I am sorry Peter you will never have any credibility as a YouTube photographer unless you wear a baseball cap backwards. Indoors. At night!

Cannot top the UFO story but like Chrism8 I was earbashed for taking a camera to Padstow - we’re just here for shops and a cream tea what do you want that for? - on a day when there was a storm out at sea. Sheltering in the harbour standing right next to the promenade was a male shag seemingly oblivious to the people snapping it with phones. It was so close you could see every feather and his quiff. Needless to say by the time a got back with my camera it had gone. Never mind, she says, I have it on my phone; oh yes, blurred and crooked in her usual style.

We all have at least one of these don’t we? Those missed moments when we should have had a camera or too brief a time to have captured something anyway. I have several but the one that stands out is sitting in a static traffic queue on the M6 somewhere in the dismal industrial landscape of north Birmingham on an overcast wet winter day, contemplating the ruin our species has managed to impose on the planet, when suddenly overhead appeared a flock of swans in v-formation. The contrast between the surroundings and their wild untamed beauty was so poignant it spoke volumes. Never mind, the moment passed so quickly but it is imprinted on my memory for ever.

So, what are your missed moments?

Impressive preparation and results.

These images don’t really do the lens justice, on the original of the ferry shot for instance I can zoom into the notice on the boat and read the lettering. My erroneous typing wrongly gave the f-stop as 2 but the full description is smc Pentax D-FA Macro 50mm f 2.8, the same lineage as the one Davidwozhere describes.

A walk around with my new 50mm f2 macro lens on the K1, just trying it out as a general purpose prime. It is relatively inexpensive, light and with a 49mm filter thread takes the same filters as the 100mm macro and others. For macro though you need to get very close indeed so no use for (live) insects and it is difficult to keep your shadow out of the shot, but you have the great depth of field when needed. I confess to being blown away with its sharpness and here are a few snaps of Cornwall.

And a new paintbrush and roller! Have you not been handed to to-do list yet?

The difficulty I find is there is no one system that fits all; I first bought an inexpensive set of Cokin rectangular 87mm filters but after getting the 15-30mm lens I got the Lee SW150 system on the basis it would fit my other larger lenses as well. The problem apart from the cost is the amount of storage space it needs, and this is compounded by the adapters for different lens sizes. The 100mm system would probably be much more accommodating and suit everything except the 15-30mm.

I have recently bought 35mm and 50mm prime lenses with 49mm threads so the SW150mm system is ludicrously oversized for them so have resurrected the Cokin set and added a 10 stop screw on filter (not the variable type). There is a lot of hype around about the quality of filters and a Thomas Heaton vlog recently dismissed the Cokins but honestly I find it hard to tell any difference. But I digress. Variable ND’s? I have read of issues with them but others swear by them, but honestly how much variation do you need? A 3-stop and a 10-stop will suffice, and you can fit your standard polariser on as well so screw in filters take almost no space and are a cheaper option overall. The difficulty comes when you need a variable ND set but many times when I should have used these I sort everything out in Lightroom instead.

PS I gather that the latest LR version will let you control just the bright areas so eliminating the problem of a horizontal change point on a hilly horizon. I am all for getting everything right in camera but am beginning to wonder whether variable NDs are becoming redundant.

That's absolutely ace

The thread was a response to the recent announcement from a Ricoh executive that Pentax wouldn’t introduce a mirrorless body and the rather interesting point that they expect photographers will return to DSLRs. Plus as you say the spread over a wide field of formats.