My son gave me some Kodak Gold 200 film for Father’s Day so I shot it all straightaway. With a roll in a fresh-from CLA Pentax ME (which I subsequently gave him), with my 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax-M lens attached, I photographed some roadside flowers.
I haven’t photographed many flowers this year. I had a pretty prolific garden at my last house which provided many lovely subjects through the blooming months. My new house doesn’t offer nearly the floral photographic opportunities.
But while carrying this ME around I had occasion to stop along a rural highway and to walk along South Meridian Street in Indianapolis. Both offered me posies to photograph.
I am swooning over the quality of the blurred backgrounds I got with this lens. I need to shoot it more to be sure, but it looks like it very well could be the best of the Pentax 50s (50/1.4, 50/1.7, and 50/2).
Lately I’ve come to appreciate the 35mm focal length for the walking-around photography I do, given how often I want to get a whole building in my frame. Sometimes I just can’t back up enough when a 50 is mounted. But I don’t think my 35 can do close work like this.
It’s a conundrum, which lens to bring along on a walk. But I suppose it’s a first-world problem.
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