Don't feel bad about it Barrie, I get loads of things wrong (according to my wife anyway).

It's certainly not a locust but my general (cricket) ID might also be inaccurate. The eye is actually very similar to that of an Egyptian Grasshopper, which we get lots of here and they are commonly misidentified as locusts, though the body colouring and wing shape is wrong.

The point is, you asked the questions. So why should we have to 'work it out' to know what on earth you are talking about.

If you are specific, we can give good advice. Your post was very vague, which is why you got no response. Why should we be bothered to work out what you are trying to say, if you can't be bothered to be specific?

We may have been able to offer constructive comment if you'd provided a link to the items you were asking about.

Good luck with the kit and show us some results.

Version 2 includes Davex's suggestion. I've also used the 'Sharpen for glossy paper' option when exporting from Lightroom. I've darkened it a tad too.

I think it looks too sharp and unnatural. What do you think?

Thanks Davex. I have totally missed that. I was concentrating on getting the bug right and hadn't considered the whole picture.

Taken in my garden a couple of days ago. The critter was welcome to stay 'til I discovered it was munching on the leaves of my orange tree. I should have guessed really, that's where it was when I took this.

I can't find this one in my Boy's Bumber Book of Bugs, so if you know, do tell. The apparant yellow streak down it's back is actually late afternoon sun.




K20D(#2), SMCP DF-A 100mm Macro, AF540FGZ (AF160FC is deceased) with Sto-Fen omnibounce (handheld off-camera + wireless P-TTL) 1/80th / f13 / ISO100.

Processed in Lightroom 3.2, cropped, small amount of sharpening, with extra sharpening using the adjustment brush of the eye.

C&C welcome.

Galoot said it in his first post, but if you really want to master Pentax flash on a DSLR, get Mattmatic's (PU Forum moderator) eBook from here.

Advanced Camera Services will do it, for a price.

My neighbour's son's girlfriend (with me so far) asked me recently what was "the best" camera to get.

I told her if she wants to shoot sports or other fast moving subjects, choose a Canon or Nikon, for just about anything else, choose Pentax for it's IQ, availibility of lenses etc.

She wants to do macro work, so I recommended Pentax, of course.

I wish I didn't have to make the Canon/Nikon recommendation for sports etc.

Pentax have been selling numerous models of DSLR cameras for 7 years now. Why haven't they sorted this universal criticism of their systems?