Getting back to the very beginning ! That's a nice opening photo and I, for one, look forward to seeing some more. Welcome to PentaxUser.

I generally size mine to 1940 x 1092px because that fills my entire monitor screen and it also fills a mobile phone screen - where many people seem to view photos.

That's a really good idea! - (and my missus complains that I rarely photograph people too).

The dark ones are super. I'm not so sure about the 'clinical' look of the nail varnishes - particularly the blue ones. It says kills 99% of germs rather than something girlie.

The lens handles detail well (e.g. #2) and the low, slanting light is nice in the final one.

This f4, 200mm Soviet lens was made by an obscure factory (Vologda) in the 1990s and is therefore 'modern' in terms of Soviet
lenses. They ruined it by sticking a huge flat plate just inside the mount to cover the auto pin mechanism. This splattered
light everywhere and wrecked the contrast. Very few were made and those that were had a bad reputation - not helped
by the inadequate, built-in hood! It is stuffed to the gills with glass, making it a really heavy beast to lug around.




If you stick some black, light absorbing fabric over the offending plate and screw a decent 58mm hood on the front of it -
(I use the big plastic one off an Adaptall 80-210mm - a super hood) - the thing is transformed. Its very long focus throw
enables considerable accuracy and its resolution is phenomenal.

There are lots of autumn themed opportunities presently. These were all taken this past week .....
1. Our acers have been magnificent this year.



2. The silver birches have been dripping with colour.


3.



4. The foggy mornings have left things dripping with dew.



5. Both of these represent severe 100% crops from a full frame original - the quality remains spot on.



6. The robin was good as gold and posed for me about 6feet away, just inside the minimum focus distance.



7. The smallest details are captured, even high up in the trees.


8.



9. Or high up on a 9ft sunflower ! (We had some whoppers this year - Sunflower "Titan" )



All taken with a K1, handheld, ISO 800 and most of them around f4, f5.6. The birch trees were f8.

I got up too late and realised what I'd missed. These are a super set. The first one appeals most to me.

Mine is on its second battery now having never failed at all. I mistrusted it at first as it was cheap and bought a second one (it's still unused).

I use the simple, cheap Chinese one commonly available on Ebay. You can change the battery in them (you can't in an O-RC1) and they are absolutely reliable.

50 years ago I worked backstage with the local operatic society who regularly hired the town theater for a week at a time. The Panto one year involved a real running buffet with a huge cake on a table with castors. Someone was inside the cake and was able to make the table shoot across the stage whenever anybody tried to grab food from it. A new person, one evening, forgot to take account of the rake of the stage floor and he shot off straight for the orchestra pit. The audience loved it and thankfully the party goers on stage were able to catch it in the nick of time. Frightened the pants off everyone, including the full orchestra in the pit !

(That was the Ritz in Nuneaton, if anyone remembers it - although it was a fully equipped provincial theater modeled on the London Palladium it was mainly used as an ABC cinema and latterly as a bingo hall).

Almost like a peacock shaking its tail at you.