Opportunities to photography can be close, like with these garden roses shot with my old nice preset Takumar 135mm lens. Late one day in sunset I wanted to use the light with the old lens.

Another Anomone Nemorosa (wood anemone), this time photographed with Pentacon 50mm/1.8 on Canon EOS 350D. A lens I use bicycling when I wnat an allround that can be used for closeups. Wood anemones are everywhere now. With some blue spots of Hepatica nobilis.

Flowers is a nice way to test new lenses, in my opinion. At the moment wood anemone (anemone nemorosa) is everywhere where I live. So I have tested the preset, early lens Asahi Takumar 105mm/2.8 on wood anemone, with an extensionring. Oh, and this also illustrates the hazards with photographing flowers – I put my chin on very nasty ants (myrmicinae) who bites ;)

So, finally spring is coming here in my part of Sweden. These flowers (Hepatica nobilis, kdineywort, “blåsippa” in swedish) are fighting their way up. This is the first image I like from the early, preset Asahi Takumar 135mm/3.5 I showed my earlier post. Havent had a chance to test it very much yet, but it looks promising.

Aother ice… thing. Photographed at the lake, below the ice that covered the lake. Done with the lens Helios 44-3 (58mm/2) on Caon EOS 350D.

Today I went on a trip to on of the nearest lakes. The inspiration was not high I have to admit, but some ice stuck on stones at the lakes beach got me interested. Here are a few shot, I got more coming in a few days. The lens was Helios 44-3, the old russian ;)

Just before the snowstorm we have here, I took a day with Tele-Tokina 105mm/2.8 (old, rare, dented lens I got for free when I bought a package). I hiked up near my home, to the lake. A short walk through the village and up the hillside. It is a neat, slender lens. Sometimes I have to struggle to make the best use of it. The dark time of year doesn’t make it easier. But sometimes I succeed… I think…

Wanna see more of this lens? Check out my Flickr-set for Tele-Tokina 105mm/2.8. It looks quit nice doesn’t it?

Rob has written a good post to read, about M42-lenses, on Brian Auers Epic Edit-blog. He uses the same DSLR as me, the Canon EOS 350D (mine is on it’s last breath). Like Rob I have used the Pentacon 29mm/2.8 and think it’s an underrated lens. I sold it some time ago though.

My current M42 lenses, which I like:

• Asahi Super-Takumar 85mm/1.9
• Asahi Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 55mm/1.8
• Asahi Super-Takumar 135mm/3.5
• MC Helios 44-3 58mm/2
• Auto Yashinon-DX 50mm/1.7
• Tele-Tokina 105mm/2.8
• Pentacon Auto 50mm/1.8

Inspired by A lens a week, I use only one lens each day. Last week I took a small hike with the Auto Yashinon-DX 50mm/1.7. I choose to photograph only fallen leafs in different forms. Here are some of my favorites from the day.

I got a newsletter from pentaxforum stating that they now have all pentax lenses ever produced in their database. You might want to check it out :) They are missing photos of a few, so maybe you can help them out.