320: Confection Racket

I drop the M&Ms and try to trigger the camera at the right: Not easy to do, especially when you consider that all digital cameras have a slight delay between pressing the button and the shutter opening. Okay, DSLRs are pretty damn quick, but the delay is nonetheless there. Out of about fifteen tries, I got two-thirds fairly well timed, but I really could have done with more M&Ms to fill the frame. Like a whole bowl next time!

Set up with a large mirror on a table, black velvet cloth hung over from behind at a slight angle, and a barrier of upended VHS cassettes around the perimeter.

Settings: f/7.1, 1/180, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm, 1/4 flash, mirror, black velvet, tripod. Levels adjustment and crop to vertical 16:9.

231: Split Sphere

Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 48mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, black velvet, tripod.

091: It's A Robot!

A dirty little pink plastic robot pig with flashing blue LEDs for eyes. It even oinked when a button on its head was pressed. Ah, the horror. Sort of amusing, though.
It was destroyed by being accidentally caught in a door - off popped its little hollow head and out spilled its circuited innards. It somehow reminds me of Westworld, Saturn 3 and The Terminator all at once... I shall posthumously name him Yul Hector Schwartzenegger.

Settings: f/11, 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44-2, 10mm extension, 1/4 flash, glass, foil & white reflectors.

069: Frost-Crumbled Brick

Leave a decrepit old brick outside in the winter and ice cracks it up handily. It's a good example of how stiff, bare soil gets loosened by frosts. I can just brush the breadcrumb-like bits off when I'm done; there may be little left of this brick in a few years if we keep having winters like the last one.
The algae and moss adds some bonus detail, as do a few seeds stuck to the side. I tried some shots of only the top area of broken bits, but chose this side shot as I like the difference of the destroyed top and smooth side areas.

Settings: f/16, 1/180, ISO 200, 50mm, 10mm ring, 1/4 flash, foil & white reflectors.

052: Airborne Toy Crash

What in the name of Flash Gordon happened here?
If I had taken a much wider shot it would seem obvious that this toy car wreckage is situated in quite an out-of-the-way place; the tall shrub is on steeply sloping ground behind a metal fence, and really not near where I was when I took this photo.
It's wedged in the crutch of two lichen-encrusted branches (possibly hawthorn) and missing it's chassis and interior. I keep imagining that it's a full scale car that was dropped from an aircraft into a gigantic tree.
f/4, 1/1000 sec. ISO 200, SMC P-FA 50mm.