POTW 8-28-2012

<p>I've been away from home and away from home for the past few weeks and am only now getting around to posting some photos. I'm going to cheat and post one that is a little older and more than usual.</p>

<p>My recent travels took me first from Pretoria to Cape Town, where my wife had been attending a conference. From there we travelled up the West Coast of South Africa, into Namaqualand. At this time of year, there is often an eruption of flowers throughout this region. This year is not a good year for flowers, Winter having been dry, with a few spells of very cold weather now, at the beginning of Spring. Nonetheless, we had one beautiful sunny day, at the Postberg section of the West Coast National Park, where the flowers are out.<br>

<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-65wPQhwSS3k/UDoGRduYnII/AAAAAAAAC4o/IoSo-Ysp9_E/s640/20120813-_IGP8819.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="640" /><br>

K20D D-FA 100 2.8 Macro ISO100 1/640 f4</p>

<p>From there, up through Namibia to visit family in Windhoek. I was then left on my own, with the onerous task of driving home, across Botswana, with a week to do it in. The major photographic destination was Kubu Island - a granite hill full of baobabs poking out of Sua Pan - an old sea bed and now a salt pan.<br>

First - a picture taken through the windscreen on Ntwetwe Pan on the way (this is something of a standard picture that a lot of people take. The first time I photographed this scene was from an old Land Rover with the spare wheel on the bonnet):<br>

<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-yxTwrKRZBPk/UDoGROH-e0I/AAAAAAAAC4g/Jj3eXsTUVpk/s700/20120821-DSC01042.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="525" /><br>

And finally, Kubu Island:<br>

<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Se5qQhX6SC4/UDoGRN2BhFI/AAAAAAAAC4k/MtmNaBUshtg/s640/20120821-_IGP9118.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="640" /><br>

K20D Sigma 10-20mm 4.5-5.6 @13mm ISO100, f5.6 1/6s<br>

<img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-JcvvRILeYfI/UDoGS5D_wmI/AAAAAAAAC48/tZ21RIg6SkU/s700/20120822-_IGP9188.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="465" /><br>

K20D Sigma 10-20mm 4.5-5.6 @13mm ISO100, f8 1/20s </p>

 

<p>Nice start, Henk. I especially like the last one. Mine for the week is the last of my raptor shots from the raptor rescue center here in WV. His right wing was injured when he was hit by a car, but he seems to have retained his spirit. Shot with the 55-300mm on my K-5.</p><div></div>

<p>A couple copycat images, saw an image like this and kept an eye out for a place to do it.</p><div></div>

<p>1 Life in a vegan paradise.</p><div></div>

<p>Read an article about photography the milkyway, so I've been trying it. ISO 6400, wish I had a fast wide angle lens so I could use a slower / less noisy ISO, 30 sec exposure.</p><div></div>

<p>2 Life in a vegan paradise.</p><div></div>

<p>And something a little more usual for me, a fungi closeup.</p><div></div>

<p>litte home.</p><div></div>

<p>1</p><div></div>

<p>2</p><div></div>

<p>3</p><div></div>

<p>My first post for about two years I would think. Developed from a roll of HP5+ and shot on my MX with a 50mm 1.7</p>

<p>...</p><div></div>

<p>I wanted to test out my new K-5 under bad low light conditions. I went to the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton. The lighting there is minimal with off-color lamps. I set what I thought would be reasonable aperture and shutter and used the Tav setting. The ISO went to 12800. The results are surprisingly good at this size. Only the default noise reduction in Aperture RAW tuning was used.</p>

<p>A Martin MB-2 from the 1920s.</p><div></div>

<p>A P-40 Warhawk from WW2.</p><div></div>

<p>An early drone. </p><div></div>

<p>Wow, really stellar photos this week--you got us off to a great start, Henk!<br>

Clara's field hockey practices started last week so I went back to bird photography as a pleasant way to pass the time between my to & fro chauffeuring duties (from which I'll be relieved, come November, when she gets her driver's license.)</p>

<p>Juvenile Eastern Bluebird [Tamron Adaptall 360B (300/2.8) + Tamron 1.4x TC]<br>

<img src="http://dadipentak.smugmug.com/Nature/Fauna/i-jJ9WvJX/0/L/IMGP4938c-Uctzv-L.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="600" /> <br>

Eastern Phoebe [sigma 500/4.5 & Sigma 1.4x TC]<br>

<img src="http://dadipentak.smugmug.com/Nature/Fauna/i-tJxcDJh/0/L/IMGP4980c-smu-L.jpg" alt="" width="761" height="600" /></p>

<p>Grooming Green Heron [Tamron Adaptall 360B (300/2.8) + Tamron 1.4x TC]<br>

<img src="http://dadipentak.smugmug.com/Nature/Fauna/i-6q42cKc/0/L/IMGP2457csmu-L.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="600" /></p>

 

<p>Bruce, those high iso shots are fantastic considering they were shot at 12,800! I'm seriously considering moving from my K20d to the K5 now that the K5 successor is in the wings. Have you made any prints from these to see if the noise shows? I've found that prints tend to fare a little better than screen images with my K20d. To me, it's all about the print. Can you see much difference from the K5 in many shots?</p>

<p>George C: Wonderful tonality! My favourite this week.<br>

Lalbagh Gardens, Bangalore. Tamron 28-75/2.8<br>

<a title="Transaction by A n i r b a n, on Flickr" href=" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8433/7864735922_cfe3374b27_z.jpg" alt="Transaction" width="640" height="428" /></a></p>

 

<p>Yeah, George, welcome back! Lovely as always.</p>

<p>Mostly family snaps this week, but here are some mums.</p><div></div>

<p>Here's mine for this week. Just a hodge podge of shooting this week. All were shot with my DL and 18-55 kit lens. I left everything at home and limited myself to this . Except the horse. I shot a roll of film then switched to the DL. The film is not processed yet.</p><div></div>

<p>second</p><div></div>

<p>and last</p><div></div>

<p>Sorry I have been a way a bit. Here are a few shots from the past couple of weeks all shot with the Pentax K-5.<br>

<a title="20120731-untitled shoot-1396.jpg by Jemal Y., on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackfist2k2/7785252294/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8293/7785252294_4a15beeb5b_z.jpg" alt="20120731-untitled shoot-1396.jpg" width="640" height="424" /></a><br>

<strong>Meadow in Yosemite</strong></p>

<p><a title="20120815-untitled shoot-1668.jpg by Jemal Y., on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackfist2k2/7793210444/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7246/7793210444_315ddfb96e_z.jpg" alt="20120815-untitled shoot-1668.jpg" width="640" height="640" /></a><br>

<strong>L Baby on the mic</strong></p>

<p><a title="20120801-untitled shoot-1482.jpg by Jemal Y., on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackfist2k2/7820688482/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8285/7820688482_089184c943_z.jpg" alt="20120801-untitled shoot-1482.jpg" width="424" height="640" /></a><br>

<strong>Meadow Lassen Volcano National Park</strong></p>

<p>Well, I started last week, so I need to keep my string going for submissions <grin>. Here's another shot from Kenya - Masai Mara - of a female lion with all the cubs from the pride. Taken with the K10D and a Tamron 18-250<br>

<img src="http://i.pbase.com/g4/91/251791/2/145685156.q5AJMv5c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="536" /> </p>