Lets see if this work:

These 2 pictures were taken at Nordkapp (Mainland Europe's most northerly point and 700 miles inside the Arctic Circle) at few minutes past midnight looking north.

Both were taken with a K5ii(s) and DA* 16-50 set at 36mm and ISO 80.

The first: 1/80 @ f22



The second: 1/3200 @ f3.5



I cant quite make up my mind if I like the starburst or not. I realise that I could tweak the colours etc. etc but I was trying to capture reality rather than create a work of art.

Any comments most welcome

Ah yes. I have inadvertently deleted the file from Google + but cant seem to see the 'edit post' option to update the links.
Sorry about that.

During a recent road trip to the Arctic Circle we stopped and spent few hours at the SAAB museum in Sweden. Although I wasn't that interested in SAAB cars beforehand I found the place fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed it.

There was combination of natural and artificial light as well as big differences in space around the cars.

I though I would share a few images to see if you think I could have done anything different. All taken with a K5ii(s) and DA* 16-50 using available light only.

The Aero X concept car:

The first two are multi-exposure shots combined in photomatrix. I then sharpened them slightly and added a vigneting effect, in PSE 10, to try and 'lose' the background a bit. Both ISO 800.

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2.



3. Single image ISO 400, 1/50 @ f2.8



4. ISO 800, 1/60 @ 2.8.



5. ISO 800, 1/100 @ f10



6. ISO 400, 1/80 @ f5



7. ISO 1250, 1/60 @ f2.8



8. ISO 800, 1/80 @ f3.2



9. and finally another multi exposure shot combined in photomatrix and finished off in PSE 10



all of these have a slight amount of sharpening and shadow/highlight tweaking with LR4.

I could have stayed here all day trying to get just the right angle with just the right lighting. I found the reflections and cramped space difficult to work with. I would welcome any comments on how to do it better should I ever end up in a similar situation.

These 2 pictures were taken at Nordkapp (Mainland Europe's most northerly point and 700 miles inside the Arctic Circle) at few minutes past midnight looking north.

Both were taken with a K5ii(s) and DA* 16-50 set at 36mm and ISO 80.

The first: 1/80 @ f22



The second: 1/3200 @ f3.5



I cant quite make up my mind if I like the starburst or not. I realise that I could tweak the colours etc. etc but I was trying to capture reality rather than create a work of art.

Any comments most welcome

I used a K5iis + DA* 60-250 with reasonable results although I did find that the focusing was a bit slow. My best results were manually focused and waiting for the vehicles to move into the 'sweet spot'.










a Sigma 150-500 is on my shopping list and, in combination with a my DA* 50-135 for paddock shots, would probably be my ideal combination. I did yearn for a bit more reach at times.

I specifically chose Pentax because of video. I was a confirmed Olympus user but wanted a rugged DSLR that would give me 1080 video capability as well as stills. I travel a lot and didn't want carry two cameras.

Olympus only had one offering, the E5, and the K5ii was lighter, nicer and higher spec'd. So I sold all my Oly kit and jumped ship.

I must confess that I didn't do that much research into the video functions and I am a bit disappointed that the AF doesn't work during video capture. Focus peaking would be useful as well. However I am very happy with my choice.

I have posted this before (apologies but its the only fully finished video I have where I used the Pentax as yet) but on a recent road trip to the Arctic Circle I used a combination of Iphone, GoPro, Kodak Playsport and the K5iis to capture the entire journey, using the most suitable/convenient at the time.

This is a sample:

Journey to the Midnight Sun

The Pentax was used for many of the static (non driving) and panning shots in the towns, waterfalls and of the midnight sun.

Our next journey will be to Iceland and later the Algerian Sahara where the weather/dust sealing will come into its own.

It was always my intention to by the K5iis as my backup camera and add a newer one later. Now that the K3 has been released it would seem that AF does now work on video (I think I read that somewhere) and that Pentax have made the whole video function more accessible and practicable. I cant wait to get one next year. (I just wish I could afford to go for the nice Ltd edition silver one now

Gamka. Thanks for the comments, all very good points except one. The gear lever was in 'Drive'. I think it looks okay in the side shot but doesn't look right in the wide view. It probably would have been better in 'N' as this would have shown more of the jaguar 'J' gate.

I will also be honest and say that it was cleaned and vacuumed out at the local 'Hand Car wash' so I shall blame them for the hoover lines However you are right in that I should have taken the passenger mat out as well.

Your points do go to show just how a shot can be spoilt by details.

Yes I used a total of 3 speedlites.

One on the back seat 'bounced' off the headlining and one under each seat aimed forward.

The underseat ones were on 1/64 power.

The shots were taking in the middle of the afternoon in broad daylight on my driveway.

Thanks for the comments.

Now that I look at it again I agree about the crop on number 2 as it would frame the picture better. My aim with number one was to show the apex of the corner as well as the cars, however now I've cropped it closer it is better, thanks.

Steve, there was a whole car park like this. I hate to think how much money there was parked in there!

Brilliant day, weather was fantastic and the cars were out of this world. All credit to the guys that do this professionally. It is nowhere near as easy as it looks.

Here are 10 out of the many hundreds (I kid you not) that I took.

All C&C welcome

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7. This was just how the sun caught the rear screen. I know this one is a bit weird but I quite liked it.


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