As usual, what a beautiful harvest, even with the unusual year past us. Your website remains one of my favourite virtual places to stop by, Greg. All the best for you and yours for 2021 from Germany!
Wow, those shafts of sunlight probing through the magnificent trees are a photographer's feast. It's not the first time you have posted images of this sort, I seem to recall, but just as if encountering those scenes once more in the field (which I never have), I find it hard to take my eyes away from them. How many hours do have to drive to reach those enchanted forests? Mental note to myself: Do more woodland photography.
Interesting detail. Your sharing of it is sure appreciated. Wasn't sure how close you got to those cuties at your feeder. Did you prefocus your DA*300 and then use back-button AF-C to keep up with the birds? I imagine one of the good things about the hummingbirds is that they stand relatively still in the air at least for a moment, before flitting to a slightly different position? But I reckon there will be quite a few misses before you can harvest such a number of keepers.
Another reminder of the unapologetic fun that can be had with our inexpensive DA10-17 (?). There is something about the built-in curves of boats and the lines of jetties and bridges that just invites - and indeed rewards - exploring with a fisheye lens.
These are stunningly beautiful hummingbird shots, Greg. Did you use highspeed-synced flash on them? And sure a capable lens that gave you generous contrast and resolution. My (possibly wide-off-the-mark) guess would be the 100 mil Macro WR. But, really, who cares when the images look that great. And you managed to capture an intriguing variety of wing positions too.
Wow, the roguish power of that river and the cool water spray that must have been in the air is almost tangible, Greg. And how beautifully-fresh those greens are rendered. Great stuff.
Winter Wonderland à la Crater Lake - what a transformation! That morning out there after the blizzard must have been breathtaking. Think the nicely layered two shots with the snow-covered fallen trees in the foreground have the greatest impact (on me), but you've really got quite a few keepers to pick from. Beautiful series, Greg.
Beautiful series, Greg. Love, among other things, the way you accentuate depth by combining crystal-clear foreground interest plus fog-blurred and -muted objects in the distance. Fog, the old image maker.
Some seriously beautiful landscape shots in that series, Greg. Ample proof of what a little fog can do to completely transform a scene and how this can be used for great atmospheric photography. Hard to pick a favourite, but I'd probably go for Image #3. Would make an excellent fine art print, I bet.
Another elegant and balanced real-world review of a beautifully capable lens, Greg.
One thing that I have noticed about the smc version of this lens is that peak sharpness seems to be reached in the F4 to F5.6 range, perhaps due to a fairly early onset of diffraction. In that range, perceived centre sharpness is basically as good as I get from any of my Pentax lenses, including the razor-sharp DA50.
Subjectively, however, the DA35 Macro Limited may beat the DA50 with a tad more nuanced colour rendition. But we are talking about two really satisfying performers here.
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