This page simply reformats the Flickr public Atom feed for purposes of finding inspiration through random exploration. These images are not being copied or stored in any way by this website, nor are any links to them or any metadata about them. All images are © their owners unless otherwise specified.
This site is a busybee project and is supported by the generosity of viewers like you.
For all lovers of film,
most especially for lovers of PENTAX,
the all-time sensation,
the incredibly innovative
PENTAX 8
Lovingly crafted, it incorporates years of research and tradition,
and, what's more, it's the only PENTAX yet that is
MADE IN GERMANY!!!
PENTAX K-3iii Monochrome
Macro-Takumar 50mm f:4
shop.kusera.de/epages/62607625.mobile/de_DE/;ClassicView=...
looking over towards the river...
Taken at dusk with a Pentax K-3iii Monochrome.
The camera seems to be able to see in the dark. Certainly, it can record things that I cannot discern with my naked eye.
The camera settings and the in-camera processing have resulted in a lovely soft-focus effect from an otherwise sharp lens.
The dynamic range of the sensor is enormous. A tool in the post-processing department of the camera allows for adjustment of the gradation curve, with individual sliders for the shadows, highlights, and mid-tones. It was useful for bringing up the detail in the fence without blowing the highlights.
SMC PENTAX-DA* 1:2.8 16-50mm ED AL [IF] SDM
All processing (including soft-focus effect) done in the camera with pre- and post-processing tools.
P.S. Do zoom in!
A photo from my archives, reprocessed with dodging and burning-in.
Camera: Pentax K-1
Lens: probably Pentax, possibly Takumar ; )
Hand-carved figures by Peter Staffler, Gröden/Vienna
A very happy Christmas and holiday season!
May peace reign!
For Macro Mondays
Theme: Red & Green
Italian wrapping paper design.
(Image 5cm from top to bottom.)
Pentax K-1
SMC Pentax-A 100mm f:2.8 Macro
Happy Christmas & HMM!
Brass fitting of an early 20th century viennese Art Nouveau ("Jugendstil") cabinet for the Macro Mondays "Keyhole" theme.
PENTAX K-1 (2016) - almost a vintage camera in the digital world and certainly a veteran, but second to none for my requirements.
Asahi Optical Company Takumar 55mm f:2.2 (preset ) vintage lens -1957
Asahi Pentax M-42 screw-mount helicoid close-up adapter.
Original Pentax M-42/K-mount adapter
(Image slightly cropped to meet the 3-inch requirement)
HMM!
P.S. That might just be me you can see just at the very top of the ornament. ; )
Jester,
Schallaburg (Schalla Castle), Lower Austria.
This jolly character belongs to a series of figures in terracotta adorning the arcades of an Italian renaissance style palace dating from the 16th century.
Pentax K-1
HD Pentax-FA 35mm f:2 AL
Processed in the camera and in SilkyPix Developer Studio.
HSS!
A few days on the shore of Lake Fuschl (Salzburg Province, Austria) are enough to experience a range of moods and atmospheres - from turquoise tranquility to surging storm. The sunsets can be spectacular...!
HD Pentax 70mm f:2.4 Limited
PENTAX K-1
A dull wet June the first - and a walk in the garden... under the umbrella...
All post-processing done in PENTAX K-1, using the camera's built-in RAW-converter and "digital filters":
colour extraction (red & yellow, whereby the Pentax allows five different degrees of extraction), vignetting (top & bottom, corners), blue toning of the B&W areas, white border, compression.
The 120mm Takumar, one of the last of the screw-mount Takumars and a relatively rare one, has rendered this subject beautifully. (Do view "Large" and zoom in!)
S-M-C Takumar 120mm f:2.8 @ f:5.6
Extension tube No.2
PENTAX K-1
HSS!!!
For Sliders Sunday:
In-camera processing -
RAW-conversion (colour mode, saturation, hue, contrast), then digital filters :- colour replacement and posterisation, repeated alternately.
All processing done exclusively in the camera.
PENTAX K-1
HD Pentax-FA 35mm f:2 AL
Asahi Pentax Close-Up Lens No. 1
HSS!!!
Magnolias are so attractive - and seem to be so photogenic. They appear to say "Spring is really here!" Yet getting a good shot is not as easy as one might think! Their season is so short - if you have a busy week you can miss them altogether. They can be at the peak of perfection - April weather can take a turn and they'll be completely ruined.
So far this year the magnolias in Vienna are putting on a fine display. I found this one in the Emperor's garden at the Royal Imperial Palace of Schönbrunn. The blossom is by no means immaculate - but they hardly ever are, and that's a part of their transient beauty!
The SMC Pentax-DA* 50-135mm zoom at 115mm and wide open at f:2.8 has produced an appropriately soft bokeh background with a sense of "swirl". None too bad for a zoom lens, I think.
- dreaming of a summer afternoon -
SMC Pentax-M 50mm f:1.7 "Soft"
PENTAX K-1
Bokeh effects produced by the lens. Do zoom in!
Feel free to view my album of images from this interesting and unique lens...
Processing for "Sliders Sunday" in SilkyPix Developer Studio Pro 9:
a little brightening, a little HDR, WB, contrast, individual colours, burning-in, dodging, local contrast, cropping...
HSS!
The "Palmenhaus" in the park of Vienna's Versaille, the Royal Imperial Palace of Schönbrunn, seen here through a Super-Multi-Coated Takumar-Zoom 1:4.5/85-210 lens, one of the last lenses in Pentax's screw-mount line-up.
The Palmenhaus is a construction of iron and glass, built in 1882 to house the Emperor's growing collection of tropical and sub-tropical trees and plants. It's still going strong 140 years later!
PENTAX K-1
I find it quite inspiring to put a wide-angle lens on the Pentax K-1 and to shoot Black & White in square format - it's like going back to the golden days of the Rolleiflex!
The camera offers extensive possibilities to alter the parameters not only in colour, but also in monochrome, both before and after pressing the button.
With the exception of slight retouching on a highlight, all processing was done in the camera.
SMC PENTAX-FA 1:2.8 28mm AL
PENTAX K-1
HMT!
Triplet lens (1952)
Pentax K-1
Asahi- Kogaku Takumar 100mm f:3.5
Adapter M-37 to Pentax bayonet
Like the famous Meyer Trioplan, the Asahi-Kogaku Takumar 100mm f:3.5 lens has a triplet design and is capable of producing delightful bubble-bokeh. Originally produced in 1952 as the first accessory lens for the Asahiflex (Japan's first SLR) it has the unusual Asahiflex M-37 screw-mount.
Shot in APSC format, lens wide open, image uncropped.
Pentax in-camera processing.
In a country garden... Zinnia & Marigold
Asahi-Kogaku Takumar 100mm f:3.5
Adapter M-37 to Pentax bayonet
Extension tube
Pentax K-1
Like the famous Meyer Trioplan, the Takumar 100mm f:3.5 has a triplet design. While it lends itself perfectly well to "straight photography", it is also capable of beautiful bubble bokeh, as you can see in my neighbouring images and albums.
SOOC
SMC Pentax-FA 85mm f:2.8 Soft
Soft focus lenses rather belong to a by-gone age... and they are far from easy to use - and to use well. Luckily I have found inspiration and tips from a Flickr photo-friend and am beginning to learn... His user-name is Chetworth delGato and if you are interested in soft-focus, or in large-format sheet-film photography, his site is a God-send!
Here a view of the Vienna Woods from the outskirts of the city. Taken in the Pentax Custom Image mode "muted". Further processed and cropped to square-format in the Pentax K-1 using the built-in RAW-converter and the "digital filters" provided in the camera. Some minor touch-ups in my digital darkroom, SilkyPix Developer Studio Pro 9. Note the low contrast and low colour saturation. Again, an attempt to create a painterly image, perhaps remiscent of the pre-WWI Viennese "Atmospheric Impressionists" ("Stimmungsimpressionisten").
Location: taken from the "Steinhofgründe", the former farm of Vienna's Otto Wagner Spital, once a major psychiatric institute.
captured with a Takumar (Bayonet) 135mm f:2.5 lens.
A lens that receives mixed reviews - some praise it highly, others say it is far too soft wide open. This shot was taken at one click less than wide open, i.e. f:2.8 or 3.5. I bought it many years ago out of curiosity. My first impressions (in the days of film) were good. This is one of my very first shots using it on a digital camera. I'm sure it won't be the last. ;-)
Processed from RAW and cropped to 4:3 with the addition of a slight vignette, all in the PENTAX K-1, then transferred to my smartphone via wi-fi for up-loading.
on the Semmering Alpine Railway, Austria.
[Explore 21-07-2022]
The Semmering Alpine Railway was planned in the 1840s by Carl Ritter von Ghega to complete a direct connection between Vienna and Triest, Austria's one-time harbour on the Adriatic and which now lies in Italy. With its 15 tunnels and 16 viaducts it was built in only 6 years between 1848 and 1854. 20,000 labourers laid 65,000,000 bricks! The viaducts - at the time very daring with their inclinations and curves - are made of brick and stone, without the use of steel. A project that was said to be impossible - it has now been in service for almost 170 years! On account of its beautiful harmony with the landscape, the Semmering Alpine Railway has been granted the status of United Nations World Cultural Heritage.
HD Pentax-DA 21mm f:3.2 Limited
PENTAX K-1
Black & white conversion from RAW in SilkyPix Developer Studio Pro 9, where I was able to influence the tonal range for each colour, including three different greens, which accounts for the very lively representation of the surrounding woods.
Taken on 17-04-2020 with the PENTAX Q and the "Toy lens 04 wide", this view over Vienna looks from Prinz Eugen's Belvedere Palace towards the spire of St Stephan's Cathedral and beyond to the Kahlenberg and Leopold's Berg. From these hills swept down the Polish forces, that raised the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683.
In "normal" times, these gardens would be full of tourists.
PENTAX Q7, Toy Lens 04 wide, 6.3mm, f:7.1
The PENTAX Q "Toy lenses" are tiny manual-focus primes with a fixed aperture. They were rather misunderstood and never caught on. I think that's a pity. If one takes the trouble, they can give beautiful results. They are NOT toys, and are anything but simple to use well. As with any equipment, you have to recognise the possibilities and respect the limitations.
Dolls in traditional rangeman costume from Hungary.