Winged predators

The fast buzzing dragonflies fly erratically in the summer heat, darting along the water.
And every so often they come to rest on their favourite patch that they claim their own.


adapted Pentax-110 50mm f2.8 (freelens technique)  1/30sec

Fascinating bright colors make them very attractive although at closer look some might appear a bit menacing. They are predators snatching other bugs mid flight


adapted Jupiter-11 135mm f4  1/1250sec



adapted Jupiter-11 135mm f4  1/1250sec

But what goes around comes around and themselves become meal for others.


adapted Jupiter-11  135mm f4  1/160sec


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Backpacking with light photo equipment

On a recent 3 day off-track backpacking trip I decided to go lighter than usual: skip the tent and take just a tarp, take just the minimal food and leave the "gourmet" at home, and lighten my camera equipment.
I committed to have with me a set of 3 diminutive lenses from the Pentax-110 SLR system adapted to Micro Four Thirds: the set is lighter than one single vintage lens that I carried in the past.
There is however a challenge with those lenses: apart from being manual focus only, there is no iris in the lens to control the aperture but a simple wide-open value of f2.8.
On the longer lenses of 50mm and 70mm in particular I had to be very careful with focusing to get my subjects sharp. The payback was a lighter pack, more angles of view to choose from (from multiple lenses) and ultimately that look that my zoom modern lenses can't give me.


Pentax-110 50mm f2.8  1/1600sec

 My friends Melt and Gill, also keen photographers, had more conventional lenses with them.


Pentax-110 70mm f2.8  1/200sec

And this is what they were photographing


Pentax-110 50mm f2.8  1/2000sec

I came across this empty nest, so beautifully crafted.


Pentax-110 50mm f2.8  1/320sec

I also used the 50mm lens paired with an extension ring of 10mm to get some close ups


Pentax-110 50mm f2.8 + 10mm macro ring  1/500sec

and the 24mm with the extension ring to give me an extreme close up of lichen:


Pentax-110 24mm f2.8 + 10mm extension ring  1/6400sec

Running along on the side, some distance away,  while my friends were hiking, proved more difficult to get a sharp image: I had to magnify my scene in the electronic viewfinder to nail the thin depth of field.


Pentax-110 50mm f2.8  1/4000sec



Pentax-110 50mm f2.8

While rather versatile these lenses are not as universal as my modern auto-focus zooms. The difference that I find is in the look that I get from these lenses that were designed in the 70's for a film camera that was truly miniature. The 110 film however never really did give credit to their sharpness and re-purposing and adapting them to digital cameras unleashes the real full potential.

PS the display of this website however, by interpolating and compressing the original files, also dwarfs the sharpness of the Pentax-110 lenses; full size files are muuuuch sharper..
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Fascination with the web

There are things in nature that are so delicate and incredibly masterly constructed, without any plans.
Perfectly spaced tiny strings of silk at the mercy of the elements, relentlessly reconstructed over and over again as wind and passing animals seem to carelessly ignore.
The art of the spider is grossly unappreciated.


SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4  1/750sec


SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4  1/3000sec


SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4  1/1500sec

Back-lit web

As the fog lifted it left behind a delicate veil of droplets on the spiders webs.


M.Zuiko 40-150mm   f8   1/250sec

Wet spiders

The light mist was still clinging onto the spider webs while the sun was trying to break through the clouds.
I looked across the field behind my tent and I noticed the white glow of the webs scattered in the grass.


M.Zuiko 14-42mmEZ (at 42mm) f5.6 1/160



M.Zuiko 14-42mmEZ (at 42mm) f5.6 1/125



M.Zuiko 9-18mm (at 18mm) f5.6 1/20



M.Zuiko 14-42mmEZ (at 42mm) f5.6 1/250



M.Zuiko 14-42mmEZ (at 42mm) f6.3 1/125


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