356: Fairy-O-Lights

Settings: f/1.8, 1/5, ISO 800, 50mm Pentacon M42, 17mm extension.

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.

070: Shrink-Minted

Some polo mints are placed on a rubber mouse mat inside a thin freezer bag; this bag is then tied around a drinking straw at the opening with adhesive tape. I make sure the flash reflectors and other cards are in place, turn off my desk lamp, stop the lens down, take the straw in my mouth and press the shutter button. While the two-second timer runs, I place a white card on the opposite side to the foil flash reflector (in this case in front of my face) and suck hard on the straw. The shutter fires and I'm left with this picture.

Settings: f/16, 1/180, ISO 200, 50mm, 19mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil, white & black cards.
Curiously, there's an impression of curvilinear distorsion; but I'm sure it's just due to the placement of the mints. I'm not very happy with the top corners either. I think they needed more crinklyness. But I'm sure I can make a better, similar picture some other time; I like this unusually shrink-wrapped objects theme.