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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
07-13-2021, 08:40 PM
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This is my granddaughters choice to enter at the the fair, she got second place. The judges liked her interview and image.
Tim
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Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II
07-13-2021, 08:36 PM
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My Granddaughters fair alternate shot. She shot several different subjects this was her second runner up, could only enter one image. She was a little sloppy on keeping the white board clean but I liked it.
She used my camera instead of her K100.
Tim
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Forum: General Talk
09-09-2022, 07:32 PM
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I passed gas the other day, my wife looked at me and ask "what was that?". I told her my spare tire must have sprung a leak!
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Forum: Photo Critique
02-06-2022, 09:21 PM
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An old house in the snow, it's on private property so not much chance to change the view. This from the roadside, I like the snow on the roof and the curtain blowing out the window.
Tim
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
02-04-2022, 09:00 PM
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The Big Boy rolls into Washington Missouri. All these photographers were not there when I staked out my spot. I wish I had focused on a cell phone for a shot just to see what they got. I took other pictures and actually like this one due to the crowd and the phones.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-08-2022, 08:32 PM
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My wife and I went eagle watching a couple weeks ago. The eagles were mostly on the opposite side of the Mississippi river. They were mostly smallish birds with my 300. I have the DA 1.4 converter, that I forgot (didn't check to make sure it was on the lens when we left home). So my wife says "you need a longer lens"! Thats an invitation to get something looong.
I would like 600mm but truly I don't want to spend $4000 or $5000 on one.
The options I see are:
DFA 150-450 but that doesn't get me to 600 unless I use the converter. Used it can be had for around $15-1600.
A*600 f5.6 under $2000 but manual focus,
F*600 f4.0 I'd be happy with a well used one as long as the glass was good.
FA*600 f4.0 again well used is fine but the F and FA are well above what I want to or can spend.
Then there's the FA* 250-600, there's even one for sale here on the forum. Again well over what I want to spend.
I guess the K 135-600 and K500 would be options too but not sure it's what I want.
If you were spending your money and I'm retired so somewhat limited income, what would you do? Ideas? Have I over looked anything?
Currently my longest lens in the DA*300 + DA1.4 converter at 420mm.
Thanks
Tim
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-09-2022, 08:14 PM
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Well, I spent the day examining the Nikon options, never thought I would do that. I still need to decide if that is something I want to do but sounds more reasonable after researching a little. A D810 in crop mode gets me the same (almost) field of view as on the pentax crop but I loose a few mega pixles off shooting a K5. The D7500 would likely be the best Nikon option. I have information overload on Nikon right now so may be wrong on that point.
The Mississippi is a little more narrow where we were, about 2000 feet wide. I told a friend I had never seen so many eagles in one place and she went over there. The eagles were on the same side as she was, so I need to go back. I know 600mm won't help with the cross river shots but would help getting them when they are fishing in the middle or closer.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-08-2022, 09:43 PM
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Yes tripod only or 90% of the time. I looked at the sigma 150-500, I didn't see the 600.
I did go back and look at the legacy Sigma glass, some highly rated stuff in there and also the price. I know I have to pay to play and so my problem.
Tim
---------- Post added 02-08-22 at 10:45 PM ----------
I had forgotten about this lens, I'll check it out.
No need to list the reviews, I can check out the recommended lenses
Thanks
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
02-03-2022, 08:10 PM
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This is about 15 miles from the finish of a century ride I did in Kansas The flint hills are not flat. I have discovered I like the bright colored bikes, my new steed is similarly colored. My brother took the shot as I rode by.
I was cooked and exhausted.
I use to carry a Pentax Optio in my jersey pocket to snap things I saw on a ride.
Tim
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
02-06-2022, 09:15 PM
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Here is a 9 image stitch of my bird of paradise bloom. I'd like to focus stack 3 or 4 images for each of the nine and see what that looks like. I did the 9 images up close to reduce the distracting background. A single image with a similar perspective really showed the trees and deck post.
Tim
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
01-27-2022, 08:35 PM
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I took this picture of the spider back in 2018. The spider was pretty sharp back when I originally processed it. I've had Topaz Sharpen AI for a year or so now and didn't use it until recently. When I reprocessed this image and used Sharpen AI I was impressed with how well the lichen turned out. Just thought I'd share as not getting out much right now (and I don't post much).
Tim
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
02-08-2021, 08:56 PM
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I just started playing around yesterday, I tried my 100mm macro but dof was too shallow. I tried the 28mm tonight and got a little better result. My lighting is still not perfected, using a old LED bicycle headlight and the batteries are about shot. I think I'll put a paper towel or something in front of the light tomorrow too, maybe that will eliminate that hot spot.
Here's one that is reasonable, I have to shoot after the sun goes down due to the breeze popping them before they are set. On the bright side, I get a nice black background with out even trying. I hope to try a different formula for the bubble mixture tomorrow to see if I get different types of frost.
This one cropped a lot
Tim
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
11-08-2021, 08:40 PM
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These little buggers are fast! I don't think they are blue winged teal, I don't know what I was thinking. I drove the 60 miles to sit on the side of the Illinois River at the nature preserve both Saturday and Sunday. The light was harsh as I didn't get my lazy self out of bed early enough. This from Saturday, I went back Sunday with lessons learned. Thousands of teal and mallards, red-winged blackbirds were in the thousands as well. I saw a couple bald eagles, several hawks and a few coot.
I was shooting the teal, using AF on the DA*300+1.4tc, I really wish it had a focus limiter and why does it move to the closest focus when it looses tracking? Anyway, I got a couple nice shots this is one of my better attempts, it's a long ways from good but I had fun and wasted a couple hours each day.
Tim
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
11-08-2021, 08:49 PM
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This hawk never got close enough for me to get a good shot. The dark head and clean cutoff of the head color has me stumped. I kind of think it's a Swainsons but the head color is off.. I wish I had a better picture, this is a pretty heavy crop too. Any help identifying it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Tim
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Forum: General Talk
11-04-2021, 06:32 PM
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I was reading a troubleshooting guide this afternoon, unfortunately this is no joke. Here is what they said.
"the problem may be using battery powered batteries."
Are there other types of batteries?
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
10-18-2021, 07:10 PM
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I shot this pano in my yard a month ago, it's not often you get grass to fall in the right direction when it's in bloom. Also, it's never calm enough to do a series so took advantage to play with a pano. The background could be a little less busy but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Stitched with Microsoft ICE.
Tim
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
10-15-2021, 07:13 PM
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This one is from a week long camping trip in the Kansas Flint Hills. A great area to go without being crowded. He was in the Indian grass by our site, along with spiders, crickets and grasshoppers. I took a 6 image pano of it as well but focus got a little soft towards it's rear. Exciting to have seen two of them this year.
Tim
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
10-11-2021, 07:20 PM
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I came across a group of monarchs roosting overnight. I counted about 75 of them in several small groups the night before. This was one of the groups in the morning before they became active and flew off. There was a roost two nights in a row then nothing for the rest of the week. Most of the migration had already happened the week before.
I remember as a child walking out on the golf course to view thousands of them roosting in a maple tree, most of the neighborhood went out to see it. I'd like to see a large roost again some time.
Anyway, a small part of a roost.
Tim
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
10-08-2021, 06:29 PM
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Here's a little snake that was hunting as I sat on the bank of the lake. I think it's a common (northern) water snake but some have told me it may be a rat snake. Any experts willing to ID it for sure?
Just need to sit still for a while and your subjects will come to you. I lost it in the weeds after about 15 minutes of watching. I'd say it was a young snake, I'd guess between 16 and 24 inches long if that helps.
I have better pictures but this one gives more of an Idea the detail in pattern.
Tim
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
10-07-2021, 06:36 PM
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Not quite yesterday, maybe a little older. This is a 4 shot stitch with the FA 31 Limited. Stitched in Microsoft ICE. I turned around to go back and take the picture, the pano because I couldn't get a clear shot from far enough away to include the entire house. I like how it turned out, I may try a black and white version as well, lots of detail. The end walls are not distortion, the house is caving in on its self.
Tim
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Forum: General Talk
09-27-2021, 07:58 PM
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for what its worth, I am using firefox and have no problem seeing the posts, windows 10 64 bit
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
09-09-2021, 06:34 PM
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but look at the tread on the tire! A bargain at any price LOL
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
08-28-2021, 08:24 PM
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I drove down to see the BIG Boy in Chester, Illinois today. I also saw a Pentax in the wild, a K3 no less.
Here are a couple quick edits.
The last one was at a crossing north of Chester. The sound of it passing within 20 feet was amazing. They blew the whistle quite a bit at the crossing, it was really a nice experience.
Tim
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Forum: General Talk
08-18-2021, 07:53 PM
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My wallet is bleeding badly
A couple weeks ago the wife got a new Chrysler Pacifica, We tried to buy used but the prices were too high so went new and got a lot more for our trade than I ever would have expected.
Last week I got a FA 31 limited, the SMC version, it is a much better lens than I am photographer.
Last fall I bought a FA* 80-200, that's another really nice lens.
Today I bought a short center column for my tripod, I was frustrated the other day by not being able to get low enough. Why do they make tripods that go so low but don't include a center column to allow that height?
I'm done buying for a while now.
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