[Leica] A trout painted on a flower... plus 300mm x 2 and: Adieu, for a while.

[passaro.vince at gmail.com (Vince Passaro)]

Hi folks:

Like James I too was busy on Friday but took these today with my BRAND NEW
but very old pre-AI Micro-Nikkor Auto 1:3.5 55mm macro lens. It's my first
real macro lens. Came with an M 1:1 extension tube which I did not use for
these shots. Totally unbeknownst to me until I looked at the images, one of
the flowers has on its right petal an unmistakable depiction of a trout
rising to snatch a fly or some other edible item... a delightful serendipity
of nature, at least to me, as I'm a big trout fan.  Taken at ISO 400 f3.5 at
1/40th and minimally processed.   I'd love feedback on how to better use the
new lens. Old lens. Three images here:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/toast+eatin_+bog+man/20100523/

Second, you might recall an image I showed taken from my window with the
Nikkor 200/4... Well today I was at it again, out the same window, with a
relatively new toy -- an old AI 300mm f4.5 to which I added another newish
toy, the old Nikon TC-1 Teleconverter 2X.  So I was with my little D40 and
this monster of 600mm optical reach. I put one of the pics up next to the
200mm one for comparison's sake. You'll notice the light today was very
different; and so are the lenses, so I don't know how much each factored
into the differences in color. I'm particularly interested in reactions to
the doctored image versus the relatively unaltered one -- the unaltered crop
looks better on the LUG Gallery page than the altered one, methinks.  All
the images are here:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/toast+eatin_+bog+man/Nikon+200mm+f4+and+300mm+4-5/

If you have time to look you have my deep thanks.

Finally, after the next day or two and perhaps with no further comments I
will need to take a couple of months off from the LUG; I am very late with a
novel that's been under contract for a longer time than I care to admit and,
with school finally done, I have promised myself this summer a rigorous
writing schedule.  This whole LUG thing is toooo much fun and tooo
interesting..... so I figure I'll sign off for a while and come back when
school's back and I can escape the dreariness of my colleagues by pestering
you folks again with my long-winded queries and remarks,

You are all fantastic artists, technical wizards, delightful gearheads, and
deeply intelligent people who, as I, don't mind a good argument. From that
combination I've learned a great deal this past 18 months or so and gone
from a completely ignorant beginner up a couple of rungs to the mildly
ignorant level.  I'm most grateful for all you've taught me and all that
you'll likely teach me next year.

Best,

Vince

PS I figured out how to fix my monitor -- it took about three minutes once i
found the function in the video card "control panel",  and I must say that
the Dell people are the dumbest assed tech support folks I've ever
encountered in my life. I tried about six of them too.  Another reason to
own a Mac.  Or at least an HP.