Beautiful pictures here - I especially like numbers 3 and 4 and the sheep; it looks like you had a good day. The last two are fascinating as well - what sort of settings did you use to capture these?

Regards

Thanks very much all! I like the Toucan as well - I just think they are very characterful birds, and (simply owing to the size of them) forced me to try out some different angles to fit them into the frame.

Rosered - these were all taken as RAW files and then tweaked in Photoshop Elements;

Steve - I think you are right about the pheasant - it certainly looks like one. And I agree about the size of the Heron's eyes. I think (like you) this must be for night-time light collection when hunting. They also seem angled down somewhat, although I guess this is an advantage if your prey is beneath your eyeline (or on the ground you are flying over) - here is another shot of the same bird in which it almost looks (to me at least) as if he has his head on upside down!!:




Regards

Lovely captures and cracking quality even if cropped.

Regards

Beautiful scenes and well executed!

Top stuff

Hello all. Last time I posted some pics it was a set of B/W bird portraits from a recent trip to Birdworld near Basingstoke. As promised, here are a handful of colour pics from the same trip:

1. African Grey



2. Not sure what this chap is, and I was shooting him through vegetation to try and eliminate the mesh and bars of the enclosure. Not altogether successful but worth a go I thought... he's a handsome chap nonetheless



3. A proud looking crowned pigeon



4. A young Humboldt's Penguin



5. Black Crowned Night Heron tries out some daytime



6. Up close with a Rhea



7. Unmistakably Toucan!



8. Mick and Keef (?) - these tiny finches were incredibly endearing and spent their time huddled together in their enclosure.



9. ...and just to highlight that not all of the birds at Birdworld are captive, this was our lunchtime companion (who got plenty of crumbs!)



Hope you like them - any C&C welcome. There are plenty more on my flickr stream. All were taken with the K-5 and either the DA*300 (first three), or the DA*200 (the rest). It was a pretty grey day and the K-5 was a noticeable improvement over my old K-7 simply on account of its ISO performance.

Best Regards

Good set - I really like the second one - great colours and lighting - excellent!

Regards

Cameradextrous - Many happy returns!!

Regards

Hello all. Not sure if anyone has seen this:

link

It is an interview with the senior sales and marketing director ( of Pentax Ricoh in the Americas... seems to suggest that there may be some exploration into longer focal lengths, amongst other things...? Perhaps...

Might be of interest

Regards

Oh dear - don't be put off Develop and scan is what i do - I generally find prints cost extra. Most places will do the scans for you and put on a CD although this may cost marginally more. For a 35mm film at the Ilford photo lab I think developing the negs costs about £6.50 and then the scans are either £3 for standard resolution or about a tenner for high resolution.Their details can be found at www.ilfordlab.com although of course there are other developers around. As I said, a C41-developed film at Jessops cost £4 last time I had one done, not sure how much extra (if anything) for the scans as i have now invested in my own scanner.

I think it is great fun shooting on film, and the anticipation of what is going to come back is quite different from digital, where you can see from the back of the camera straight away...

Regards

Another vote for Kodak Tri-X from me for my fave film - I think the ISO400 Tri-X is now marketed as Kodak 400TX (?). I have tried HP5 but found that the variations of grey in Tri-X are much more pleasing to my eye - although it's a matter of personal choice of course. I generally have a yellow filter on the lens when i shoot black and white as I think it slightly boosts the contrast.

I have used the BW400CN recently (I have a roll in my 35mm film camera right now) and I quite like it - it's is certainly convenient although it lacks 'something' I think compared with the TX. I got my last roll of it developed at Jessops for £4. For the Tri-X or any other BW film for that matter I tend to use the Ilford Photo lab by post - it's a pretty quick turnaround (about 3 days on average in my experience) and I have found the results fine - or silverprint in London, which is handy for me as I work in London but it's not so quick. I tend to just get the negatives developed as that keeps the cost minimal and then scan them on an epson perfection scanner, and save as image files (they can be very big!). If I ever manage to actually capture an image I am pleased enough with, I am determined to get it properly printed up but I have not taken one yet. I agree with John that it would be awesome to have a darkroom (I used one a lot years ago at school) but that's not practical for me just now.

In terms of colour film, I like fujicolour pro 400 as it gives some very cool muted colour rendition which I rather like, but I have only used it in medium format and I don't know if it comes in 35mm... again developed at Jessops and scanned at home.

Regards