Well, some of the colours look unnatural to me, too. But the colours in a lot of great paintings through the centuries also look unnatural to me. Doesn't stop them being great paintings. We all have different tastes, what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for others. And thank goodness, say I, it drives creativity.

Steve

Looks like you're getting the hang of this terrestrial photography thing .

Steve

Good photos in what looks like tricky lighting . I can remember making an Airfix plastic model of that loco when I was a kid. Nostalgia even then (all electric where I lived), even greater nostalgia now.

Only if you absolutely insist on having a genuine, built-like-a-tank, Pentax right angled finder. The cheap, Chinese (?) ones do the job OK, just don't subject them to a lot of physical abuse. I've had one since before going digital, it's still used quite frequently, particularly for low level things like bothering bees. A lot of the bug macros I've posted over the years used the right angle finder.

Steve

Bargain prices for used lenses must surely be part of the problem. Great for current owners of Pentax cameras but not a penny of the purchase price of a used lens goes to Ricoh/Pentax. Perhaps if we all bought new (which, needless to say, I hardly ever do now) then Ricoh/Pentax would be keener to develop new lenses. Time now for me to have a post-lunch nap and dream of pigs flying...

Steve

You can go low to the ground with the K3iii. Two methods. First method, if you yourself are willing and able to go low to the ground too, use a right angle finder like people did before articulated screens were invented. Second method, if you want to look at a screen, use the camera's wireless communication facility and a smartphone or other device.

Steve

Well, there's Mrs L ... . There's also a P30, my first SLR and first Pentax camera. It now sits unused but impossible to part with it.

Steve

Agreed. Been a Pentax user for about the same length of time as you. My dSLRs are K20D, K3 and K3iii. The K3iii is superb, I should have got it sooner. The K1ii is about 25% heavier than the K3iii, sadly worth considering as one gets older... .

Steve

Not as much water in the brook now. Does it ever dry up? Will this be first year it does? Keep taking the monthly pic, we (or at least I) want to know whether it will be a victim of this year's extreme weather .

A quick technical thought. The pics of the brook aren't as sharp as they might be. Exif data shows shutter speed is 1/4 sec and ISO 100. The old rule of thumb from film days (no shake reduction of course) was shutter speed = 1/focal length of lens for a sharp shot, which implies about 1/60 sec for these. Assuming these are hand held, shake reduction is probably struggling with 1/4 sec exposure. Any reason why ISO 100? Increasing ISO to 400 or 800 would give shorter exposure and greater chance of shake reduction doing a good job.

Steve

Aren't there spiders from Mars??

Steve