[subsea]

Same solar collectors, 20 minutes later, a little closer and at 80mm.

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[wtlwdwgn]

With the A 20mm f/2.8. I forgot to change the settings so these are at ISO 1600.

[ChristianRock]

Just playing around with the A 70-210, 1/1000 @ f/8, ISO 1600. on a very cloudy day.

Nothing wrong with the K10D at ISO 1600 if the exposure is correct, I've been saying that for a while now and you just provided further proof

Sorry for the long autobiographical post. It would be great to hear some tales of love and woe from our other K10D Club friends too.

We all have a story don't we? And there's always some good and some bad in it, but what happens to us doesn't define who we are. My own story, I won't get into details as it's got so many details, but I'll just say that if you saw me 20 years ago and see me now, there's been a complete transformation. Back then you would never have guessed that today I'd have a great wife and wonderful kids, you probably wouldn't have guessed that I'd still be alive! I'm happy to answer via PM if anyone is curious...

Photography-wise, I was always a point-and-shoot guy until my point and shoot of almost 10 years died around our 3rd son's birth in 2013. Around that time my mother in law was visiting and she bought a D7000 with a couple of lenses to take to her son (my brother in law) back in Brazil, so I got to play with it for a month or so. Couldn't quite pull off the D7000 but found a K20D with a few manual lenses locally for sale, and the rest is history... I was never in any art school but I was a musician since childhood, and always liked to draw and to write, so art is in my veins, so to say... which is different than being very good at any of these things, but at least I found something I enjoy and that allows me to express my artistic side a little bit, so I'm happy to be an amateur photographer at this point. And I get to document my family's journey.

[wtlwdwgn]

Nothing wrong with the K10D at ISO 1600 if the exposure is correct, I've been saying that for a while now and you just provided further proof

Absolutely! Actually that's true in ANY dSLR the exposure has to be correct but it's paramount in the K10D.

[subsea]

Pigeons searching for shade and relief from the heat during the European heat wave in July of 2010. Temps of 105F+ in Sevilla, where this was taken.

[subsea]

Reflections in Sevilla in 2010.

[Dartmoor Dave]

We had a dusting of snow yesterday. This is with a new 18-55mm WR that I couldn't resist snapping up in a really badly listed ebay auction, and got for £17. It's the plastic mount version with the silver band, and I'm very pleasantly surprised to find that it renders colours and contrast beautifully. Much, much better than any of the other 18-55s I've ever tried, which is making me wonder if maybe Pentax has quietly changed the coating.

[Dartmoor Dave]

Another snowy one, with the Zenitar 16mm. Can you spot the photographer?

[rayallen]

Another snowy one, with the Zenitar 16mm. Can you spot the photographer?

Yes, I found him. Those rock piles look huge. I assume that they have been there for a while. How did they get there? Who stacked them up like that?

[paulh]

Can you spot the photographer?

I did! Striking shots Dave - is that rockpile really that huge or is it the "Spinal Tap Stonehenge Effect"?

[Dartmoor Dave]

Thanks, Ray and Paul. The rock stacks really are that huge, and they're a natural phenomenon caused by erosion. Before humans came along Dartmoor was a landscape of hills and valleys covered in oak forests, but then stone age settlers deforested the land for farming and grazing. Inevitably the upland winds made the topsoil blow away, exposing the rocky cores of what were once wooded hilltops. Then millennia of scouring by the elements shaped the tors into what they are today, and left us with one of this country's few remaining natural wildernesses. . . except that actually it's entirely the result of human activity.

Of course, if those stone age axe-wielders hadn't done their thing, the forests would have been cleared away eventually anyway and this area would now be infested by the modern world's usual houses, roads and supermarkets. So. . . yay cavemen!

The main reason I rarely photograph up on the tors is that shots up there only really work when there's a person or an animal in the frame to give a sense of scale. And usually there isn't. Take the photographer out of that shot above and most viewers would probably assume that the rock piles really are Spinal Tap size, maybe a foot or two at the most instead of thirty feet or more.

The other photographer kindly let me take a snap of him at work.

[ivanvernon]

Thanks, Ray and Paul. The rock stacks really are that huge, and they're a natural phenomenon caused by erosion. Before humans came along Dartmoor was a landscape of hills and valleys covered in oak forests, but then stone age settlers deforested the land for farming and grazing. Inevitably the upland winds made the topsoil blow away, exposing the rocky cores of what were once wooded hilltops. Then millennia of scouring by the elements shaped the tors into what they are today, and left us with one of this country's few remaining natural wildernesses. . . except that actually it's entirely the result of human activity.

Of course, if those stone age axe-wielders hadn't done their thing, the forests would have been cleared away eventually anyway and this area would now be infested by the modern world's usual houses, roads and supermarkets. So. . . yay cavemen!

The main reason I rarely photograph up on the tors is that shots up there only really work when there's a person or an animal in the frame to give a sense of scale. And usually there isn't. Take the photographer out of that shot above and most viewers would probably assume that the rock piles really are Spinal Tap size, maybe a foot or two at the most instead of thirty feet or more.

The other photographer kindly let me take a snap of him at work.

Interesting photos, and I agree that the photographer in the frame is really necessary for a good sense of scale. Not trying to be smart or anything, but how do we know what the stone age dwellers did?

[Dartmoor Dave]

Not trying to be smart or anything, but how do we know what the stone age dwellers did?

Well, we know that there were people here as far back as the stone age because we've got the stone rows and stone circles that they built, as well as lots of burial kists. Stone age flint tools and various bronze age artefacts have been discovered on the moor, along with some very rare organic remains that have been carbon dated. The climate of the world's ancient past is known by methods such as studying Antarctic ice cores, so we know that this area was warmer during the stone age and would have been a much more hospitable environment then than it is nowadays. So lots of different researchers in lots of different fields have combined their various areas of expertise. They've studied the evidence carefully and submitted their work to a rigorous peer review process, and as a result they are able to say with a high level of confidence how things must have been here many thousands of years ago. And of course, as scientists they will always keep working to improve their methods, and will always accept any new evidence that might turn up to prove that they've been wrong about something in the past.

[paulh]

An oldie from 2013 taken with the Cosmicar A35-70/4 on K10D:

[rayallen]

Well, we know that there were people here as far back as the stone age because we've got the stone rows and stone circles that they built, as well as lots of burial kists. Stone age flint tools and various bronze age artefacts have been discovered on the moor, along with some very rare organic remains that have been carbon dated. The climate of the world's ancient past is known by methods such as studying Antarctic ice cores, so we know that this area was warmer during the stone age and would have been a much more hospitable environment then than it is nowadays. So lots of different researchers in lots of different fields have combined their various areas of expertise. They've studied the evidence carefully and submitted their work to a rigorous peer review process, and as a result they are able to say with a high level of confidence how things must have been here many thousands of years ago. And of course, as scientists they will always keep working to improve their methods, and will always accept any new evidence that might turn up to prove that they've been wrong about something in the past.

Thank you very much, Dave, for all that very interesting information which along with your images tells an enthralling story.

---------- Post added 31-01-20 at 08:24 AM ----------

An oldie from 2013 taken with the Cosmicar A35-70/4 on K10D:

A beautiful composition and combination of colours. Very well captured, Paul.