Thank you for sharing these lovely images - could it still fly after that?
I wonder what Carl would say if you photographed what happens a short time after they've digested it

For my K5 I have a Maxsima foto 1860mAh which outlasts the Pentax original and two Energizer 1500mAh which have also proved to be reliable. The Energizer packaging, if carefully opened, is robust and reusable time and again, keeping your spare batteries clean and dry.

Beautiful lenses but a bit prone to go stiff if the grease dries out. Dissassembly is relatively simple if you want to tighten up the bits and pieces. You start by grabbing the front end and the back end and twisting the whole lot (hard) so both halves come apart ! Lots of examples on the internet.

These are really nice. They remind me of modern stained glass windows.

I have and use these vintage macro lenses - ALL are manual - auto focus is next to useless on macro lenses

SMC Pentax M f4 100mm. Not the best IQ at "normal" distances, but as a macro - WOW! - (goes to 1:2)
SMC Pentax A f 2.8 50mm. Brilliant at ANY focussing distance and a very good walk around lens. (goes to 1:2)
Macro Takumar (preset) M42 f4 50mm. Even better than the 'A' series AND it goes to 1:1
Industar 61L/Z (preset) M42 f2.8. It's bit difficult to focus but when you get it right ... ! (goes to just short of 1:2)

NONE of these (bar the TAK) should cost more than £100, with tatty examples much less. Don't let poor cosmetic appearance put you off. These are all built like tanks. You will struggle to find the preset Tak but its SMC cousin - also an f4 and with an apperture ring - is fairly common but it only does 1:2.

If you really WANT to pay mega 100s of pounds and dollars then by all means do so. Just check the reviews on these four first.
Another unexpected contender is the Takumar f1.4 50mm classic. It ain't 'macro' but with resolution like that, you simply crop it to size!
Finally, you can have great fun with the Pentax bellows and a tripod with a 135mm or 150mm on the end


This one cost me £40 complete with a near mint Jupiter 11A 135

A bit too much buzzing alerted me to a new tenant in my workshop this year. Up on the ceiling, right behind a beam, giving just 7inches clearance to see through, a whopping big queen wasp had begun her nest. I waited for her to leave for more materials before exploring ways of getting a camera lens into the gap and how to provide a bit of lighting with a propped up LED torch.



Here's where it all starts, with a spiralling pendant on the end of which is a solitary cell



One becomes two



and then three - just imagine being up a step ladder, head sideways against the ceiling and just over foot away from this lady



The beginnings of the outer shell were started with the second cell and thereafter, she worked on both cells and covering






With more of the 'roof' in place she tended to take frequent rests curled up around the pendant support underneath it.
Also, as she worked, she would frequently climb up inside there and walk round and round, presumably to maintain the
correct gap between contents and covering. She spent night times curled up here, which made me wonder if the very top of the nest
might be the Queen's resting place as a matter of course in other nests?






Why she left off work on the nest proper and built this strange affair about a foot or so distant I have no idea.

Eventually, I had to consider what to do about her. I didn't want a fully populated wasp nest over my head where I work every day
and I didn't want her to continue wasting her time building, so I let it get this far before taking action



I waited for her to take a rest and put a glass tumbler over the nest before sliding a piece of card between the ceiling and the glass,
which severed the nest support. I expected her to be furious but she just clung tightly and cowered around the central support.
I took her to some local woods and released her there.



Here is one of nature's little miracles made from nothing but chewed wood pulp



A tiny masterpiece of engineering



Pentax K5, Macro Takumar 50mm f4 and a step ladder

2 and 4 for me - but they are all wonderful, whatever

Yes the leaves are chewed, there is a messy spider's web - it's called 'warts and all' and it only adds to this particular image. If it were sharp, the lovely pastel colours would have lost half their appeal. It's a good image!

It really is terrifying when this happens. You never get caught out with a "Richo Pin" again!
I used a pair of scissors to cut a beer can open and to cut out a very thin shim - which did the job a treat. You shove it in just next to the auto-focus lever as this is the hole into which the errant pin has dropped.

I too use the one in the computer but I hate taking the card out of the camera because either your forefinger or thumb is right up against the back of the little door on a K5 and you risk damaging something every time because the card is held in there quite tightly.