Some of my lenses get neglected because I am hooked on macro so I decided to use last century's workhorse, the Takumar f1.4, 50mm.

The stream at the bottom of the field has cut deeply into the valley bottom and is lined with huge, mature sycamores, willow, ash and alder trees. The edges are full of wild flowers and green things where the sun shines and in the stream bottom there are gnarled roots and pebbly beaches. It is a green paradise.
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Where there are so many flowers you find bees. There is a thriving hive in one of the big sycamores. This is over sharpened to try and pick them out.
(I wasn't going any nearer!)
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The trees are in full flower at the moment and the bees are making the most of it
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There is no shortage of nectar here
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No shortage of these either - why do you always find bricks in streams?
(be thankful - no shopping trolleys)
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And there are lots of pebbly beaches where the stream has cut through gravel beds
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Everywhere you look, things are greeting the spring and pushing towards the sunshine
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Even a wild strawberry
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Takumars may be ancient glass but they can more than hold their own against any number of modern lenses
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The damselfly and the birdies on the feeder make me quite envious. The remainder make me wish I lived a lot closer. Glad you all had a good day.

Lovely shots all. That Tamron is a nice lens; I use mine a lot.
All you need with these is to straighten one or two of them so that verticals ARE vertical (e.g. with the squirrel and the shoveller)
An excellent (and free) program that lets you do practically everything to an image, without a degree in jargon and graphics, is Faststone Image Viewer. Straightening with this is a doddle.

A slightly risky procedure - Remove the name ring from the front of the lens. Most of these have a series of screws visible around trhe perimeter, some of which may have come loose (I had a Takumar like this and all it needed was a quick tighten all round). Put the words 'disassembly pentax lens' into Google and you will find plenty of "how to do it" entries.

I have a beat up, old Miranda that came bundled with a camera that had a lens on the front of it that I wanted ( ! ) I had to make a quick release plate for it because it didn't have one and it serves me very well. Having looked through Ebay for a replacement with the real plate I was surprised at how many of various makes are advertised with their quick release plates missing. Do make certain it's all present and correct if you are buying there.

Is this the one with the loose focus ring or another one? (We told you it is a stellar performer)

Nice collection - particularly the swan and the panorama. Put the swan on the main gallery as well - it ought to raise a comment or two?

If it is an E book then why do they want so much personal information?

Very nice set, especially the first one. (I think that snail was just a bit suspicious of you)

No. It shouldn't behave like that !