Shooting Spring Subjects With Pentax Kit

                                                                         Image by Emma Kay 

Spring is well and truly in full swing now and there are many subjects that you will be able to head out and shoot with your Pentax kit. Here, we round up some of the top spring shooting opportunities and the Pentax kit you'll need to get the best out of the subject. 

Baby animals - At this time of year the fields will be filled with lambs and the rivers and canals with ducklings and goslings. Mothers of these cute creatures can be protective so it might be best to pack a telephoto reach lens, such as the HD Pentax DA 55-300mm. This will enable you to get close up images of these small animals without invading their personal space and agitating the mothers. Crouching down low will result in a better angled image, and use a relatively fast shutter speed to avoid the animals blurring if they suddenly move. 

Flowers - For flower photography, whether indoors or outdoors, a macro lens will be ideal, such as the Pentax DA 35mm f/2.8. A tripod will be necessary to steady the shot while you position everything, especially as you'll be working at quite low angles. Try getting a different angle on the flower from the norm, for example shoot from underneath the flower or only shoot part of it for a more abstract shot. Manual focus will be ideal here so the part of the flower you want to focus on is definitely crisp. 

Lush landscapes - In the spring, flowers bloom, new shoots and buds appear everywhere and this makes it an ideal time to capture fresh and vibrant landscapes. To capture the vastness of the green forests and fields, a relatively wide reaching lens will be ideal, like the new 1DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 SDM. This will allow you to capture the landscape in all its beauty, as well as giving room for a little zooming to crop out any unwanted objects to the sides of the shot. If you have anything in the foreground of your image, make sure it isn't distorted by the wideness of the lens. 

Streams and rivers - Streams, rivers and even local ponds and lakes can be ideal for a photography trip in the spring as they'll be teeming with amphibious wildlife such as frogs and toads as well as the ducklings mentioned earlier. Pack your polarising filter and a tripod if you want to capture smooth running water. The polariser will also make the scenery around the water more vibrant. If you're shooting where there's a bright sky in the shot, make sure you expose for the waterfall to avoid it looking too dark. It might be worth taking two shots, one exposing for the sky and one exposing for the land, and combining them in post production. A lens such as the 20-40mm f/2.8-4 will be ideal here for closer, and wider ranging shots.