henkc

November 29, 2014

I've never really used any artificial light source, beyond an on camera or built in flash, occasionally bounced off a wall or ceiling. I'm not entirely sure what I would want to light, but it's a skill I'd like to learn. I'm working with two systems - Pentax and I see 2nd hand Pentax flashes in the classifieds and other places from time to time and, as of last week, Fuji X, which I bought as a small 2nd camera and is really impressing me. As I see it, this is an argument for a manual flash and the start of a small strobist kit. Are there any dos and don'ts in this regard?

June 1, 2014

This week's pictures are now 17 years old and, in the sense that lenses make photographs and camera bodies are simply a light proof box with a lens mount and a means to hold the sensor (film in this case) in place, I was using a Pentax lens for these. For me it's a bit of unashamed bragging.

In October 1997, I was working in Ghana and came across an interesting flower, which I was unable to identify, photographed it and buried the slide somewhere with all the others. It resurfaced about 2 years ago so I scanned it. A year ago I was looking at it and, wondering what it was, posted it on a flower forum, looking for an ID. Someone suggested an arum, which didn't help much and nothing happened for another year. On the 2nd of May this year, I got an email from the forum, notifying me of a reply. This month has seen quite a bit more back and forth traffic and suddenly I discover that I have taken pictures which someone finds interesting. The lesson here is that someone, somewhere may be interested in what you do. For the gear-obsessed, these were taken on my least favourite camera body of all time - a Chinon CP9AF - with one of my favourite lenses - a Pentax M 50mm 1.7 - most likely on Agfa RSX100.

This is the letter I got acknowledging that these are being used.

Dear Mr. Coetzee,

What a wonderful collection of images! We have absolutely no images of Lasiomorpha senegalense as clear as these, to say nothing of the development of the inflorescence. To our knowledge, no where in the world does there exist such great images of this particular species. We will be using one of these photographs, with a photo credit to you, for the entry onLasiomorpha senegalense in Tropicos, a program created and run by the Missouri Botanical Garden with the purpose of creating one central database of all the world's plants, to be available to all researchers. Thank you so much for your great contribution! Amy Redfield Missouri Botanical Garden Aroid Team, Digital Image Manager 4344 Shaw Boulevard ST. Louis, MO 63110

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April 27, 2014

Yip. I was thinking the same. Here's a Pentax one (K3 with 70 Limited). Have you ever just stood for hours looking at the sea?

April 27, 2014

Start off with one to go with the weekend. Joan Armatrading, last night at the "Anthems for Democracy" concert.

No Pentax content. Samsung Galaxy Note III.

April 13, 2014

I've just spent the past week in a planning meeting at work, so haven't looked at a camera. I did pick out a few of last week's pictures from Cape Town. All 3 are from an area called Woodstock, which is a bit edgy, but has been home to a mural project by the local art school. All 3 shot with the K3 and FA35 f2.

The last one showed me just how little detail we need to recognise a pattern or a face.

April 13, 2014

For the 35, I find the FA35 f2 a truly excellent lens. It currently lives on my K3. You mentioned the 70 2.4 limited. You won't regret getting this lens.

March 30, 2014

I'm busy really enjoying the K-3. This one handheld.

K3 FA 35 f2 @ ISO3200 1/13 f2

February 3, 2014

No problem translating that Guus. It's an inlaatopskroefwiel :).

February 2, 2014

Feeling good this weekend, if a little tired. After a stressful week at work, we got to see Bruce Springsteen in Johannesburg in the rain last night.

Through the whole week of work-stress and fun, magic has been happening in the vegetable garden. All shot with the K3 and D-FA 100 2.8 Macro.

January 12, 2014

I always get confused with the formatting of dates, but I think I got that one right. For me it would normally be 12/1/2014 or 2014-01-12.

We spent the past week on a farm called Poplar Grove in the Karoo Region of South Africa. This is a large semi-arid area occupying a large part of the interior of the country.

Photographically, this was as much getting to grips with the K-3, as it was an opportunity to photograph one of my favourite parts of the country.

Shot with the 16-45, with moonlight as the only source of light.

Also with the 16-45.

And finally, the poplar grove itself.

December 17, 2013

Hi all

I feel a bit like Doug. There's been a lot going on in my life, which has kept me away from my camera. It's actually worse as the camera in question is a brand new K-3, yet to be used in anger.

Hopefully things will settle down as the summer holidays get underway. I enjoyed a lot of the snow pictures. Now to live through the southern hemisphere contradiction of images of reindeer dashing through the snow while the temperature is in the mid 30s (Celsius, not Fahrenheit).

Henk

October 20, 2013

This one is was taken a few weeks ago, but I've been sitting in meetings ever since and didn't get a chance to post anything. Taken with a K20D and D-FA 100 2.8 Macro in Hlane Game Reserve in Swaziland.

September 1, 2013

Back after a long period of inactivity.

The first two are from a quick trip down to the West Coast National Park (and are actually a week or so old already). This is the time when the spring flowers come out.

No. 3 was yesterday in our garden. I'd saw this just after we'd transplanted a large cycad into a new pot.

All taken with a K20D with a D-FA 100 f2.8 Macro

June 2, 2013

Taking a long weekend at Golden Gate Highlands National Park. Enjoying the early winter with two cold fronts crossing over.

K20D and Sigma 10-20

K20D and Sigma 10-20

K20D and FA35 f2

February 10, 2013

I have the D-FA 100 and love it. It does have a lot of travel, hunts often and does make a lot of noise, but it is a screw drive macro lens. Optically I was never 100% sure of mine until I spent a bit of time calibrating it on my K20D. Since then I have been very happy with the results.

I use it for telephoto landscapes and the occasional macro.

February 10, 2013

I didn't get out much in the past week. The one thing I did get together was B&W conversions on 3 photographs taken in 2007 just outside Hentiesbaai in Namibia. All with a K100D the first 2 with an 18-55, the 3rd with a Tamron 70-300. I remember getting up very early that morning to try and be out between the mist and the heat haze.

January 27, 2013

@Michael. It is a wonderful book. Today I went out to the National Botanical Gardens here in Pretoria with the K20D and one lens. As I was leaving, I took off the FA35 f2 and replaced it with the M50 f1.7. Once I was there, I set the lens wide open and left it there. So now we have one camera, one lens and one aperture. Summer has been with us for a while, so the bright spring colours have given way to luxuriant green, leaving me with one camera, one lens, one aperture and one colour (well almost). Cycad:

Another cycad

Strelitzia

January 14, 2013

I had never seen a fog bow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_bow) before either. I have another picture of one which I've been avoiding because of my shadow on it. Looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_picture_candidates/360_degrees_fogbow This may be unavoidable.

<ul>

<li>Comment: It's a very pretty picture, but I'm not sure I like the shadow on the photographer. Is that unavoidable? <a title="User:J Milburn" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:J_Milburn">J Milburn</a> (<a title="User talk:J Milburn" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:J_Milburn">talk</a>) 11:21, 29 July 2010 (UTC)</li>

</ul>

<dl><dd>You do not like my shadow!!! Come on you did not mean it, did you? ☺☺ Yes, it is absolutely unavoidable in that situation (complete bow), and it is said so in the caption: "The shadow of photographer is always located at the anti-solar point and the center of the bow."</dd></dl></blockquote>

January 14, 2013

I left this one out. I shoot mainly landscapes. The K20D and the K100D before it have served me very well except for very low-light and night shots.

January 13, 2013

Hi all

I may be looking at upgrading from my K20D in the coming few months. This camera has served me well and continues to do so. The one shortcoming I find is working in low light. This leads me to ask what is going to make me happiest. The K5, K5 II, K5 IIs (in order of increasing cost and probably desirability) are the obvious upgrade path, with the K5 IIs probably winning out overall.

The K30 is a bit of an unknown quantity, with my local brick and mortar camera shop having sold only one and having had no real feedback on it.

Next up is a rumour that something new is coming in the 1st half of this year, but there's always going to be a rumour like that. A full-frame mirrorless body would be nice.

The final option is to look at a 2nd hand full frame Canon (5d Mk II) or Nikon (D700) and start putting a minimal collection of primes together - I would happily start with a 28 and a 50. This would start to become very expensive very fast. The advantage of this is that Pentax has a very small footprint in South Africa (although they actually seem to be growing and marketing their kit now) which means that selling off the kit I have would be difficult. Has anyone got experience of how these two bodies compare to the K5 in its various guises?

Any suggestions or advice?

Henk

January 13, 2013

Maybe kick this one off with a few which come from the previous week. I've been taking my summer holiday and haven't been posting much.

The first two were on a farm just outside the town of Dordrecht in the North Eastern Cape.

If I had known that fogbows were quite rare, I would have taken more time on this one.

K20D Sigma 10-20

The same morning, I ended up with grass covered in fine mist droplets with strong backlighting as the sun rose.

K20D 70mm Limited

And finally, the view from the top of Joubert's Pass outside Lady Grey - also in the North Eastern Cape. This was shot in a thunderstorm at an altitude of around 2300m with the sun starting to poke its way through the clouds.

K20D FA35

October 21, 2012

Over the past two weeks I've been involved in an airborne survey which needed sunny weather and clear skies. The past week has involved a lot of waiting for good light, good weather and relatively dry ground. On Friday morning that day arrived, but didn't last for long.

August 26, 2012

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.

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.

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

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.

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):

And finally, Kubu Island:

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

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

August 9, 2012

Justin has hinted at a few things here. Over

the past few years digital photography has

come of age. In the old days of film, camera

bodies were less central to the image-

making process. Then along came digital

and suddenly camera bodies became more

important and upgrades could actually result

in significant improvements in images. APS

sensors meant that familiar focal lengths

changed so we all went out looking for new

lenses, while camera makers launched new

products, all of which needed to be

"designed for digital". In a parallel process,

many of us worked out that the K, M, A, F and

FA lenses still worked much as they always

had. Once the novelty of an old lens still

being as good as it always had been had

worn off, we got back to the business of

making pictures and the "Pentaxness" of it

all became less important, so there was less

to discuss here.

The transition to digital was also a

marketer's dream. Things were changing

and improving by leaps and bounds. This

made the idea of upgrading very easy to sell,

as each new generation of camera actually

did represent an advance over the previous

one. This seems to have slowed a little, with

recent change having been focused more on

video and mirrored developments than on

better sensors, performance and so on. I find

myself asking not if the K5, K30 and

whatever else Pentax comes up with are

better cameras than my K20, which they

quite clearly are, but whether they would

make me produce better work, which is

much more open to debate. I suspect that

DSLR technology has come of age over the

past few years, giving us much less to

discuss on a gear-related forum.

July 22, 2012

This weekend another forum suggested a 50mm wide open with no post-processing assignment for the weekend. I was at home and shot a few pictures around the garden yesterday with the M50 f1.7 wide open on my K20D.

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