Couple of pics with my car boot sale bargin

Went to the car boot sale last weekend and bought a Praktica MTL5B slr with 3 lenses for £5 , Two of the lenses are nothing special but the Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f3.5 is very nice.

A couple of pics from Elsham Hall taken with the Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm and K10d

Wow- love that second shot! No shortage of contrast or sharpness there!

Very nice combination of lens and camera. Love the fish shot.

Excellent work. The first shot isn't to my taste - but only because it so accurately represents what it is - a slimy wet fish with its gob open. Every globule of goo is there, working its hardest. A fishmonger's calendar shot, for sure - but the crispness of that mouth is enough to turn my stomach... but that's simply my 'emotional' response to a perfect technical shot, one could say.

I much prefer the second shot, because it's a big tease. At first I looked at it as a flower study - perfectly crisp focus, nice background defocus, yet with a hit of the stem below and nicely framed defocussed greenery to the sides. Very nice, classic shot of a flower (I shan't embarrass myself by trying to identify its type!).

Then I noticed 'something' about the stamens in the middle... something was drawing my eye to them, and it genuinely took a few seconds before I could 'declutter' what I thought I was seeing, and resolve first the top hoverfly, and then its wings, and then the second hoverfly below that one.

This is what I meant about it being a tease. It turned a perfect flower study into an insect wildlife macro shot, but it didn't do it all at once... it was like a 'magician's reveal'. Very clever.

Of course, now I can't not see the hoverflies, now that I know they are there... but for that instant moment of first viewing, there was that sense of 'something you couldn't quite put your finger on' - and then you realise why.

Well done!

And how come I never find top grade glass for peanuts at car booties? I think I need to get up earlier...

Although I think the fish shot is a good photograph, I don't like it much, probably because it's a picture of slimy fish...

The flower is a nice shot though, and as Neil says the hoverflies aren't that obvious at first, in fact to be honest I hadn't noticed them until he pointed them out. I like the background except for the dark blob mid upper left side, which is a bit distracting as I keep trying to work out what it is. The background colour sets off the flower nicely though.

What a bargain this lens is! I don't think the seller quite realised what it is they were selling.

Thanks for the coments guys, I had taken a few macro shots of the hover fly's then stood back a bit to get some of the flower but the macro's didnt really turn out how I wanted, Infact out of about 3 hours shooting I really only liked the one flower shot I posted, Good thing about digital is I didnt go through 2 rolls of film to get one shot lol.

The flower doesn't work for me. The light seems harsh, and the reds seem to be blown (on the other hand, intense reds often look like that to my eyes so perhaps it's my screen). Also the background bugs me, black above the flower but that odd greenish/blue below it.

I rather like the fish shot, and it's also technically impressive. I've tried photographing partially submerged frogs before and I know from experience the slimy reflective surfaces are a complete bugger to capture. I think this one works because of that lovely orange mouth

The second shot is stunning. The first looks like those fish are swimming in jelly.

Fantastic bargain. Great pics.

Very nice shots, with such a bargain lens, you must be well chuffed.