellow - well done.

MacGirl - nice capture of some bluebirds at home.

scatron - an appropriate name inspiration point - majestic. Nice owl and giraffe shot.

Andras - nice shots - the second one he sure does look determined. Once again bang on with the boats.

jezza323 - always great to go out with a new lens. I see you are giving Andras a run for his boat shots. Well done. The bridge was a great BW and nice red hood.

[daacon]

One of the things I like about my piece of suburbia is that there are numeorus man made lakes and wetlands. I'll bet there are more than half a dozen different ones in our little hamlette of 60,000 or so...

click on image for larger view









And lastly once spring / summer has finally arrived my preferrred method of transportation.

[kevindt]

One more tiger lily shot



One from the local lake



And one from the yard ("Lady" - the Keeshond).