273: Perched Aloft

"It's just a pigeon..."
Not great, but not bad for an equivalent 1600mm lens hand held.

Settings: f/16, 1/250, ISO 400, EOS D30, Tamron SP 500mm adaptall, 2x teleconverter.

272: Cross the Street

Settings: f/2.8, 1/25, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm, 4x Starburst filter.

271: Jellies

Settings: f/8 (approx), 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44-2 M42, 43mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, tripod.

270: Patterns On Glass

Settings: f/4, 1.3s, ISO 100, P-FA 50mm.

269: Roundabout

Another blob shot. Previously a 58mm f/2, this time it's the turn of 50mm f/1.4. Very big discs, almost too large; would probably look better on a full-frame 135 sensor, although there would be more peripheral distortions.
Noticing the small hair-like dust mark on the right of centre makes me wonder how there is a slight double image - I had no filter attached to the lens. Strangely, the marks shift in different images, so I presume it's something on the front lens element.

Settings: f/1.4, 1/10, ISO 200, P-FA 50mm.

268: Skin, Scored

Settings: f/16, 1/4, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44-2 M42, 19mm extension, 1/4 flash, black velvet, tripod. Cropped square.

267: Yellow Lines

I'm used to a fixed focal length lens, but a fixed focus lens is something I'm just not used to using with an SLR. It takes me back to the days of little plastic 110 and 135 compacts, except with a better viewfinder for starters.

Like the last time, I used electrical tape to fix a lens to the camera... Bad practice! Don't do this at home unless you expect things to fall out now and again.
I really need one of those double threaded M42-M39 step-down rings. Much better than tape.

Settings: f/4.5, 1/320, ISO 100, 50mm Paterson 1:4.5 M39, M42-PK adapter.

266: Tea Bubbles

I attached an enlarger lens to the camera with electrical tape to get this shot! Sharpness slightly better than I thought, but not amazing. The composition and foam could have turned out a bit better, but it's an interesting test nonetheless. It was quite difficult to focus the lens, as it only had an aperture ring and I had to move the camera to focus; plus it was f/4.5 wide open, so not a great VF image.

Settings: f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Paterson 1:4.5 M39, 8mm M42 extension tube, 1.4 flash, black velvet, foil reflector, tripod.

265: Night Street Discs

Nice images can be taken with a fast lens wide open and focused to the minimum distance.
The old EOS D30 definitely has some dynamic range issues: Highlights blow quite easily, even in RAW. I had to convert the CRW files to DNG using the Adobe DNG converter, otherwise RT wouldn't read the colour settings correctly (totally skewing the white balance, and giving a purplish tint to blown highlights which is near impossible to recover in post-processing.)

Settings: f/2, 1/20, ISO 400, EOS D30, 58mm Helios-44M M42. DNG RAW.

264: Golden Sequins

Settings: f/2, 1/160, ISO 200, 58mm Helios-44-M M42, 17mm extension, fluorescent lamp & LED light, tripod. Slight colour adjustment.

263: Blackberry Muddle

Settings: f/5.6, 1/25, ISO 200, 135mm Soligor M42 1:2.8.

262: Polar Appendages

North-West meets South-East...
Both fleshy, bony masses shaped by ages of evolution, both specialised in their own unique ways.
Feet are pretty rubbish at holding objects, but at least the tight fit of fingers between toes here allows for the loose illusion of a mutual grip. Knuckles look ready to crack.

Settings: f/2, 1/50, ISO 200, 58mm Helios-44-2 M42, fluorescent lamp. Curves & colour adjustment; slight sharpening, noise reduction & cropping.

261: Ripening Tomatoes

The traffic lights are all on at once here, but they're very slow to change. And they get eaten; those two red examples were picked later in the day.

Settings: f/3 (approx,) 1/200, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44-2 M42. Some curves and colour adjustment, slight sharpen and crop.

260: Coil With Beads

Settings: f/4, 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44M M42, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, black velvet, tripod.

259: Flash Boil

I have to take some more of these; the small series I shot today seemed like a good start, but just not close enough to capture the finer boiling details.
One thing I didn't anticipate was how many tiny droplets would be captured in mid-air over the iron plate - they look quite magical just suspended, while the water still on the plate is frozen, but clearly shimmering and dancing in a state of mid-eruption.

Settings: f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 9mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, tripod. Luminance curve adjustment, sharpening, cropped to 5:4.

258: Moonglow

...Made A Halo of Your Chimney.

One of those rare situations that I use my infinity-focus M42 adapter. I knew I'd be postprocessing this image quite a bit, as I was certain the camera's JPEG wouldn't look quite as I wanted (even though it was quite faithful.)

Settings: f/5.6, 6s, ISO 200, 135mm Soligor 1:2.8 M42, tripod. No sharpening, noise reduction, luminance curves, rotation, saturation reduction, slight crop; 2 dust spots removed.

257: Sloppy Ink Caps

Coprinus comatus in its squishy phase, captured after prolonged rainfall today.
I intended to take sime photos of these yesterday (when they were all much fresher,) but I didn't have my camera on me.
Lesson 1: Ink caps are very short-lived.
Lesson 2: Might want the camera? Then take it!!
I took some decent shots today, anyway; even if I had to wait until the early evening.

Settings: f/4, 1/100, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm.

256: Stars & Pentagons

Settings: f/4, 1/180, ISO 100, 24mm Tamron Adaptall 1:2.5, 9mm extension, glass, black velvet, foil reflector, tripod. Crop.

255: Structural Soap Bubbles

Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 58mm extension, 1/4 flash, glass, foil reflector, tripod.
Post-processing: Colour balance, luminance curve, sharpen, crop.

254: Double Thorns

Settings: f/11, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 33mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, tripod.

253: A Mass of Elderberries

Many bunches of elderberries gathered today; these are destined for the pan, to make a rich cordial.

Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 35mm Photax-Paragon M42, 9mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, tripod.

252: Windmill Windows

Settings: f/2.8, 1/50, ISO 200, P-FA 50mm. Colour & luminance curve adjustment.

251: Twists & Barbs

Settings: f/1.4, 1/100, ISO 200, P-FA 50mm.

250: Green Stink Bug

Settings: f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 200, 50mm Cosinon M42, 67mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, tripod.

249: Slugs In Your Grass

Settings: f/11, 1/180, ISO 200, 50mm Cosinon M42, 19mm extension, on-board flash & foil reflectors. Some PP & cropping.

248: Ash Fragments

Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 26mm extension, 1/4 flash, white paper, tripod.

247: White-Marked Tussock

I found this little one while pruning a fruit bush, never seen one like it before. It didn't move a millimetre while I set up the shot.

Settings: f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 200, 50mm Pentacon M42, 26mm extension, 1/4 flash, white paper, tripod.

246: Hanging Out

Settings: f/1.4, 1/15, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm.

245: Marzipan Strawberries

Settings:

244: Sunset Dance

Settings: f/8, 1/250, ISO 200, DA 18-55 (18mm)

243: Droplet Shiny Balls

Settings: f/5.6 (approx,) 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44-2 M42, 51mm extension, 1/4 flash, black velvet, foil reflector, tripod.