A photographer who exposes well then! A lovely series - vibrant colours, well taken.

Lucky you didn't wake up its Mum, Don...

I was admiring these on your Photobucket account - nice.

Not sure that this was necessarily the focal length for the job though David - a slightly longer one may have got you even better?

PS - were they wicks or plugs on top of the bearings where the conrods join the wheels?

Desaturated by a touch, they would come up mint Andy. 3 and 4 for me.

And from me:

Ten tips to get you started -

* Work through the manual with camera in hand - explore every setting, option and menu. The camera doesn't bite - get to understand it.

* Av (Aperture priority) will let you set the size of the aperture to control both the amount of light reaching the sensor, but more importantly the 'depth of field'. The latter is probably more important with macro images. The camera then sets the shutter speed accordingly. Av would be the most popular setting used.

* Use the lowest ISO you can (100 or 200), to keep your images as noise free as possible. Although with the K-r, if it is anything like the K-x and the K5, you will have some latitude.

* Lower ISO means that your shutter speed will be slower though - you stated that you wanted to get to grips with the relationships between the variables... This is one of them. Therefore, this becomes a balancing act between a shutter speed that is too slow for handheld work, and an image that is noisier by virtue of higher ISO. Of course, if you have a tripod, shutter speed is less of an issue in this respect.

* If the K-r sensor is anything like the one on my K-x, beware of blown highlights (even in RAW). Dial in -0.5 Ev, more if you're out in bright conditions.

* Read your manual to understand some other settings you can choose to protect highlights and shadows in your images. Be aware that if you activate these, your minimum ISO will not be 100 - it will increase to 200 (your camera will be fine with this though).

* Know where your camera is focusing. Better still, tell it where you want it to focus: Either do it manually or use the centre spot option for autofocus.

* Learn how to post-process your images: recover highlights, apply contrast, sharpen, add fill light, apply curves, and all the rest of the black art.

* Shoot in RAW - the extra latitude this gives you when playing with an image is valuable.

* Take pitchas!

G'day and welcome.

Magazine cover material perhaps?

But the eye is so much more important than the glasses, as you've discovered with this set.

The shots are good indeed. Were you to post these as crops with the length of the widest side at 800 pixels (the max for the site), it would provide an opportunity for all to better see what you're seeing when you process your images too (in terms of atmosphere etc - which likely informed your choice of pseudo-IR).

I actually don't mind that look.

Thanks Adrian, well done Darlene and Gareth - very tidy!