[EdwardConde]

I was always told by my parents to never trust the ocean... it is inviting but at the same time it can turn on you... as a former surfer, i have experience some of the fun and rawness that the ocean has to offer. But I have also experienced some moments where the ocean has turned on me. This landscape show just how inviting it is to go in and enjoy the water, but the hidden dangers (rip currents) can easily trap you and take you out to sea...

Why this lens... Its a pancake, its wide, its a pancake.... Did I mention its a pancake? I love pancake lenses.. I love PENTAX pancake lenses... I like shooting with my nikon buddies with 3 pound lenses and showing them what a pancake can do and not having a sore arm at the end of the day... I own already own 2 limiteds... I have been a Pentaxian for the last 2 years... I started out with zooms and now have fully transitioned into primes... the 21 looks like an awesome lens from the photos I have seen...

About me: As mentioned earlier I have been a Pentaxian for about 2 years now... before the Pentax, i just had different branded P&S... It wasn't till about early 2010 before I got my K-x when i got a copy of a photo of my daughter.. It was just amazing... better than any P&S photo I have ever seen... the camera was DSLR type... That was the first time I told myself.. I need to look into SLRs... Later that year one of my good buddies bought a Nikon D5000... He tried to convince me to get one also.. but the initial cost was close to $900... The cost was too much for something I wasn't sure I would really get into.. Initial investment... Without knowing if i would like photography... I hesitated on the nikon and ooked around. I found a deal for a White Pentax K-x and kit lens for $499 shipping included no taxes... I read reviews and ordered it right away... Since then all my lenses I have purchased but one have not been over $500 dollars... I have tried to get bargain deals on lenses... A free lens is a bargain....

There are some really great entries.... You have will have a hard time picking a winner...

Enjoy and thanks for have this photo contest....

[dorian2a]

Hi everyone, firstly sorry for my english, I'm French and I don't often speak english..
I ve read posts on this forum for a while but this is this contest which has motivate me to register and post a photography I took on november 2011 near the W hostel on Barcelona beach.

If you don't know the story of this place you might think that a storm stopped the destruction of the beach and mother nature is taking revenge on humans....
but it's a little bit fairy..
Indeed the storm stopped man's work. But the goal of Barcelona city is to build this beach to make a path between the port (behind the W hostel) and the '92 Olympic games place (far behind me when I shot the scene).
I think here we can see the strenght of mother nature, making the W hostel little and frail, stopping human activities thanks to bad weather, and in an other hand her fragility. Human can destroy everything easily but can "help" nature to rebuild things and fix mistake that we've made...

If I win this lense I can't buy because it costs to much I promise to offer her a lot of trips again. I like objects with history, and I spend a lot of time choosing gear that I'm sure I'll keep them a long time. I've some old M42 mount lenses and I love them for 2 reasons, the history, it's amazing to think that you can continue to use lenses made in USRR like industar or helios, and, of course as the student that I am, for the price... But the quality still there.
So having a limited lense like the 21mm will combine both history of a lense and awsome quality..

Well , again sorry for my poor english (don't hesitate to correct me if you want, it will please me) and thank you a lot for this contest.

good luck to all the challengers.

[kleinemark]

This shot is named for the glacial lake where it was taken, a little over two and a half years ago. Jökulsárlón was formed in the 1930's between the coast of southern Iceland and the leading edge of Breiðamerkurjökull glacier. I took the shot with my then-new K200D and 18-55 kit lens, handheld, from a boat. The shot has had, as far as I can recall, no post-production other than a single crop.

Power and fragility are both in clear, arresting evidence. Power in the force which may be unleashed at any moment, when the part of an iceberg above water has melted such that the delicate balance is disturbed and the iceberg suddenly flips over, as well as in the force required to shear these icebergs off the leading edge of the glacier. And fragility, in that the shot captures a unique moment in the history of these icebergs; we can be certain that, if these icebergs still exist at all, they will be totally unrecognizable. Another fragility, that of the uncertain future of the lake itself, is perhaps hinted at in the picture. As glaciers recede, how long can stunning natural features such as Jökulsárlón survive?

As for why I should win the lens? Well, since taking up photography earlier in the year when I took this shot, I have steadily found myself gravitating toward wider and wider angles. I want to take more shots like this, and I find prime lenses, for whatever reason, yield better results (except this one, taken with the fantastic kit zoom). The photographs I'm most proud of were almost all taken with decades old, second-hand primes, an M 50 1.7, and a Sigma 28/2.8 Mini-Wide II. I'd love to see what I can do with your beautiful DA 21 L, the illustrious career of which I'd get a big kick out of prolonging. If I win, she'll be the widest lens in my modest bag, will likely soon become my new walkabout in fact, and you can be sure she'll see a lot of use.

Finally I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for your very generous give-away contest. Despite the lens being used, she would probably have fetched a decent handful of change on eBay. So thank you.

[oxidized]

Hi!

First of all, thank you for your generosity! It's a very unusual kind of contest

This is actually one of the first images that I took when I got my Pentax K-7 (my first DSLR camera). The reason why I believe that the image reflects the topic is also the reason why I am passionate about capturing susents. A sunset (or a God beam moment like this) so so fragile. It exists for virtually seconds and afterwards is gone forever. Never to be seen again. Yet, when you are there, in the moment, and you see the light peeking through the clounds, you cannot help but be in awe of the amazing power of mother nature. You cannot help but love photography, for being able to capture a moment like this and somehow preserve its fragile nature.

Personally, I like taking portraits of friends and family, but my thing has always been all about landscape photography. Having been exposed to the power of the limiteds (I have the 31mm) I think that the DA 21mm will be increadbily beneficial to me. Anyways, thanks again for making the contest!

Bogdan

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[tristanrhodes]

First off, thanks for hosting such a awesome contest with such a personal connection, and cheers to all those posting great photos!

While I have newer landscape shots, this one I think fits the theme better than any other I have.

The location was at Enchanted Rock (the world's third largest), outside Fredericksburg, Texas about two years ago around 6:30 in the morning during the spring wildflower season. It was very overcast and windy that morning, with gusts around 45mph. This picture was taken with my k20 and a sigma 10-20mm set at around 12mm on a tripod with 5 exposure bracketing. I normally am not a HDR fan, but in this shot, I liked how I could make the wildflowers in the wind take on a more ethereal quality and the surface of the rock look more foreboding and permanent (it's estimated to be 1 billion years old, so pretty close!). When I was taking and processing this picture, I was really trying to contrast the time scales between the rock, plants, the vernal water pool and the clouds. I tried to use the wideness of the lens to create both a more interesting perspective of the rock and sky, and to make the wild flowers seem more isolated and desperate to cling on to their short existence.

I currently have the pentax 16-50 and sigma 10-20 in the wide range, and while both are great lenses, neither has the next level up, "stunning" quality of the 21mm limited (I've used the 35macro and love it). I opted for zooms to allow for the most creativity in composition without breaking the bank, but If I was chosen, I promise the 21 would get thoroughly enjoyed!

[paulusje]

This area here is part of the port of Rotterdam (in the Netherlands); one of the world's busiest ports.
Nature's strength here for me is the power to adapt to extreme circumstances like these. There is a tremendous variety of birds here which is amazing considering the hostile environment they live in.

I've tried to show the fragility as well as the power and beauty of mother nature here.
For me the glass remains half full, even after seeing this place.

I've recently acquired a nice 300mm * lens so I could document this area a little better but for the wider shots I still use an old zoom lens which leaves me wanting in the IQ department. Your 21 Limited would certainly be in good hands, at least I like to think so

[GabrielFFontes]

This picture was taken while i was just looking at the sea...
I noticed this on the bottom left corner of my vision...it was so beautiful...
I know this image makes no sense to most people, but there's something about it that makes me like looking at it. It gives me the sense that even stuff like rock slowly corrode...that everything is fragile, even though we can't always see it.
More than that : this image makes me reflect about everything. How we are able to destroy things that stood the test of time...how most people don't care about that...how we think we're so important, even though we are only another specie..or at least we are supposed to be....
Now, why do i think i should win?
Its complicated...you see, i'm a 14 years old brazilian boy that just loves to take pictures...i study at the hardest school on my state (Rio de Janeiro), and possibly the hardest on the entire country...i almost never have the time to go out and take pictures...but when i do, everything changes in a second...capturing a moment is just something that blows my mind away. Studying about the billions of years of history, its very hard to conceive that i can capture a single moment, and have the feeling that i just stored a piece of time...the pictures we take are UNIQUE...NO ONE is going to take the exact same picture. We don't usually think about that, so that is why reflecting about every single picture is important...
To expand my photography skills and capture unique moments, its very nice to have the right equipment...think about it...that moment is NEVER coming back. If you missed your shot, most of the times thats it...you lost the moment...
So, to capture the moment the right way, the DA 21 would really help...rendering that piece of history, that to most people isn't important, but it's VERY important for the little guy behind the camera.
Here in Brazil, i cannot buy Pentax equipment..there's absolutely no support here...thats sad, so i would really like to win the DA 21mm to defy physics and freeze the time...after all, thats my only chance.


Ps : sorry if i made grammar mistakes. As i said, i'm a 14 years old boy from Brazil, and i'm still learning English

[Jessesdad]

Why this photo? Not because it's a great shot. Because you asked for a landscape that expressed the power and fragility of nature.
These people I visited last year to witness them building this sand-dam wall. They live in a small, rural, impoverished community not far from Machakos in Kenya. Famine has been with them for many years and they have been living on aid handouts. They were given the chance to receive a gift of planks, cement, wire and guidance if they would build their own dam. In three weeks. In the middle of planting season. They took it.
They're standing in the river bed beside their farms. It's either dry like this or a life-threatening torrent when the rains come. No-one swims. Those who fall in are swept away. The river flows and the water rushes past. Then it is gone. The water that is the hope of life for their crops and for themselves. But not this time.
Men, women and children broke rocks from the river walls and carted then by hand to the dam site. Old women cooked and young women worked. Most of the men are away in the city trying to find work to feed their families. With the aid of one engineer they built this dam wall and gave themselves the hope of life. When the rains come this year the torrent will push silt up against their dam wall before it overflows. When the torrent stops there will be three to four metres of water saturated sand trapped behind the dam wall. Water that cannot evaporate. Those millions of litres of water can then be pumped by hand (and foot) up to their farms so their crops will thrive. And their children will live.
They had no time to do this - and no expertise. But they did it. They grasped the chance of life and hope. In this picture they are tired but celebrating the achievement.
Is it a landscape? It's their landscape. One that now offers them life. This is where they live. Where the real fragility of life becomes terribly apparent if the water and food run out. They have changed their landscape in order to tame the power of the river and capture some small part of it they so desperately need.
And through it all they sing. That's power too!

As for why I'd like the lens. I want to give it to my son. It was his 21st last week and I'd have loved to give him a lens like this if I could have. He's a Pentax freak and a fabulous young man. He'd appreciate the history of the lens and give it a new one as well.

Congratulations on a great idea, a generous gift and a very clever way of eliciting stories.

[kodaz]

A very generous offer.
My entry was taken near the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park last year. It's a simple image in many ways but I think it conveys the fragility of nature in the face of an ever changing environment. I will let the image speak for itself rather than try to convey my own interpretation. As to why I deserve to win, well, I can only say that I have a trip planned to the Banaue rice terraces in the Philippines soon and a 21mm lens would be an amazing companion on that trip!

Kind Regards

Jon

(the tittle of the image is Nature's Spire, I forgot to add it sorry)

[chesebert]

Photo Detail
This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong with Pentax K-5 and DA18-135. On the left side is the Hong Kong island, where a number of high-rises and sky scrapers can be seen. On the right side is a fishing village in Kowloon. The distance between the two sides, from where I was, was less than 2 miles. For reference, the group of sky scrapers on the Hong Kong island side costs about 2mil USD per apartment. By contrast, the shacks on the village side are mostly cobbled together and some are in disrepair (when I have more time, I will process more photos from the village and hopefully will have a set depicting village life in Hong Kong)

Raw Power vs Fragility
When I took this photo, I thought about (i) the contrast between the heavy clouds and calm water; (ii) between nature’s harsh elements (moments before the downpour) and man’s desire to survive (fisherman in the middle of the Victoria Harbor); (iii) between affluence and poverty (so close, yet so far apart); and finally (iv) between the tough village life and happiness that’s within (the person enjoying picking clams on the shore).

I think all of the above can be interpreted in one way or another to tell the raw power of nature, on the one hand, and its fragility, on the other.

Why do I deserve your lens
The widest FL lens I had was the DA18-135. Due to certain unforeseen circumstances, I no longer have this lens. With the DA21, I will again be able to take beautiful landscape pictures.

My pledge should I win
Duplo, thank you for your generosity. This lens will be special to me as it was to you. Therefore, I will not sell or otherwise dispose of this lens for pecuniary gains. I will only keep this lens for so long as I don’t have another WA lens. When the time comes, I will host another contest, like the one you are holding now, in the same format and theme.

Hopefully, we will be able to keep this lens within the PF community and perpetuate your good will. Just imagine all the fun contests we can hold in the future!

[alexcoitus]

This photo was taken in Syros island - Greece. The morphology of the landscape has a very raw involvement of man, the streets go along with the hill and the houses almost hanging above! A catholic church stands on the highest rock contrasting with the dramatic sky that reminds us that mother nature always change things her way. After all having in mind that earthquakes shake the place once in a while its getting more fragile as time goes by.
I love my pentax k-x and especially the pentax primes wishing to collect them all some day! Thanks for the chance of having this great great lens!

[emergo]

I view photography as an adventure of discovery. It's a way to capture the first time I encountered a place or an event. I feel that some of a photographer's most spontaneous work can be captured when you do not know what is around the next corner. The things you find are a surprise - things that no one else has seen, or saw in the same way you did. In a way, it's a variation on "the shock of the new," but the other way around: the scene affects the image collector first, before the image is even captured; long before your audience might even experience your image. I suppose this is artistic inspiration, although I would never presume that I am an artist. In any case, the exploration for, the discovery and creation of an image for me is the adventure of photography.

I came upon this scene one winter morning while walking through rural Nebraska. This calf had been attacked and partially devoured - most likely by wild dogs. The position of the calf's outstretched body almost suggests its attempt to flee. The scene shows both sides of nature - the power of the predator, and the frailty of the prey.

[littledrawe]

Thank you, Duplo, for giving us this opportunity!

I may be pushing the envelope with the theme of the contest but this is part of the landscape and in my opinion this photo expresses the fragility and power of Mother Nature. Both qualities can be seen in the tree that takes so much time to grow and occupies its space without any questions from its surroundings. Yet, in an instant it can be altered or destroyed by Mother Nature in the form of the elements that the tree encounters on a daily basis. Then my favorite part is the young Red Tailed Hawk in the nest. Currently only a fraction of the powerful predator it will become if Mother Nature allows it to continue on its journey. You can still see the power it has the potential grow into in the intensity of its eyes and the sharpness of its beak. The Hawk is still dependant on its parents and Mother Nature to allow it to grow into adulthood and become a predator in its own right.
The opportunity to own your lens and manipulate it to capture the landscape around me would be fantastic especially since a quality peice like this is missing from my list of gear. The sunsets and sandstone cliffs in my home state of Utah would be no match for me with the 21mm ltd at my disposal. Thank you again for the chance in this contest.

[rontz]

First of I want to clearify that I shot this picture for the last World Pentax Day back in february and uploaded it in the forums already for that purpose. If you think that's not ok, that's fine with me, that's why I'm telling you right away
But I feel this picture fits the theme just perfectly, as soon as you let your mind and your view wander about this image - and that's what makes a strong image, at least in my oppinion

One of the greatest powers on this planets, is the power of water. Sometimes it seems very delicate, like in clouds for example, sometimes it's obviously brutal...that's the case when the oceans "flex their muscles", and sometimes it's quiet but insanely powerful - that is, when it's freezing and becoming ice. Not even rocks can stop ice from expanding - just raw power!

In the same moment, ice can be very delicate and breakable. When I was taking this shot, I first didn't dare to step on the ice, hence the big cracks in it. When I lay down on it later, I still didn't feel well on the one hand almost knowing what's below me, and on the other hand not having a real clue about how solid the "ground" really was (and a backpack carrying some lenses, another pentaxcam and accessories which could all be lost didn't make me feel better as well).
This shot shows the different faces of water and ice quite nice in my eyes. Furthermore the colors support both, the delicate feeling and the feeling of a secure, steady surface just perfect.

Why do I need the DA21 more than anybody else?
Oh boy... I wouldn't want to make the decission...as almost everybody here has good reasons why he should win.
A little about me: I got my first Pentax when I started studying, which was my first REAL camera. I've had points-and-shoots before, and a Kodak Bridge camera, but none of them made me take photos somehow. When I got my K10D then, a whole new world seemed to open up to me. (Pentax because my parents both shoot Pentax and I thought I could use some of their lenses - but they wouldn't give them away;D and the K10D because I knew it was a very good cam and I got it used for a fair price) So I started photographing a lot - but I wasn't happy with the quality of some of the photos, so, last november I bought the K-5, which opened new horizons to me, but some things could still be improved - I didn't know how MUCH can be improved by a decent lens.
For the longest time I've been shooting with the cheap SMC Pentax DA 18-55 3,5:5,6 lens, now I've got the SMC Pentax DA 55-300 4:5,6 ED additionally which is a great lens, but not as helpful as I'd love it to, for my passion, the landscape photography. And three 50mm prime lenses of various manufacturers, for learning purposes.
So long things said short: I'm a beginner in photography who finally experienced how important a good quality lens is, but who's got none for his favorite theme - landscape photography. Just finished studies doesn't leave any money for such a great lens.
What I love about used equipment is that it doesn't lose quality, but brings some backgroundstories. That's why I bought the K10D used, bought the K-5 used, bought the prime lenses used and why I would love to use your lens.

(I'm linking to my already submitted image as I don't have access to my computer until next week - until it's too late :-/ )

[TZH]

Greeting everyone,
Here is my entry, a view from the aircraft while way back to home, this was taken at some where above the South East China sea . Showing how magnificent are the clouds and a decent highlight by our golden sun light. We are so lucky to enjoy all different types of clouds within/protecting by our vulnerable atmosphere.



I used a K-x and DA50-200 , shot at 95mm , f10 , ISO200 , 1/400 in a raw file.
A hight quanlity modern pancake lens would be a perfect idea for me to walk around the world and capture all the wonderful moments, I never got a chance to get my hand on a limited pancake.