Thanks - less than a day and four helpful suggestions . So here's progress so far...

Sharpies - I've heard about them but never seen or used them. They produce an 'extreme' version specifically for exposure to sun, rain and generally bad weather but I can't find anyone selling it in the UK. I'll try the standard version which claims to 'resist both water and fading'.

Polarizing filter - good suggestion, tried this morning but unfortunately it makes no difference . I did discover, though, that the writing can also vanish to the naked eye with the label at a certain angle to the sun, so it's not just the camera.

Wooden labels and Stabilo Write-4-all pen - I'll try the pen, it's cheap enough. Might even put it up against a Sharpie to see which of their marketing departments can be trusted the most ! Wooden labels might take over some time, but would they last anything like as long as the many-times-reused plastic labels that inhabit my label jar (some of them must be at least 10 years old ).

Matt paint from hobby shop - I wouldn't want to use a brush for plant labels. But I'm kicking myself for not thinking of trying the best hobby shop in town, where I know the people who own and run it and they are very knowledgable about their stock. Next time I'm in town...

Steve

Thanks for looking, folks. I'm pleased it produced a smile or even a laugh, an emotional response was what I was hoping for. IMHO there is so much more to what photography is all about than pixels, sharpness and other such technicalities. And if a few pictures can bring even fleeting pleasure when so much of what are seeing and hearing at the moment is pretty miserable, then let's have more of them!

Incidentally, a green shield bug dropped in to say hello while I was typing this post. It would have been rude not to introduce it to you all, so here it is .







Steve

A bit of an odd question here. Does anyone know a weather-proof black ink that can be used for plant labels and is non-reflective?

The photographic relevance is that I am taking regular (usually monthly) record shots of each of the growing number of plants in an outdoor collection. The number of plants is well into the hundreds. Each shot needs to include the identity of the plant, which is done by laying the plant label horizontally on the pot. I gave up using pencil for the labels because bright light often made the writing almost invisible in the photo, presumably because graphite is fairly reflective. Weather-proof ink is now used and is better, but can still be invisible in photos taken in bright sun when the angle of the sun is wrong. The label can always be repositioned so the writing is visible, but it's a time consuming nuisance when all I want to do is put label on surface, take shot, reinsert label into pot, move to next plant and get the lot done as quickly as possible. In case you're wondering, the camera is Q + 01 used in Av mode, and I've tried changing various setting but the only thing that helps is to underexpose and that messes up the image of the plant. See below for an example of vanishing ink.

Now you see it...



Now you don't...



Steve

Nicely done. I like bridges and I like your photos . No. 3 stands out for the lines and reflection. No. 1 stands out for the people about to walk under the bridge - they bring a sense of scale as well as the surprising jolt when I realised that the bridge isn't the true subject of the picture, it's just the frame to draw your eyes to the people. No. 2 doesn't quite get to the same level for me, not so much interest and it isn't quite symmetrical.

Steve

Mrs L grows lots of plants in pots on the patio. They include wild flowers (definitely not taken from the wild, of course). One of the wild flowers that she has grown for the first time this year - and very successfully, too - is ragged robin. Mrs L also has a small water feature, complete with small fountain, on the patio. The local small birds, up to and including blackbirds, make regular use of this as a bird bath, completely ignoring the real bird bath that is half way down the garden. Among the birds that bathe in the fountain is a family of robins.

So here are some photos of ragged robins. Enjoy!

The bird was taken through double-glazing, but not too bad in spite of it.

Thought, comments welcome as usual.

1. Ragged robin



2. Wet and ragged robin



3. Ragged ragged robin



Steve

Nice photos of an often under-appreciated bird. Mrs L and I are also quite fond of dunnocks. They go about their business without making a fuss and are regular visitors to the patio. As one of the first birds to start singing in the year, they are a welcome sign that winter will soon be over. Mind you, their song does get on my nerves after a while... .

Steve

Lovely set. The heron in flight and little egret in flight are top for me. Strange to think that not so long ago that little egret would have been an exotic rarity in the UK and now they are all over the place.

And the snipe is indeed a dunlin - beak too short for a snipe and the dark patch underneath says dunlin not snipe.

Steve

Sounds like you need a geared head. I got a used Manfrotto 410 and am very pleased with it (other brands and models are available :wink. Rock solid and precise control. See below with K3 + DA300mm + 1.4TC (my heaviest lens) - not that I've actually used it like that for birds in flight! You would need a very solid tripod, that's quite a weight being slung to one side of the centre column.




Steve

You originally said you wanted a fisheye. The Pentax is a fisheye, the Sigma is not a fisheye. Both have their uses.
Make sure you get tubes that have the electrical connections which give you the functionality you want with the lens. There are threads on this forum about what the different brands of tubes can and can't do. Other people can advise you better than I can (I've got a set of tubes, they do what I want and that's all I know!).
Looking forward to it!!

Steve

Excellent photos . And what an experience! I hope you're not now imprinted on the cub as it's mother .

It's photos like this that challenge my reasoning that getting a K3iii wouldn't do anything for the sort of photography I do. Just a few days ago I was out at the same time as you but having close(-ish) encounters with nightjars. Didn't bother taking a camera (K3) because the light would be too poor...

Steve