Earlier this year I caught a decent deal on a Konica TC-Electra with a 50mm prime and a telephoto zoom lens. The Konica Hexanon 50mm 1:1.4 lens has been a real hoot to use, producing some lovely bokeh under the right conditions and settings. The Vivitar lens hasn’t had as much opportunity to shine, but it too does some really nice work – if the photographer does their part, of course!
Yesterday before the weekly gathering of the church, I took the Canon EOS 6D out to the tiny garden plot in front of the meeting place. One of the older men has been having a wonderful time planting and caring for flowers there, and often there are some good subjects for impromptu photo shoots. Yesterday was one such day.
This first shot was actually in front of our home, as we were getting ready to head out. I don’t recall the f/stop setting and since it’s a manual lens there’s no useful info about it in the EXIF So it’s “f/stop unknown” and so I’ll mark the rest down below as I DID mess around with the setting, but didn’t take notes about specifics on the different pictures.
Some folks like to take pictures of rosebuds, others of the bloom at it’s “best”. Me? I like to take pics of roses at all stages of their development. This bloom that’s “past its prime” is still a lovely reminder of the full beauty it had but recently.
These little stingless bees are fun little insects to watch. They go about their business of pollinating and don’t seem to mind too much the big glass “eye” of the lens peeping in on them. Here is an example of what the Vivitar 70-150 “Close Focusing Auto Zoom” is capable of when set to the close focusing part of its range.
Here’s another angle on the little stingless bee. You can see its pollen carrying apparatus on the hind legs. Someday I need to find one of their hives and record what it looks like, the entrance at least – although the inner workings are even more fascinating. They tend to resemble black cow intestines with the honey and pollen being put up in convoluted bladders instead of in the neat hexagonal cells of the more commonly known honeybee.
The night before these pictures we received a much needed rain shower. The raindrops on the petals reflect the beauty of God’s refreshing showers of blessing, both literal and figurative.
This is another shot taken from the garden in front of our house, once we returned from the weekly gathering of the church. Again, it’s amazing how well this old manual lens performs.
Some of you might start to get the impression that I have “a thing” for roses. And you’d be right. 😀 This shot does get labeled with the f/stop as it’s the last picture taken of this series and that’s where the manual f/stop ring was left. It’s not as crisp as I’d like, but not too bad for manual shooting. I’m looking forward to the arrival of my tripod which should allow me to get better pictures out of such opportunities as these.