Serge, I think if these are reflective of your moods, things seem to be clearing up somewhat! I find your first image is more reflective of the general malaise over the last 12 months! (Nothing personal, by the way!)

Had a trip this week to Potteric Carr, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve near Doncaster, after regular reports of interesting birds to be seen, including bitterns. Alas, they were almost all AWOL on that day, apart from a few distant ducks on the lagoons. I'd come kitted out with the K70 and nothing except the DA* 60-250 with a 1.4 rear converter - talk about shoots and leaves! However, I was pleasantly surprised by what came out. Enough talk, hope these appeal!
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Your first one is very similar to the camelia heads scattered on the ground in our garden after similar weather - followed by a hailstorm so violent it left the ground scattered with pebbledash from the house walls. Your photos tell a story, Steve, which many of us will understand!

Very similar in style to your recent cherry blossom image, Steve, and very attractive in my view, too. I think if you crop away the top part, as David suggests, the eye focusses more on the lovely treatment of the main subject, whereas, without the crop, the eye can be carried past the main subject into the empty "beyond". A matter of personal taste, perhaps. Whichever, it's a lovely picture!

Thanks for that, Peter.
However, I’m pretty sure that I removed both SD cards before reinserting and reformatting just one in slot 1, then took it out again, downloaded the firmware file to it and put it back into the same slot.

Thanks for your prompt responses. I just went through the whole process again, following the Ricoh instructions but with a different SD card and this time it worked fine!

No idea why it failed with the first 3 SD cards as they were all prepared in exactly the same way as the fourth, so a bit of a mystery.

Nevertheless, thanks for responding!

Suggestions, please!
I have done the latest firmware updates (with no problems at all) for the K-70 and K-3, following the Ricoh instructions to the letter. I then attempted to do the same for my K-1 - downloaded the firmware file; copied it to the root directory on a newly-formatted SD card, put a fully-charged battery into the camera followed by the SD card and switched on while pressing the Menu button. In short, exactly the process followed for the other two cameras. However, the K-1 ignored the Menu press and simply opened up as normal, ready to shoot. I have tried different SD cards, each one formatted and with the firmware file correctly copied, all to no avail. For what it's worth the current firmware on the K-1 is V 1.52 and the latest is V 1.54.
Any ideas?
Thanks,

After all the restrictions we have endured over the last 12 months, I wasn't looking forward with much enthusiasm to to the getting out with the camera to do a reprise of last year's photos. But being out in the sun today was really uplifting, not least because of all the new growth that's to be seen all around. It never fails to lift my spirits; much more interesting, I feel, than when everything in in full leaf. I hope you will find today's collection as satisfying as I do! All taken with K3 + DA 16-85.
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Thanks, John.

John, Serge, thank you for expressing appreciation of exactly the aspects I would pick out myself!