Looking at those photos of bluebells I posted yesterday, I resolve to try to photograph bluebells in the evening, if I am photographing any more of them.  Those look ten times more blue and impressive than the ones I photographed in the sunny morning, and all the shadows have a wonderful blue tone to them, even though the camera was using the same colour balance settings.  I think those particular flowers were specially blue ones, but even so, the lighting is just better.

I am kind of pleased with my photos of bees.   They aren't close to publication standard, but there's a fair level of detail visible, for photos of insects on the move taken in passing as I went up to the compost heap.   I took them with my Nex3, which is starting to nudge into the 'older camera' category, and a 50mm Pentax-M lens that is positively venerable, having been manufactured in the pre-digital 80's for some long-vanished SLR, and crudely married to the Nex3 with a cunning converter ring thing.

I continue to be a bit in love with my manual-focus lenses - I have a selection of ancient Pentax PK-compatible fit lenses, that attach to my Sony Nex3 with a converter ring.

 I really like that you can so easily tell the camera *exactly* what you want in focus - no attempting to persuade an autofocus that thinks it should get a say in the composition what to include, just precise adjustment via the focus ring - and shoot.  My father in law was around here the other day with his new superzoom camera (Panasonic) which is undeniably an awesome bit of kit - amazingly light, and with a built-in lens that you could use to take photos through the window of a house on the other side of a large field - but as soon as I was allowed to play with it, I started to get a little frustrated with the autofocus mechanism.  Next time I buy a camera, I think I probably want one with manual focus at least as an option.