+1 for the hole in the middle - it sucks me in!

The others are nicely done but leave me feeling I'm a spectator rather than a participant. Although with the energy in those clouds, perhaps that's the best way to be.

Steve

Cacti are blooming in the greenhouse. Here's one of the more spectacular flowers. One day the cactus was covered in buds, the next day most of them had opened. I wonder if the flower is waiting for an exotic pollinator from the Americas which will never come...

K3 + Irix 150mm (as usual). Stack of 11 with Affinity Photo.

Thoughts, comments etc. welcome as always.




Steve

Stunning.

Superb use of light and colour in the backgrounds - even in No. 2 where the background brings out the flowing stems rather than the flowers.

For me, these aren't pictures of flowers, rather they are pictures with flowers. And all the better for that.

Steve

Those lorry drivers must be pretty good if they can hide on the M25.

Drive safely and always maintain social distancing from every other vehicle.

Steve

Probably won't make much difference. It isn't so much the added length that would have an effect as that's quite small. What will probably be more significant is that the hole through the ring flash is smaller diameter that the end of the hood so will block off light round the edge. In principle, that could reduce light levels around the edge of the frame, but I doubt if it would be enough to be a problem. And as Chris says, work in manual and adjust flash output to suit.

Try an experiment. Fix a sheet of paper with words on it on a wall. Put camera on a tripod (or other steady support if you don't have a tripod) at about the distance the teeth would be. Make sure the paper is evenly illuminated. Focus on the words (that's the reason for needing words). Take a picture without the flash. That will will give you a baseline to check the flash. Now repeat (exactly the same distance between camera and paper) with you holding the flash unit in front of the lens hood and aligned as accurately as you can. Compare the shot with flash with that without. The absolute illumination isn't of interest here, just how it falls off across the frame. If it looks OK, there shouldn't be a problem replacing words with teeth.

I've just been using my ring flash with a macro lens (not Pentax) that has a front element bigger than the Pentax lens. The adapter and flash is like a short, constant diameter tube rather than the flaring out of the lens hood. There isn't any obvious problem with the results.

Good luck!

Steve

Yes, stable even with the minimal amount of velcro I used. Very slight movement from side to side, but I didn't try to optimise the size and position of the velcro pads. It definitely would not drop off from a vertical lens hanging over an open mouth. When you consider how much hammering the velcro on childrens shoes gets and the shoes still stay on, it should be OK for the flash.

A roll of self-adhesive velcro only costs a few pounds, so definitely worth trying. Black velcro would look neater and more professional, of course.

Steve

Velcro!

Buy a roll of sticky-backed velcro. You'll need both the hook tape and fuzzy tape. Cut and stick bits of hook tape around outer rim of flash unit:



Cut and stick bits of hook tape to outside far end of lens hood, to match the bits on the flash unit:



Position lens hood against flash unit with bits of velcro aligned:



Cut lengths of fuzzy tape (do not remove backing paper!). Use fuzzy tape to attach flash unit to lens hood. This picture shows the flash supported quite firmly from the end of the lens hood. The hood is from the 55-300mm lens which is 7.8cm diameter at the flash end (I don't have the 100mm macro).



You'll need to experiment to find the best sizes and positions of the bits of velcro. I deliberately used small pieces so they will come off easily (I hope!). Presumably, the bigger the better for your use.

Quick, easy, cheap and it seems to work.

Good luck!

Steve

A new printer. Nothing special to report about that. What does deserve a special mention, though, is superb service from Carmarthen Cameras.

I'd originally ordered the printer from a big online merchant that sells all things electrical and electronic. Many printers 'out of stock' but this one 'in stock'. Delivery date in a week, according to the order. A week came and no printer. Checked and found that it was actually out of stock (although still showing as in stock), hoping for new stock in 3 weeks. And they hadn't told me, in spite of 'We'll keep you updated with progress of your order". So looked around, saw Carmarthen was saying it was in stock, phoned, got immediate confirmation that they had 19 (I think) on the premises and had a nice chat with a helpful man. Ordered online late morning yesterday, it arrived late morning today. Couldn't be better.

Now just waiting for the old printer to finally pack up before getting the new one up and running. Got lots of ink for the old one so may as well use as much as possible!

Stev e

Interesting comments about cropping out the grey at the top. When the picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, I played around with it and concluded the same - better without the grey because it distracts from looking at the stalks in the centre. Yesterday, I looked at it again and decided the opposite - better with the grey because it helps you to look around the stalks rather than at them. Looking at it again, after your comments, I can't make my mind up at all!!

Steve

Taken with K3 + FA77mm + 35mm tube. It makes a change from ultra-sharp, ultra-detailed, stacked macro .

Comments, thoughts welcome as usual.




Steve