funkag

Witch Hazel flowers mark the end of the botanical year in Western Pennsylvania - a number of trees in the woods behind my house are about done blooming:

Some redbud:

Wide open, my 1960ish Nikkor-S 5.8cm f1.4 is something that needs to be used sparingly - this Greater Fringed Gentian made for a good subject, I think:

It's been awhile - here's a Spiranthes orchid getting pollinated from over the weekend:

I'll start by saying that I have really enjoyed using older lenses (John White modified 28mm f3.5, 5.8cm f1.4, 105mm f2.5, and 135mm f2.8 and a 200mm f4 with a Nikon aperture ring update) on my D610 - I've seen excellent results from all of them. A couple of options, short of modifying the pre-ai lenses (something I admittedly have no problem with - unless they are really early - 9 blades, tick marks, Pat. Pending - does any collectability really trump usability?): 1. You could dig around the web and see if anyone has NOS Ai aperture rings from Nikon for your particular lenses - that would be a reversible fix that would allow them to be used on just about anything 2. You could buy a Canon 5d or Sony A7 for a few hundred dollars and adapt the lenses. Either would give you a full-frame sensor and accurate metering.

A little reminder (uncovered by a very flooded floodplain) that spring isn't too far away for some of us:

For all of you who - like me - haven't seen the freezing point in a week (and likely won't for at least another week), here is Western Fence Lizard from Joshua Tree National Park to make the day feel a little warmer:

Sorry - I should have been more specific - I would like to get the whole lens and shutter assembly out of the camera body to work on it. It is screwed into a retaining ring that has two slots for the spanner (as per this website) , My primary question is how much torque can I get from a spanner (I need to get one) and what kind of liquid may be safe for loosening up the threads a bit? Thanks!!

I picked up a Ciroflex TLR last year and need to remove the taking lens in order to dismantle and clean it (the shutter blades are pretty oily), but I can't get it to budge. Would a typical spanner wrench likely give me enough torque to break through what is likely (based on the condition of the rest of the camera) some rust? Maybe some liquid around the threads is called for? Right now I'm just trying to use two screwdrivers and I'm not getting anywhere. Thanks!

Here's a wheelbug out on our milkweed that had just finished molting when I got home yesterday:

Thanks Edwin - between the breeze and the size of the bug, I was really lucky to have even one shot that ended up in focus...

Tiny green bug on top of a Grass Pink orchid:

Here's an Atlantic Puffin from Machias Seal Island off the coast of Maine:

Box Huckleberry is a plant that spreads from one parent plant via underground rhizomes, eventually (in theory) covering many acres with one, very old plant. The one pictured here is part of a colony that is estimated to be at least 1,200 years old, while the remains of another colony elsewhere in Perry County, PA is thought to be 8,000 - 13,000 years old.

Thanks for the suggestion Bill - I've used rubber hoods in the past but was hoping to find something more solid this time around - I'm going to try a plastic tamron hood from B&H (used for $7) and see how that works out. If that doesn't work, a rubber hood will probably be next on the list. It looks like Pentax made two 58mm hoods for their Super Taks - one for the 85mm f1.8, which would be perfect if it wasn't so expensive, and one for their 135 and 200mm lenses, which I'm afraid may cause vignetting. Rodeo Joe - it looks like Canon has used bayonet lenses for quite a while, at least as far back as the original FD lenses. In the conditions where I shoot, anything that isn't screwed on or protected (bayonet hoods, lens caps) tends to get lost in the woods...

Is the Photos tab the only place I can go to edit photo information (name, location, etc.)? It would be great to be able to edit the info within the galleries so I don't have to go digging through (in my case) over a thousand individual photos that can only be ordered by date uploaded or categories I cannot control (likes, etc.). In the gallery view, the only options I'm seeing for individual pictures are "set gallery cover" and "remove from gallery." If I'm missing something please let me know - if not, is there a way to add "edit photo information" to the gallery view? Thanks!

I like to use metal screw-in hoods with my lenses - they make it easier to use polarizers and are less likely to get broken (in my hands...) than modern plastic bayonet hoods. I have a number of o.e.m. hoods for my Nikon lenses, but I'm having trouble finding a 58mm hood for my modern Tamron macro lens. There are lots of Chinese-made aluminum hoods out there, but the problem I'm running into is that they will only accept a lens cap on the end of the hood instead of inside of the hood where it is protected from getting knocked off. Does anyone have suggestions for any 58mm hoods that might work? I've found one for Pentax's screwmount 85mm f1.8, but it is priced about on par with the lens itself. Tamron also made one for some of its 70-210 lenses, but it is made from plastic and I'd prefer metal. THANKS!!

Is there any way to make the Gallery Photo Sort function easier to use? All it can do is swap two photos - I can't move more than one photo at a time and I can't drop a photo between two photos (the latter is really my priority). Everything got jumbled up in the move to the new site, and trying to fix it all is taking forever because all I can do is move one photo at a time, one place at a time, or it messes up the ordering of everything else. Thanks!

I managed to get a piece of hair on my sensor during a day of shooting and didn't realize it was there until I was back home - most images can either be cropped or pretty easily fixed with a quick dodge over the shadow, but a handful of (mostly) vertical images have proven more of a challenge - dodging leaves enough of a lighter line from the surrounding sky to be noticeable and cloning just makes a mess. Any suggestions for a fix? Thanks!

The bee crashed my picture - I was just trying to shoot the Cut-Leaf Toothwort when I heard a buzz. Photo was taken last week at the Raccoon Creek Wildflower Preserve outside of Pittsburgh - over 700 species of plants have been recorded there.

Joshua Tree National Park:

Harbinger of Spring, which was up about 2-3 weeks earlier than normal in Southwestern PA. The flowering head isn't much bigger than my thumbnail - this photo was taken with my 55mm macro fully racked out and connected to a 36mm extension tube.

Make sure you give the Canadian Parks pass some time to reach you - ours took a little over a month to arrive in the U.S.

I'm not sure how to send emails either - mine is funkag at yahoo dot com

Thanks JDM - the Nikon 28mm tends toward hard vignetting (completely black corners) with a polarizer and/or its dedicated hood. I can get around it with a 52-77 step up ring and a big polarizer, but it makes the lens much less compact. I'm hoping to try one of the other two see if they are better. I like Nikon's early F designs and would like to stick to lenses introduced in the first couple of generations.