I have been doing better and better with the Super Takumar 50/4 Macro with each passing day. Though I don't get to spend much time with it just few minutes a day, I do get at least 2-3 usable images every time I take out the camera. The lens has replaced my Kit lens and is always mounted on the K10D.
Though we ain't sure about the above species, Juhi thinks it is a Blue Tiger.
This is Common Red Eye (Matapa aria) of Hesperiidae family as identified by Juhi. Hesperiidae members are also called skippers for their quick darting habits (wikipedia). There are about 3500 species of them worldwide belonging to 550 genera.
I had never thought a ground skimmer (Diplocodes trivialis) could make me skip a heart beat. But as I looked throught the Pentaprism of the K10D and focused the silky smooth ring of the Super Takumar, I was completely zapped by its beauty. For a moment I couldn't help but stare at it without pressing the shutter. Ground skimmers belong to family Libellulidae which include 1139 species worldwide. For more information on Odonates of peninsular India, lo on to this link http://www.ias.ac.in/initiat/sci_ed/lifescape/odonates.html.
I don't know whether it is the lens, the weather which yielded this magic. None of the 6 people who were there with me cared to notice this beautiful standout. How can soo many people simply don't care to appreciate nature?
This is a Crimson Marsh Hawk male. (Trithemis aurora). This is the first Dragonfly I was able to capture using the SUper Takumar. I was disappointed as almost 2 weeks went past without a single good image of an odonate with the lens. Well the wait yielded warm returns.
When I spotted this plant in Alice Garden, I remembered a quote from a Canon user on an Internet forum. He had said that he would love to buy K10D only to shoot Reds!! I wondered whether K10D was really so fabulous with Red. Yes, it certainly is!
Insects are actually like small kids. Very shy! While kids hide behind their parents, curtains, this one decided to hide under the Golden Duranta leaf. But inquisitive as it was, it couldn't help but keep an eye on me!
I had to actually lay in wet dung to get this image. I have found the perfect photography wear in my rain pants and jacket. I can go anywhere without getting my clothes dirty and this makes my Mom unusually happy(more than my photos make her!).
This leaf isn't eaten to this shape. Clearly God favoured this shape. As the lens is useless for non macro subjects like this big leaf, I got underexposed shot but thanks to RAW and the S/W Raw Therapee that I could adjust the exposure.
I have been obsessed by the colour rendition given by the Super Takumar 50/4 Macro. Its absolutely mind blowing. The adjoining image is not even cropped, only resized and copyrighted. I wouldn't even had considered it worth photographing few weeks ago. Every moment I'm growing up as a photographer and understanding the magic of an SLR.
It is not a Tennis ball..It is a nest of a very small spider which looks alarmingly similar to the Giant Wood Spider. You can actually see the eggs inside. Nephila family members are well known amongst spider lovers for their skillfully constructed beautiful webs.
This spider belongs to genus Telamonia from the Salticidae family a.k.a 'Jumping spider family' was identified by my spiderman friend Sudhikumar A V. There are 5000 species belonging to 500 generas in the family Salticidae which is the largest spider family.
This spider was good enough to give me another chance to capture it. It came out of the Duranta leaf and posed for a brief moment to again disappear behind it.
This image has been spoilt by the harsh light of the onboard flash. I do need a better flash or a better flash position. None-the-less, I could have diffused the light with a butter paper. But your brain doesn't always work at the right time..
