Somehow not fond of the first one but that second one is really good.

Prieni

To be fair, it's not only the lens, the light was very favourable, too. And maybe the guy behind the camera has contributed a teeny weeny bit as well

Prieni

That is one scary lens...

Excellent shots that serve well to demonstrate the quality of that lens.

I'm not so fond of #3 somehow. Maybe that has to do with the fact that every early morning over the last few days I had a similar picture next to one of the bedroom windows... with full sound effects, of course
Well, it will all be over come July and the chicks are gone

That extra pic you posted is fantastic! Makes me really want this lens...

Prieni

i-berg has shown the direction, I would go a little bit back on the path. Colourwise the tweaked version looks much better (to me), but I think the contrast is overdone a bit.

Prieni

Paul, can we call you Andy?

You did a good job here! On the first one I had the impression that there is an eye looking out in the middle (must be the single big drop surviving the posterization looking like a light reflected off an eye).

Prieni

Difficult to decide between the two, both great shots. Must have been a very good day for taking photos.
Both are nice composition wise, with a slight edge for #2, I like the 'track' leading into the landscape. The sunburst in #1 has something going for it as well. And the tree in #1 is also a good sight.

I cannot make my mind up which I prefer.

Prieni

This does demonstrate that the fishy has it's place in landscape photography. Not the first lens you would think of when hearing landscape but sometimes it's able to create wonderful pics. As you have shown here!

I also prefer the first one, both are nice, though!

Prieni

I think the chimney should stay in line with the tree trunk. Agree about the darkened sky and I think you should put the verticals in the fence straight.

Steven, I do see a story here: The wood of the fence as well as the wood of the tree might go through the chimney one day and end up in the sky

Joking aside, I think it works well and I for one do like the composition. Yes, it would have been slightly better to turn a little more to the right, but I think it doesn't need the thirds here. In the vertical the sky could loose a bit.

So I would stick with the composition (apart from the sky) and go for i-berg's other PP.

Prieni

Stefan,

interesting discrepancy. I used a Firefox plug-in (FxIF) for reading the EXIF. No idea which one is correct.

Prieni

EXIF says:
Camera Maker: PENTAX
Camera Model: PENTAX K-x
Image Date: 2010:02:19 18:03:56
Focal Length: 35.0mm (35mm equivalent: 52mm)
Aperture: f/4.5
Exposure Time: 0.077 s (1/13)
ISO equiv: 1600
Exposure Bias: none
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB