The new dog, Austin, pursuing one of his two passions. With the recent warm weather he now occasionally leaves the settee to doze on the lawn, returning to the settee when he gets too hot. His other passion is food. That is eaten too quickly to get a decent photograph.

K3iii + DA55-300mm (original version).

Thoughts, comments etc. welcome as usual.

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Steve

Impressive photos again.... but of what? Great clouds of stuff floating through space? Or the remains of the smoke from the recent conclave in Rome, hovering in the stratosphere??

Would I be right in thinking that what makes the Askar FMA180 Pro APO Sextuplet Astrograph 180mm f4.5 lens so good for astro is that it's optimised for very distant objects? Much the same in principle as a Sigma 180mm f3.5 EX APO macro lens being good for macro because it's optimised for close objects? So you'd be perfectly justified in owning three 180mm lenses, one for normal use, one optimised for macro, one optimised for astro, just a matter of remembering which one to put in the bag when you go out.

Steve

That looks absolutely disgusting!! But good photos of a bunch of masochists .

Pity your lens wasn't WR or you could have entered the race and taken photos through the eyes of a competitor. Something for next year?

Steve

That's a big assumption ...

It was Exmoor Gold for me. And I had to walk about 10 metres - the beer is kept in the garage, the car is kept on the drive.

Steve

Yes, the 2nd one for me, too. But why not carry on with both, though - they are completely different views of the brook and over the months they might tell different stories.

Steve

Definitely worth playing! I particularly like the last one - no photographic trickery (presumably), just looking at something from a different point of view.

Keep playing, keep experimenting .

Steve

What a magnificent tree! It certainly puts our short lifetimes into perspective.

Steve

Nos. 3 and 7 for me, please. 3 for the exquisite lighting and isolation of flower from background that screams 'LennyBloke' to me. 7 for its impressionism, which has turned an unpromising jumble of plants into a soft, relaxing, beautiful picture.

Did you see any wildlife? Not even a bee visiting a bluebell?

Steve

There will be one from me, too. Just got to make time to process it in the next day or two. April isn't over yet!

Steve

Here's how to replace the battery in the O-RC1 link . Thanks to cardiffgareth (hi, Gareth, if you're reading this).

Steve