Pyrenees

I wanted to share a few pictures taken last year in the Pyrenees before deleting them from the computer. This was the start of my love/hate relationship with the K5. Things are a bit better now but it's taken a year and I still prefer a CCD fitted camera in anything other than poor light. Lens: Tamron 17-50 2.8. Edited in Elements 11 to give them a bit of life.

Great set. My favourites are the two monochrome images. I presume you store your images on external HDs, so that you you will delete these images completely?

I also have a ambivalent relationship with my K5. Since I purchased it early last spring, I have mostly used it for ISO 1600 northern lights photography, where it really is superb. For daytime images, and especially landscapes, I have almost exclusively used the K20D (and sometimes also my medium format Pentax 67ii). The RAW output from the K20D within ISO range 100-400 is quite different from the K5. But like you also say, maybe I need to use the K5 more in order to fully appreciate the camera?

Best regards
Bjørn

Its always a challenge to get great looking images in such strong contrasty sunlight, but you've done very well here with an interesting range of views and layouts. I especially like how you have kept good control over the sky exposure and retained a good deep blue ... (then you go and ruin it with those mono's !:shock. Best for me are 3 & 7.

Nice set, I like #7 a lot.

The Pyrenees have been on my "intend to go to" list for a while, but not happened yet.

dave k

I really like the first of the two mono images with the lovely sky. Great conversion of the image with a real "orange filter" feel about it.

K.

Thanks folks. So many of the shots I took had a flat, two-dimensional feel to them. I really feel that with the K5 it pays to shoot in RAW.

Dave,
I can recommend the Pyrenees: they're very accessible, much quieter than the Alps and almost as lovely. The wild flowers are amazing.

Nigel,
We all know that the best time to take landscapes is before 10 o'clock and after four o'clock. Unfortunately that's not always possible. By the time one gets to a location it's around ten and it's necessary to leave at about four to get back for dinner! Couple that with the nearer one gets to the equator, the shorter the shadows, and no wonder foreign holiday pictures are a bit bland. I find it much easier to take pictures in North Wales, for example. Providing it's not raining, that is.

Bjørn,
I've decided to move to on-line storage on the grounds that a) any drive is going to crash or become corrupted over time and b) no one will much bother to look at the pictures anyway. So in Flickr I trust... Better than the boxes and boxes of slides and prints cluttering the house that no one looks at!

Lovely vistas Andrew. Looks a very photogenic area

Thanks Alan.
It's so lovely that Mrs C is already plotting a return next summer...

These are all really nice Andrew, but for me the first of the mono conversions is an absolute stunner. Regarding images from the K-5, I have always found it to be a superb camera, except for some focus issues I had with my first one and certain (not all) lenses. However, I do prefer the output from the K-3, the sensor on which produces warmer results, more akin to a CCD sensor.

Regards
David

A very good set Andrew.
The first mono is excellent.

As for the CCD comments, you know my stand on that.

Best regards