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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
4 Days Ago
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Indeed you did!
We had a brood of three Cooper's in our neighbourhood. Here's one of the youngsters yesterday. I heard him/her first, probably saying "Feed me!"
Bonus heron taken later the same morning.
DA 55-300 on KP, some cropping.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-31-2022, 09:18 PM
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Yes, these are a lot of fun! If I were to take something apart that far, I'd likely have extra parts left over, and I'd end up with a paperweight, doorstop, or nutcracker -maybe even a maraca- rather then a lens! Not so much "back from the dead" as "even deader than they were to start with."
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-31-2022, 09:00 PM
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Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
Leonard Cohen, Anthem
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-31-2022, 07:50 PM
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Run, run rabbit run
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down, it's time to dig another one
Pink Floyd, Breathe
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-30-2022, 04:40 PM
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I missed out on PINK when I launched my colour themed threads a few years ago. Pink can be the dominant colour, or a lone accent that stands out. Have fun IN THE PINK!
Some Japanese beetles (?) in the pink. Literally.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-29-2022, 09:21 AM
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Reclamation.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-29-2022, 08:16 AM
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Not using a macro lens here, but good close-up performance out of the DA55-300:
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Forum: Lens Clubs
07-29-2022, 08:04 AM
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-29-2022, 08:04 AM
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Thanks! All taken on the same day. I wasn't thinking "theme" when I took them, but once I saw them amongst all the other shots that day, it was a no-brainer.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-28-2022, 08:35 PM
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Waterlogged:
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Forum: Lens Clubs
07-28-2022, 08:32 PM
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-28-2022, 08:24 PM
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I've got all my ducks in a row:
...err, okay, I mean geese:
...whatever...
DA 55-300 on KP. Stratford, Ontario, Canada.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
07-25-2022, 11:27 AM
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I've used the Pringles tin extender/diffuser suggested above by Sir Nameless. It's worked with the pop-up flash of both my K-S2 and KP quite successfully. I've set the flash to manual, tailoring the level as needed. At some point I'll probably rig up one of my flashes in a way similar to the set-up on the D850 pictured above. I'd get the flash head closer to my subject, and us lots of diffusion. I'd still be setting the power manually, though, working to get the right balance of ISO and ambient light for the best result.
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Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
07-14-2022, 02:16 PM
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Eyes of an earwig:
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
06-26-2022, 08:26 AM
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As Marcus notes above, lighting is probably going to be more important than lens choice. Care in lighting polished, reflective metal blades will be key. With the right studio setup, as long as you've got proper coverage at a useful focusing distance, almost any lens will do.
Where a macro lens will come in handy will be in close-ups of makers marks, particular details of construction, finish, condition, etc. Make sure you clean the knives thoroughly, too. It's amazing how much dirt, dust, and grime invisible to the naked eye suddenly shows up in macro shots. Lint free gloves are your new best friend. As far as DOF is concerned, once you're at, around, or beyond 1:1, there's no difference in depth of field between lenses of different focal length. DOF is determined by magnification and aperture. Longer focal lengths will give you greater working distance, but in the macro range, won't cost you DOF over and above shorter focal length lenses, if I recall correctly.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-06-2022, 02:23 PM
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Here are some from my Russian 1000mm mirror. Uncropped unless noted otherwise. Red Tailed Hawk nest a few blocks from my home.
100% crop of the above:
It wasn't until I was looking at the shots once I got home that I discovered that the item on the menu was avian rather than mammalian. The 100% crop shows some toes sticking out of Junior's mouth:
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Forum: General Photography
06-02-2022, 08:13 AM
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Great collection! The "showroom" set works really well for the cars. The modified Hotwheels are really neat, too. The "action shot" of the Power Rocket LSR reminds me of the "rolling road" special effects shots from old Gwerry Anderson TV shows like Thunderbirds. Very cool!
Here's a link to some work by someone who's done quite amazing stuff coming up with "realistic" shots of model subjects: Whif / What-if models: Later Soviet/Russian aircraft | Flickr
Here's a link to "behind the scenes" of his photo techniques: Behind the (photo) scenes | Flickr
His set-up is pretty simple. It looks like he's using a point and shoot camera and a printed photo backdrop. Excellent lighting really sells his shots, with particular attention paid to matching the lighting of his models with the lighting in his chosen background.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-21-2022, 04:13 PM
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
05-12-2022, 08:46 AM
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It sounds like we're talking about two sets of tools, one set mental/conceptual/compositional/emotional, the other physical/mechanical/electronic. The latter, nuts and bolts ones are what everybody is selling and buying. The "internal" tools are what some people hope comes packaged with the gear. The cameras and lenses partially determine how you take a photo or make an image; the conceptual side provides the why. This is what you bring to the table; why are you taking/making an image at all? What's the point? What's your goal? The best equipment in the world won't give the answers to these questions. A tool is nothing without a hand and heart to wield it with a purpose in mind. Knowing what the tool can and can't do lets you decide if it will be the right one to use for the answer you've got in mind. Learning to use the physical tool properly to give you the results your mental tools have in mind.
Photography, as a form of communication, is a means to convey information. If your intent is to share your images with others, then your mental toolkit must also take into account other people's thoughts and feelings. If you want to communicate, you must have something to say, and say it in a way that lets others understand it. Randomly punching symbols on a keyboard is unlikely to produce anything intelligible, much less convincing and persuasive. Without spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax, and a shared literacy as a foundation for written communication, your infinite number of monkeys is left hammering away with no point and no audience until the heat death of the The same applies to image making. First, you have to have an idea or feeling that you want to communicate, and then you have to know how get it across. Without some understanding of the basics of composition, people won't be able to read your images. Whether we know it or not, we're in the business of emotional manipulation. We're trying to instill or arouse in our viewers some thought or feeling, through the medium of the images we create. Having some awareness of this fact can help us pull it off. The tools we use, and how we use them, certainly helps shape the message, but they cannot write it without our input.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
03-26-2022, 03:12 PM
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Yes, it certainly does look like a shot from space. If you were in your car, that would be a particularly low orbit. Not even treetop height!
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
03-22-2022, 12:53 PM
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Not shot on a Pentax, but too good a shot to pass up (or leave unposted).
Two Hour Limit:
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-22-2022, 09:23 AM
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Great series of experiments. Thank you for posting!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-19-2022, 05:52 PM
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I'm in the process of cobbling together an adapter which, among other things, would allow me to mount Nikon lenses on Pentax bodies. That's not the main point of this item*, but an added bonus. It will not permit infinity focus, as it will act as a short extension tube, the result tbeing that the shorter the focal length of the lens mounted, the closer the far focus distance. At some given focallength, that focusing distance falls within the lens itself! For longer focal length lenses, one might still get some use out of them for shots that, while not at infinity, still focusing at a distance a good number of feet away. Theoretically.
* This adapter is going to be part of my macro relay system experiments. I'm travelling down a number of paths at the same time to see how they compare and where they end up. This Nikon/Pentax hybrid adapter is a small side-part of one of those paths. I'll post results in the Forums, and explain how Iand why put things together in the ways that I did. Ingredients are still arriving; then comes the work of putting them together to make things that will actually work! Stay tuned!
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Forum: General Photography
02-19-2022, 05:38 PM
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Indeed; the disruption of migration and lifeways of birds, insects, and other night-active creatures is an important issue too. We're not the only inhabitants of this planet, but too often we act as if we are.
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