A little color for the drab winter

[brewmaster15]

Had a chance a few weeks ago to go to a really cool green house, called Logees. Its always a pleasure walking around the place in the winter.. We make pilgrimages there regularly. Even ran into a SimplyDiscus member there ( Hi David and Celeste!)

The lanes between plants are so tight, forget a tripod... next time I bring my monopod. I took a bunch of Pictures, but of them all, I really like these. Theres no camera data as the lens is manual. They were taken with legacy glass... an old metal work of art, 90 mm f 2.8 macro lens. Manual and M42 mount by vivitar (actually komine) Goes back to the 70s, so we are at 45 plus years old and still a real performer!. The cameras is a 14.6 mp pentax k20D.
Hand held macro is always a challenge but when the lens is rock solid and fast and the camera has in camera shake reduction it sure helps!


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Post processing was done with Darktable and Gimp.

[Second Hand Pat]

Those are absolutely gorgeous Al. Very, very nice. Really hard to beat a nice hibiscus.
Pat

[brewmaster15]

Thanks Pat, Hibiscus are a favorite of mine... This variety just screamed "look at me!!"

al

[Second Hand Pat]

Thanks Pat, Hibiscus are a favorite of mine... This variety just screamed "look at me!!"

al

They are a favorite for me too Al and definitely an old-time Florida flower.
Pat

[nc0gnet0]

Nice Al! We bring our Hibiscus in for the winter, and the suckers are still blooming inside......

[brewmaster15]

Nice Al! We bring our Hibiscus in for the winter, and the suckers are still blooming inside......

Thanks Rick! I need to do the same next year!

Al

[rickztahone]

Beautiful pictures Al. I especially like the second one. That bokeh is very smooth. Love legacy glass

[brewmaster15]

Thanks Ricardo,
Old Vivitar lens run the gamet from mediocre to excellent depending on who vivitar contracted to make them.You can tell by the serial number who that was. Some of the better ones were Kiron(Kino)starts with 22, Komine starts with 28, and tokina starts with 37. Kino and komine really made some very good glass back then. These lens can still be found and are incredible buys compared to modern lens if you dont mind manual focus. I always manually focus macros anyway due to the narrow depth of field.

Al

[rickztahone]

Thanks Ricardo,
Old Vivitar lens run the gamet from mediocre to excellent depending on who vivitar contracted to make them.You can tell by the serial number who that was. Some of the better ones were Kiron(Kino)starts with 22, Komine starts with 28, and tokina starts with 37. Kino and komine really made some very good glass back then. These lens can still be found and are incredible buys compared to modern lens if you dont mind manual focus. I always manually focus macros anyway due to the narrow depth of field.

Al

Same here. I have a Tam90 that will really hunt and has a long throw even though it can be limited on AF mode. So, it is always in manual as well. This lens doubles as a great portrait lens.

[SMB2]

Yup, I like the second one. Beautiful bokeh with that lens.
Time for me to head up to Pa., Longwood Gardens, to get some flower shots. It does shake the winter off a bit.

Great shots Al.

[dpt8]

Hey Al. Was great to see you there PLUS you took a pic of my favorite hibiscus also, named THE PATH :0)