This photograph was taken on an extraordinarily windy night from the Crosscut Saw looking towards West Peak in the Alpine National Park (Victoria, Australia) late in 2013, just 4 days before a bushfire burnt through the area.
Pentax K-01, DA 15 mm limited, ISO 1600, f/4, 1/60.
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Pentax K-01, Pentax DA* 16 – 50mm, ISO 1600, f/7, 1/15 sec.
This photograph was taken just as the sun was about to come over the horizon during a trip to the Alpine National Park in late March this year. The wind was blowing at over 60 km/h making it incredibly difficult to get a sharp photo. This one was the taken during a brief break in the wind and was the only one that was sharp from a morning of shooting.
I took this photograph of Cope Hut in the Alpine National Park a little over 4 weeks ago just towards the end of dawn.
Pentax K-01, DA* SMC 16 – 50 mm f/2.8, ISO 400, f/14, 1/4 sec.
Earlier this year I purchased a Pentax K-01 as a backup for my Pentax K-7. As the K-01 is a mirrorless camera I initially thought that I would miss the viewfinder, and while I did at first, I have come to really like using the LCD screen and find it much easier to compose a photograph on the LCD rather than with the viewfinder; especially as I wear glasses. Although it was supposed to be a backup camera I am finding lately that I am using it more and more. I find it a joy to use and out of the K7, ME Super, or K-01 the K-01 is the camera that for me at least begs to be used, when you pick it up you want to take photos with it.
Last week I purchased a Pentax DA 21mm F3.2 Limited lens to go with the K-01. This lens is one of Pentax’s ultra-thin pancake lenses and its small size makes it a great match with the K-01.
To try out the new lens I took it and the K-01 down to Aireys Inlet along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria (the ME Super came along too, but I have to get the film developed to see how those photos turned out). The photograph below was taken at Fairhaven beach which in 2008 was rated as one of the best beaches in Victoria.
Pentax K-01, Pentax DA 21mm f/3.2 ltd, ISO 100, f/8, 4 sec.
I am really happy with the DA 21 mm f3.2 limited lens. The images it produces are incredibly sharp with stunning colours. I think this lens could be the start of a collection of limited lenses; time to start saving for the 15 mm one!
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On Friday I went down to Wilsons Promontory National Park, or The Prom as its affectionately known, for a spot of camping. Over 50000 hectares in size The Prom is the southern most tip of mainland Australia, and has been a national park since the late 1890s.
Unfortunately the camping didn’t exactly turned out as I had hoped as it was school holidays (which I forgot about) and it seemed like every body in Melbourne had the same idea; needless to say it was extremely crowded! Nevertheless it was too good an opportunity to let it go to waste, so I headed out to Whiskey Bay to see what the nights sunset had in store.
This first shot was taken while the sun was just above the horizon.
Pentax K7, DA* 16-50 mm f/2.8, ISO 100, f/16, 1 sec.
This second one was taken over 45 minutes later once the sun had gone and it was almost dark.
Pentax K-01, DA 18-55 f/3.5-f/5.6, ISO 400, f/5.6, 30 sec.
While the camping may not have been great, the chance to visit Wilsons Prom and do some photography was too good an opportunity to pass up.
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This year in Melbourne we have had one of our driest and warmest summers in decades, and last Sunday I went down to Chelsea Beach to photograph the sunset.
I have put a couple of the shots from my visit below and the colours in the first one reminded me of the movie poster for the classic 1960’s surfing movie Endless Summer.
These shots have not had their colours changed in Photoshop, I used a 8 stop ND filter when the images were made, and the sunset of the evening did the rest of the work. These shots were taken with a Pentax K-01, which is really starting to grow on me and in many ways it is better than my K7.
This second shot of the pier I found more difficult, but maybe it’s just me, but I found it challenging to symmetrically line up the pier such that the poles were evenly placed at the start of the image while the end of the pier was centred. Anyway after a bit of mucking around I finally got there and came away with this shot.
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Last weekend I picked up a new Pentax camera to serve as a backup to my Pentax K7. The camera I purchased was the mirrorless Pentax K-01. While it has a design that has often polarised people with equal numbers either loving and disliking it. I got one because it has a similar sensor to the highly regarded K5 and gives superb image quality; and as a photographer I am more concerned with the image quality the camera produces rather than how it looks; besides I quite like its design!
To try out the K-01 I headed down to Point Nepean National Park in Victoria, which is the southern most point of entrance to Port Phillip Bay. Point Nepean National Park has a colourful history:
As part of the quarantine station a Cattle jetty was built at Observatory Point in 1879, and while it is no longer complete the remains make an interesting subject to photograph. After a 3 Km walk I arrived at the jetty at 8:30 pm took the shots below with the K-01.
I haven’t used the K-01 very much at the moment but so far I am very impressed with it and am looking forward to taking it out some more.
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