Thanks for that. I do have a (Sigma) ring flash but, since buying it second-hand a few years back, it has seen little use. On the basis of the evidence seen here, however, it is long overdue for a proper try-out

Grass dart as in Ocybadistes walkeri sothis, of the skipper family?

Exceptional sharpness, clarity and DOF with wonderful pink hues in the flowers. Captured with the judicious use of flash, I'm guessing. What lens did you use?

Some recent, and not so recent, examples of old glass (or crystal, in the case of the Lalique pieces) captured by old glass (SMC Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4)

The Lalique 'Roitlelet' (wren) place card holder (circa 1980) and 'Chouette' (owl) paperweight (circa 1960s; possibly earlier) were photographed handheld (Pentax K3) with illumination from below against a black background in a moment of boredom.







The collection of old glass was an exhibit at the 2015 Fresh Air Sculpture Show, a biennial event held in the grounds of The Old Rectory, The Old Rectory, Quenington, Gloucestershire. The first image was captured handheld at f/1.8 with the point of focus being towards the rear of the exhibit, whereas the second was captured at f/2 with the point of focus towards the front.




On returning home and viewing on the PC, my preference was for the first, however, to my chagrin, the OOF highlights in the background were blown, even in the original RAW file, and hence the images were archived and forgotten about until a couple of days ago, when I was having a self-isolation induced sort out. Viewing both images again, and despite them being photographed from slightly different angles, it suddenly occurred to me that I could make a composite image in which the correctly exposed OOF from the second image were overlayed and aligned on the blown highlights from the first. The outcome (best appreciated large) was, to my eye, at least, a pleasant surprise:




Feel free to comment on any, or all, of the above.

Jon

1,2, 9 and, for entirely different reasons 10 do it for me

+1

What I find staggering is the colour rendition and contrast in a lens which, I presume, has minimal, if any coatings

The shot of the chrysanthemum is a belter, technically and artistically. Doff my hat to you, sir

Blackbird for me - crisp, nicely exposed, rich colours and, even at the size uploaded, fabulous detail in the feathers

1-5 are beautifully captured and appealingly presented.

Number 6 leaves me cold for the simple reason that grey squirrels are such pests, but the sharpness, colours and framing/cropping are excellent. For my tastes, the background graininess is a little excessive and distracting and, were it mine to play with, I would have used the selection tool or a layer mask to isolate the the squirrel and tree and then applied additional NR to the background.

Number 7 as 1-5 save for the blow highlights in the wing feathers.

If I had to pick two to live with it would be 3 and 5 and if only one it would be 5.

Tx for sharing

We are in the midst of a viral pandemic and it is callous in the extreme to invite us at this time to imagine a dystopian future in which one is limited to the use of a single lens

I'm no Luddite when it comes to photography and value the many advantages of modern AF lenses, of which I have my fair (?) share. There remains apart of me, however, that loves the discipline and challenge imposed by the use of old, manual-focus lenses. To whit, my recently acquired SMC Pentax-A 400mm f/5.6, which I matched with A K3 body for a quick visit to our local community woodland this afternoon. Notwithstanding the evident CA visible in some of these direct from camera JPEGs (save for cropping, a little noise reduction and resizing for upload), which is easily removed (especially in the corresponding RAW file) if it's presence offends, the following images demonstrate, IMHO, that old Pentax glass can still cut it.
















Jon