How dare they do such a thing to one of the gems of English literature! They need a stern talking to from Granny Weatherwax or a fireball from Mustrum Ridcully. Or perhaps a visit by evil creatures from the dungeon dimensions.

I'm currently reading (not for the first time) Carpe Jugulum. Just got to the point where Granny W. has confronted a vampire. Good stuff - and I don't want my impeccable imagination ever to be spoiled by special effects teams from either side of the pond!

Steve

Somehow, I missed these a couple of days ago. But better late than never.

A really good set, yet again. I think you're showing the value of knowing a specific area really well, as opposed to thinking that good landscape photos can only be got by going to the big photo locations. And I fully agree with LennyBloke re experimenting - keep it up!

No. 1 works well for me. It took a while to realise that it was because of the lump of dark cloud on the centre horizon which draws the eye into the picture. Well spotted (it was deliberate, wasn't it :wink.

No. 3 is really good, too. To be picky, there seems to be a 'ghost sun' above right of the real one, which I find slightly distracting. A lens artefact rather than genuine atmospheric phenomenom?

But the one I'd have on my wall is No. 4. because of it's almost pure abstraction and simplicity, classic 'rule of thirds' but with a hint of mystery (is that a distant land on the horizon, reachable only in the imagination??). Interestingly, my eyes are drawn to the waves at the bottom, rather than being drawn into the picture. But crop just above the waves so the horizon is in the centre and the eye is drawn toward the distant land (assuming that's what it is). Two pictures in one!

No. 5 doesn't work quite as well for me as No. 4, probably because it's portrait rather than landscape. But that's just a personal thing. On a technical point, there's a band of darker water at the top which conflicts with the steady transition from dark at bottom to light at top. Cropping just below improves the picture for me (but I still prefer the landscape format of No. 4:wink.

Excellent - pictures that have made me think!

Steve

An excellent result. Sometimes it pays to be persistent!!

You'll now have to use it and post some pictures on the forum...

Steve

A fine set. No. 1 evokes the smell, taste and texture of strawberry whenever I look at it. However, 2 and 3 have the edge as pictures, for me. I'm still trying to work out how the petunia was lit!

Steve

Thanks folks. The weather has not cooperated over the last few days so there probably won't be any more of these this year. I was hoping to see what the DA*300mm could do with points of light. Oh well... .

jvs - The sloping plane of focus is due to undulations in the field. The ground falls away behind the plane of focus, so you're not seeing what lies immediately behind. Similarly with No. 3, the background is actually the next field. If the farmer grows the right crop, there are interesting opportunities in just the one field.

Steve

Those QFI types have different types of brain. A friend of mine is a retired military pilot, qualified as a test pilot, mainly helicopters but also fixed wing including fast jet. He absorbs information very quickly, remembers it accurately then uses it within generic principles and doesn't ask why. I, however, try to work things out from first principles, consider other options and ask "why?". But then I was a scientist/engineer most of my life, he was a military pilot. Presumably there are different approaches to using cameras, too, depending on how your particular brain works.

Steve

Interesting question. And it isn't just Pentax vs other brands. Muscle memory is a factor whenever I'm using the K20D rather than the usual K3. The issue isn't so much the operating system as the position of buttons, particularly AF (I use back-button AF). Even using the K3, if I don't use certain functions for a while (e.g. tracking) I'll probably get something wrong unless I've run through it a few times in advance to refresh the memory. However, swapping between K3 and Q isn't a problem, perhaps because they are so different in size and usage (no viewfinder on Q) that different muscle memory kicks in automatically.

When putting a camera away, I try to remember to set it to f8, Av, ISO400, WB sunny, single shot, AF centre spot etc. so it's always the same starting point when I pick it up again. Of course, the crucial shots always seem to be when I pick it up and shoot then realise that it wasn't set to its standard settings after last use....

Steve

Not quite as rich as he was before he and his wife split up. I believe it cost him a lot more than 15 quid.

On a totally different matter, new glasses for close-up and distance/driving have arrived. The world seems much more in focus now. And all done without a trip to Barnard Castle.

Steve

Superb picture - composition, colours, background are spot on. It deserves to be hanging on a wall in a gallery.

As for guessing the lens, that sort of thing is way beyond me. But with results like that, I presume you won't be parting with it any time soon...

Steve

This year's crop in the dog walking field is oats. With the sun low in the sky, and from the right angle, the field is full of points of light. It's quite a different effect to the usual wheat or barley. So time to experiment with pointillism. Here are some first attempts with K3 + DA55-300mm. Fingers crossed that the weather will allow another attempt or two before there is much change.

Thoughts, comments etc. welcome as usual.

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Steve