Thanks very much everyone, theses are a selection of about 22 I took. I used a K1 with a 24-70mm, 70-200mm and 15-30mm in that order, the first two with polarisers. Nice idea about a project, Bill, I will keep an eye and return during the year to see what develops.

Woken at 2 am by a massive thunderstorm, lightning firing off like I have never seen. Blearily set up my camera in bulb mode 5 minute exposure and waited eagerly for results. After second go remembered to take the lens cap off. Lightning still going off but moving over the house, third go exposed the street nicely but - no lightning! Sod it, back to bed.

This is a two grand lens folks! Wish it had been here last year. Great for action shots with fast tracking focus, and landscape.

TBH Lennybloke you would probably get more by trading it for another lens in a shop.

Last year the Danish furniture company opened a new factory in Leamington Spa on the site of a former Ford foundry, wedged between a busy road, railway and sprawling retail sheds. The steeply sloping ground was contoured into waves with what looked like bare subsoil, not the usual anodyne easycare ground cover. Since completion it has looked unfinished but this week the landscape exploded into life with wild flowers, primarily poppies, bringing a feast for the eyes in this otherwise boring location, and drawing in butterflies and bees. In my photos I wanted to keep the building referenced.

Sigma do a Pentax fit ring flash - SRS have one for £329.00

Definitely hanging on to mine, then! I have had good results from it and you can change the light output of the two semicircular lights in the ring flash to get a little modelling, rated one of the best. Not enough control though to eliminate reflections on shiny beetles for instance so a twin-light fitting may do better there.

Sometimes I just like to sit outside quietly, watching all the creatures from the almost microscopic insects to birds just busily going about their daily lives. To every single one their own existence is paramount and most are completely oblivious of me or the rest of humanity.

This time last year I had a difficult time and lost interest in most things; however one sunny afternoon I took a break from work and wandered out to the garden where I saw some colourful insects in nice settings. For the first time in a while I grabbed my macro lens and became completely absorbed, and work was forgotten for the rest of the day.

My default preference is a Pentax lens unless one doesn’t cover what I want and it makes sense to get the best you can. I have accumulated several over time and always take advantage of special deals and an ‘as new’ used f2.8 24-70mm from a fellow member. My latest is the f2.8 70-200mm* bought for £700 below list price from Park Cameras. Ditto with accessories like tripods. Unless photography is your business there is no reason not to wait until the right deal comes along.

Weight is an issue with me too, but am wondering if prime lenses are the way to go for real weight-saving whilst preserving image quality. With the K1 I can crop if necessary so a set of fixed focal lengths would not be too much of a compromise, the only gap in FF is around 135mm.

At the end of the day it’s the quality of the image produced that counts, and you will find that Pentax is rated better than Sony and probably others as well resulting in users changing to Pentax as well as the reverse for other reasons. I would rather have one outstanding image than thirty so-so ones. Ricoh have stated that their new lenses are to be better than Sigma Art lenses and equivalent to Zeiss; Pentax has the widest range of APS-C lenses of all manufacturers and go check how many others offer both SR and WR in their lenses, surprisingly few out of their range. So what are you moaning about?