No one said photography was easy. ;-)

Yes, picking a suitable angle where your reflection doesn't show or is
obscured or otherwise diminished is good.  But for those really close up,
detail shots of those chrome parts, where you're definitely going to
show, have you ever thought of carrying a portable lighting tent to cover
the part? It wouldn't have to be all that much -- a moderate piece of
parachute nylon with small hole just big enough to poke your lens through
would do. Drape it over the part and shoot.

Now, to the slowness of your computer and how to speed up things.
I'm assuming you're using Photoshop, the resource hog of image
processors.  First, shutdown all other apps, except PS.  Go into
Preferences and turn off all Undo buffers, except one.  This will free up
lots of RAM.  I think the default number of buffers is 10 and each one
allocates as much RAM as the size of your image.  Besides, you only NEED
one Undo buffer anyway.  Max out the RAM on your computer.  If this
doesn't speed things up much, then you'll have to get a faster machine.
If you're using Windows XP, consider dropping back to Windows 2000.  W2k
requires a lot less resources.  Of course, you could always convert to
Linux. ;-)  If you're using a Mac and OSX, then you already are using
Linux, sort of.  FreeBSD, actually, another Unix clone.

Another thing you might consider is using a more efficient image
processing app that needs less RAM to run.  Take a look at The GIMP
(www.gimp.org). This was originally written for Linux, but they've ported
it to Windows and Mac's OSX. Yes, it's not PS, but it will do what you
need it to do, and it will do it faster using less resources.  Plus, it's
FREE! Just download it, install and run.

Here's a little trick to speed up image processing:  let's say you're
retouching a 400x600 pixel portion of a 2000x3000 pixel image; "cut" that
400x600 portion out of the original and open it in it's own window as a
separate image.  Close the original image, so it doesn't take up RAM.
Retouch this small image, and when completed, paste it back.

Good shooting...

Stefan

Sure enough. Nothing on the web site, but Ebay has two listed, one with
a Buy It Now of $675 and the other with an opening bid, NR, of $500.

If checks arrive as promised, #2 looks like something to check out.
28mm f3.5.

Thanks.

You might have to get an adapter and use another brand? Since most don't
have any sort of auto stopdown anyway, it's not a big deal.

OK. What popped all this back into my mind was shooting a 1930 Ford
Phaeton (a national first class winner and nearly unbelievable
restoration). The radiator cap is round, with what I think is either a
grouse or a duck attached to it by wingtips. I got off at a bunch of
angles, and still showed up, mostly in the round base of the cap.

Next time with this kind of situation, I'm thinking of going to
continuous shooting, Moving a ladder out of the line of sight and put a
monopod on the Pentax, along with a cobbled up long release. Climb the
ladder, move the camera down, and blow away a one gig card or at least
until I get what I need. This time, I remember to cart the laptop
along. Shoot a dozen or so and check, etc. Until the process is over.