For me it would have to be early October, busy every weekend until then, but October would be when the leaves are turning and there's potential for mist / frosty mornings!

First or second weekend in October are both free for me; if you happen to set a date for this time I'll definitely come along.

Best regards
David

Top quality Neil, that Fox shot in particular is a real winner for me.

Regards
David

You said it much more eloquently than I ever could Dr. O, but I agree entirely with your sentiments. To me, composition more than anything else is key to getting successful and interesting macro shots that have depth, personality and atmosphere. Magnification is the least of my priorities when taking macro shots of living creatures.

Regards
David

Hi Jeff, thanks for uploading these, I'm an enthusiastic macro shooter and have been practicing at this for a couple of years now. They are a very good start, I hope you don't mind me giving you a few tips / observations:

- Colours are good
- Focus / sharpness are a little off - I think you need to use a narrower aperture (you haven't mentioned what aperture was used)
- It may make it easier to use a supplementary light source? Diffused flash is good and you can make a diffuser out of Pringles tubes - there have been several posts on here about this
- Take care with composition, particularly not to cut the edge of the frame with parts of the image that are important - sometimes it's best to sacrifice some magnification to get the framing you need - i.e. pull back a little

Keep practicing - macro is difficult and a lot of effort is needed to get good results. All the best and keep posting the images - you should find you get plenty of encouragement and constructive comments on the Forum.

Best wishes
David

Well done Vic, macro is not easy. It would be good to see some of these in their natural settings. I can understand why you've gone down the path of shooting these indoors (please correct me if I'm wrong) but I'm not a big fan of critters shot outside of their natural context; it's much more rewarding to get them in their outdoor surroundings, but also much harder to do this!

Regards
David

Yes, but it's very hard work doing wedding photography and not for the faint hearted. It's not something an amateur can take lightly and it is more difficult to get professional results than most would think.

Regards
David

The first one in particular is superb!

Regards
David

Very good tips Shaun, especially for those who are scared of PP and not familiar with Photoshop. Thank you for making the effort once again.

Regards
David

Hi Stuart, glad to see I have been of some use! Regarding the 50mm, I wasn't referring to studio portraiture, more to casual shots of the family, indoors at parties etc. where 50mm is a good focal length. If I were doing more formal work I would use the Sigma 105mm DG EX Macro (it is a superb portrait lens), the 55-300 at the shorter end or the 135mm F3.5 SMC Takumar which really does work well for portraits.

Regards
David

The short answer to your question is a qualified 'yes'. It depends on whether you feel the need or the urge to try something different. Here's what I use my manual lenses for:

- Pentax M 28mm F3.5 - Landscapes (mainly) on K-5, K-5IIs and K-01, or reversed as a macro lens on K-5/K-5IIs

- Pentax M 50mm F1.4 - Portrait lens on the K-01, or with Extension Tubes / Bellows as a very sharp macro lens

- Pentax A 50mm F 1.7 - Portrait lens on K-01

- Pentax K 55mm F1.8 - General use and occasionally macro with Extension Tubes / Bellows

- 2x Teleconverter - Teamed up with Sigma 105 Macro for higher macro magnification

- SMC Takumar 135mm F3.5 with M42 mount / adaptor - Portrait lens

- Chinon 50mm F1.9 - Excellent video lens on my son's K-01

- Tamron Adapt-a-matic 300mm F5.6 with M42 mount/adaptor - AV mode (very occasional use) on my K-5 or K-5IIs

One point to mention is that since acquiring the K-01 my manual lenses have a new lease of life. The focus peaking on the K-01 is a magnificent aid to focussing with a manual lens and makes it as easy as AF for me, even indoors in very dim light. I would even say that I can get greater accuracy of focussing in dim light with the K-01 and a fast manual lens than I can achieve in AF with my K-5 Mk1 and I'm talking about wide apertures of F1.4 / F1.8 here.

Hope this inspires you to use those manual lenses!

Regards
David