I echo the comments above, all the shots are great.

Regards
David

A quick 'bump' to remind you about the weekly competition. It's currently a little thin on entries, so please get your pictures in!

Not many long exposure shots entered yet, although this is not necessarily a requirement it adds to the creative possibilities that could fit within the competition theme.

Thanks in advance for your participation!

Regards
David

I love the Grass Snake shot. We have these resident in our garden from time-to-time and one of my photographic objectives for the coming year is to get some good shots of these reptiles. They are surprisingly difficult though as they are very shy and slither off into the undergrowth rapidly when disturbed.

Regards
David

Naim, I've also had a look at your PPG shots and I like them very much. I agree with you that we must keep uploading and hope that the many excellent photographers on this site do not abandon PPG as this will be for certain one of the quickest ways to ensure the quality drops. I do agree also with George that a gallery of the PU competition winners would eclipse PPG by some margin, but it would be sad if we abandon the official Pentax Gallery.

Regards
David

Really excellent work, very well done. The black background improves it no end.

Regards
David

Good Evening all, just a quick reminder that the Weekly Competition this week has the theme 'The Passing of Time' and your entries are welcomed and encouraged! This is quite a stretching theme and as the first I have had the honour of judging I'm looking for some imaginative entries, not necessarily featuring clocks (although clock pics will no doubt feature heavily)!

I would love your views on the topic and would love even more to see your entries flooding in. Thanks to ArsenAl for setting and judging the last one - I look forward to the task of choosing a winner on this week's comp and hope that there are plenty of great shots to choose from.

Best of luck.
David

I like 2 & 3 and the surfing shot is excellent. Bizarre really, but your shots of the dead trees are very reminiscent of some I shot recently in England at Clumber Park, Sherwood Forest. Even the lighting is similar, but I bet it was warmer weather when you shot yours!

Regards
David

I would echo what DrOrloff has said above. The fact is, the PPG is open to all Pentax users to upload their pics and so by definition you will get a large range of picture styles and quality submitted. Why is everyone so uptight about this? If a photographer is happy with his / her work and wants to share it, why not upload? After all, the photos that make it onto the site are voted for, so a number of people must find them worthy.

It is never going to be site just for the purists but it does contain some stunning photos.

If I wanted to be controversial I would add that some of the members who have commented on the PPG do not actually have any of their own pictures on the site! However, I'm not like that so I will keep quiet (oops, too late)

Best wishes
David

I'm sorry to see you are selling these lenses Charlotte - you have posted some great images with both of them. I did toy with the idea of selling my Sigma 50mm F2.8 Macro, but I've decided to keep it now as I've taken some decent shots with it (not as good as yours though).

If you sell, I hope you get a good price.

Regards
David

Focus stacking is one way, but I prefer to work with the limited DOF and try to compose the image to benefit from it. Easier said than done.

Example; if you are photographing something long like a Grasshopper, shoot it side-on if you want most of it sharp. However, shoot it from the front three-quarter view or head-on if you want dramatic impact and do your best to get the critical point of focus on the eye.

Axel gives good advice above; don't try to focus critically by using the focus ring on the lens - move the camera backwards and forwards smoothly and slowly until focus is achieved.

Finally, have you tried the 'Catch in Focus' feature? With a manual lens this is brilliant and can help get your macro shots in focus, but it's no guarantee of success.

Regards
David