Hello all. We had a small window of reasonable(ish) weather here this morning so I headed out for a bit of walk. Here are a handful of shots. All taken with the K-7 and the DA* 200 (which is my current favourite lens by a margin), except the first, which was with the 50-135.

First up, there was a decent layer of mist and this is the view from Richmond Hill out towards Ham (you can see Ham House, a splendid Tudor place) on the river bend (left of pic):




The rut is on in Richmond Park, more or less, so the deer are a little flighty. Here is a stag against the morning sun:




and here's a Deer finishing off her Breakfast:




Autumn is now upon us and the leaves are dropping, among other things:




A Stag relaxes in the grass:




whilst another somewhat more hormonally charged chases off a rival:




Lots of spider webs covered in dew but I didn't get any as good as Kris's from his earlier post I don't think; although I did get this relaxing spider:




Finally, I can never go round the park without dropping in on the ducks, and here's a friendly Mallard, also looking very autumnal:




Hope you like them. There are more on flickr if anyone is interested. Any C&C welcomed as ever.

Regards

Nice set Kris! I have been out taking shots of cobwebs this morning too but not sure if they'll turn out well... I really like the webs in shots 2 and 3 here, especially the way the web is constructed with some little triangles at the junctions of the web silk. And I particularly like leaf and pondweed, think that it my favourite of the bunch! you must have had the camera perfectly perpendicular at f2 to get that all in sharp focus. Nice one!

Regards

What a great shot i-Berg! I like this very much and think I prefer the lightened version rather than the original. It really captures the evening atmosphere and the bird perched in the top of that angular tree is brilliant!

Regards

I think they are rather good - I like them in any event and they are not as 'HDR' as many which you can see on the web. I especially like the last one of the set and the fourth. I rather fear I may have to have a go at the HDR lark myself...

Regards

You could rent a 16-50 from SRS for the weekend as an alternate option:. Mind you it would only be £1 cheaper than buying the WR 18-55...

Regards

I rather like the third one with the bee on the teasel. Sad tale of the Bumble Bees though...

Regards

Ah - now to my mind that would be a significant improvement! Wonder if I can beg/borrow/steal enough for a K-5...

Regards

There is an HDR function on the K-7 which I have used once or twice... It takes three shots at three exposures (presumably for highlights, shadows and midtones) and then merges them in camera to produce an HDR image. The 'strength' of the HDR effect has 2 or 3 settings which can also be set in camera. Needs a tripod really. I will confess that I haven't used it much - hardly at all - so can't really say how 'good' the function is as have never really stress tested it. I read on a K-5 preview on the web that, relative to the K-7, the K-5's HDR capture function is apparently 'improved', although the nature of the improvement wasn't specified.

Having said all that, maybe I'll dust off the tripod this weekend and try some in-camera HDRs...

Regards

Great set - think the Jackdaw for me, but they're all expertly spotted and taken

Regards

Thanks all. It probably goes without saying but if anyone is ever in the area, Kew Gardens is well worth a visit.

Regards