Have you even had to re-learn something that had become automatic? After 11 years with my K-5, I KNEW that camera, what it could do with which lens, I could change settings without looking, man I knew that thing. Then with my dry spell due to many causes including: helping my mom after dad died, then COVID where I was working as a PT in Intensive Care (more about that some other time) then selling a home, moving in with mom for 6 months, then buying a new home, then mom dying... After all that, getting back into the flow was doable, but the muscle memory was rusty... and the desire was spotty. I take pictures for me and to spark joy in my heart, it is nice when others like them too, but I do it for me. I tried making money off photography for awhile, the business part just sucked the joy out of it so, I quit doing it. Honestly, that was part of the dry spell too.

Anyhoo, I was a little rusty but was master of my tools. Choosing the journey into my new camera turned out to be daunting, moreso than I had anticipated. Pentax is Pentax, they don't make wholesale changes and there is a fair amount of similarity, but they added a couple new buttons and dials that changed how I controlled some of my most crucial functions. I shoot in aperture priority most of the time, just the way I think, wanting to control how much is in focus and what is in focus more than worrying about shutter speed. Letting the IBIS help me out when the shutter speeds get slow. (In Body Image Stabilization, where the camera senses movement and moves the sensor to compensate, allowing you to shoot at lower shutter speeds than you could hold still for with film) That setting still runs exactly the same, thank heavens. Manual Mode the rest, though the K1 has a cool feature where in Bulb mode, instead of having to hold a remote button release for the duration of how long you want the shutter open you can program up to 20 minutes for your length of exposure. That I love, but it took time getting used to it. The thing that messed me up the most, though, was the extra dial on the top where I can select certain functions and then have a dedicated dial to adjust that function. For example, on my K5 I had to push the compensation button and use the back dial to change the compensation. On the K1 I can keep the dial set for +/- and the dial right above the back dial will adjust compensation. So much easier, and I used it a ton in cathedrals and other challenging environments in Scotland and England, chimp the shot and adjust, repeat as necessary. The hardest part though was just all the settings/dials were just slightly different and the change in muscle memory was painful.

I kept at it, getting more comfortable while keeping it simple. As the seasons changed and fall started to get into swing I began to plan trips to usual haunts to re-discover the joy of photography AND work on the technical bits. A few photos that really felt right were taken and I began to really appreciate the colors and sharpness that my new camera could produce.

Cascade Springs provided some good opportunities to stretch, the waterfall photo was 1/4s exposure at f18 handheld, and was acceptably sharp for the settings and learning curve. You can see the gallery here: 

A few days later I solo'd the Nebo Loop, I was finding that I needed to use smaller apertures than I was used to for the depth of field I wanted, Full Frame does that, compared with APS-C, wider field of view and decreased apparent depth of field due to the nature of the optical physics. As I started to have this be more intuitive, or automatic, I started to get the shot I was looking for. 

I have just started to work on Black and White conversions of files, the files from the K1 can look VERY good in monochrome, but they seem to take more work than I remember with my K5. Nevertheless, I shall master it at some point I think.

So finally the bottom line? Experience breeds confidence which leads to less thinking and more existing in the moment, which leads to better photos as the camera & lens combo does what you want it to do. Sometimes you have to take a bunch of mediocre shots to learn how to make the good shot.

Thanks for reading, please leave me comments, I'm sure I have said both smart and dumb things in this post.