Hi All,

Long before I took up photography I was already into creating wildlife art but with water color paintings and pencil drawings. I must admit that I quite like it as visitors at my house have a closer look at my work on the walls, especially when people do not realise that I am the creator so any comments are less biased.
The fact I most appreciate is that all the attention goes to the art work and no endless conversations about the tools used for creating the work. Often I get the question why I don't try to sell my work. I always explain that I like doing it as a hobby.. so only when it suits and to relax and most important when I have inspiration and certainly can't be bothered with any possible stress involved to produce enough material to fill an exposition and have to take in consideration what is in demand on the market.

Now.. with wildlife photography it's kind of the same for me, being in the great outdoors and all the excitement when approaching the subject to hopefully get the shot I'm after ..and most important ..whenever I feel up to! I don't think I would enjoy it as much as my income (even partly) would depend on it. Although the majority of the people I have those discussions with (whether they photographers or not) disagree with me and suggesting I should at least start using social media to show my images to the world, anticipate in competitions perhaps try to sell online (and most annoyingly.. those who suggesting I should start offering workshops).

Of course I can see the point of it all but what's wrong nowadays with just having fun and enjoy your hobby?

What are your thoughts?

Peter

I went the DIY route with some sheet and flat bar aluminum, works great with ball head or gimball extension bar attached to the side. this gets it as low as it can get in landscape position.

Hmm.. popular topic for spam post is it?

'It's not Pentax's fault you failed to insist on your consumer rights.'

It's not the consumers fault either that any repairs under warranty cant be resolved in timely manner because Pentax was moving premises in this case.
If then the retailer on top of that fails to provide the consumer with a solution 'within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience' it's causes frustration. If then the same product fails with another issue... more frustration. I don't think anyone would genuinely believe that other brands and their services are absolutely faultless but I can see why someone would give up and start investing in another system before frustration takes the joy out of their hobby.

Thanks and a happy Christmas to the Pentaxuser team and all members on this friendly forum!

Low... I thought to be lucky but my 3yr old K30 started to suffer from the well known aperture thingy issue on the second day of my summer holiday. I quickly bought a manual 50mm f1.7 for £19 so I could use the camera anyway. The next day I slipped and fell when trying to reach a waterfall in a gorge and it send the camera flying and repeatedly bouncing at the rock faces. My mate checked if I was okay and then started gesturing towards the waterfall.
As I was quite sore it took me some time to locate and retrieve the camera, luckily it wasn't submerged but it was getting a pretty decent shower.

High... yes it looks tatty now but no large cracks or any major damage and it was still working from the moment I retrieved it and now I've got a excuse to get one of those beautiful Samyang lenses so I can still enjoy my battered K30

Hi All,

I'm very happy with my DA*300 but I could do with something faster when shooting in low light situations. Surprisingly there seem not to many proper reviews for the SIgma 300mmf2.8 EX DG HSM, just wondering if there is anyone who owns this lens or have experience with it?

Paul I believe when shooting wildlife the most important thing is knowing your subject no matter what gear you use.

I would suggest to focus on one subject to start with, perhaps a common bird (preferably a large species) and widely available to shoot all year round. You need to know where when and how to approach your subject and understand its natural behaviour. If you observe your chosen subject for a certain period you will learn how it behaves and interact and therefore you can predict what your subject is about to do. Without that knowledge the fastest gear currently available won't be fast enough and you will still struggle to frame track focus and shoot it.

Regards, Peter

Thanks for all your replies guys, I finally have made up my mind and not going to get the K3. I don't think I will ever sell my K5IIs and the excellent DA300 but going to invest in another system. (Unless Pentax announces their answer to the D500 very soon:mrgreen.

A few snaps with a faulty K30. I think It just shows how good the dynamic range is of this camera as half my shots taken were severely underexposed (just black on the camera screen) but still recoverable in Lightroom.



B&W


And it just started raining..


And the Jacobite arriving..