350: Misted Floret

Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 51mm extension, 1/4 flash (bounced,) tripod.

204: Chamomile and Calendula

The mixed offerings of home-made tea. The calendula petals add some extra colour to the mix, but I don't think too many should be added, as they are slightly bitter.

Settings: f/5.6, 1/4, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 77mm extension, 1/4 flash, white cards, copy stand.

185: Unusual Alliums

Elephant garlic flowers, cut a few weeks ago, but still starting to bloom in a small vase of water. The uncut heads in the garden are at about the same stage now.
ettings: f/2.8, 1/4, ISO 100, P-FA 50mm, 1/4 flash, white reflector & black backdrop, tripod.

163: California Poppies

Settings: f/8, 1/400, ISO 100, P-FA 50mm.

156: A Gap in the Lilac

Settings: f/1.8, 1/4000, ISO 100, P-FA 50mm.

144: Chamomile Flowers

Grainy but sharp - better this way than otherwise.
When I left home on Friday, only a few emerging petals could be seen. Now the plants are in full bloom; some of these flowers need picking to dry for tea now.

Settings: f/8, 1/500, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm 1:1.4, cropped.

143: Blue and Yellow Flowers

Nothing special here, I just like the gentle, bright colours and detail of the small flowers.

Settings: f/5.6, 1/50, ISO 100, Photax-Paragon 35mm f/3.5 M42. Some cropping.

120: Apple Blossom & Fly

Settings: f/5.6, 1/200, ISO 400, 50mm Cosinon M42, EOS D30.

092: Daffodils & Light Rings

Settings: f/8, 1/160, ISO 200, 500mm Tamron SP mirror lens, tripod.

087: Amaryllis

I've been waiting a week or so to get a shot like this of my amaryllis, flowering for a second time (after a year of leafy recovery.)
The compressed petals of three flowers can be seen here, and there's another behind the right side. This has had three flowers to a bud before, but four is an unexpected surprise.

I used a different M42 lens to the usual Cosinon 50 f1.8 here, the KMZ Helios-44-2 58mm f2. (The older version.) This curious piece of uncoated Russian glass was taken from a Zenit E camera, which it came with as the standard lens.

My copy is slightly scuffed, has what look like a few tiny bubbles in the rear element, amd the front glass is covered in very fine scratches. Oh, and the focus ring has a very slight wobble. But despite these imperfections, I can't help but love this lens. For one thing, it's surprisingly sharp (at least in the centre,) and it's a preset lens. This means that there are two aperture rings - one with detents to 'preset' the iris, and the iris control ring that glides continuously, all the way from f/2 to f/16.
This is something I don't usually find useful, except that recently I have recently been experimenting with DSLR-shot stop-motion animation, including a focus pull (using the Cosinon 50mm f2.) Later I remembered the Helios-44-2 with its smooth iris control and decided that preset lenses are the ultimate tools for the job! Using the Helios-44-2 I can also perform an iris pull, which can be used as a great-looking dreamy fade to white, or simulating a squinting first-person view. I'm pretty excited about the possibilities of this lens, and must animate using it soon. If it turns out well then I might consider buying a 28mm preset lens too.
I can only imagine what a combined focus, zoom and iris pull must look like... Possibly amazing, maybe nausea-inducing.

Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios 44-2, 17mm extension, 1/4 flash, white reflectors & black card.

064: Frost on a Crocus

A similar crocus plant as before, a bit further down the garden. This morning saw some frost, so there was a relatively rare opportunity to get some shots of frosty spring blooms.
Here is one of the better shots, cropped to 5:4 to neaten the composition.
Settings: f/4, 1/50 sec. ISO 200, 50mm M42, 29mm extension.

060: Spring Is Here

Today I decided that Spring had arrived; the profusion of emerging crocuses with the mild, sunny weather convinced me. But while these beautiful flowers bloom early and quickly, they wither just as quickly.
Today's lesson: Enjoy such evanescent things while you can!

Settings: f/2.8, 1/1000 sec, ISO 100, SMC P-FA 50mm.

It would be great to make a time-lapse video of these flowers, as they open and close in response to the sunlight. Maybe next year.

039: Dried Flowers

Another example from the order of dried things from the windowsill, this one a good year or so older than the wheat ear.
These curious purplish flowerheads have retained much of their original shape and vibrancy. I don't know what they're called, but I find them quite impressive because of this simple ability. I wonder if they'll still be standing on the windowsill in a couple more years' time.

024: Hyacinth Blooms

It's gloomy and raining. But today the hyacinths have come into full bloom, despite having been nibbled my hungry mice a few weeks ago.
The blue ends of the fresh flowers have a lovely satin sheen - they look like the kinds of things that squeak when you rub them together. The subtle variety of blue tones are very pleasing.
The image was shot using the usual manual flash macro setup I have been addicted to for the last week or so, this time with one 16mm extension ring. Settings are f/9, 1/180 sec. ISO 100. The background was white, but now slightly blue - most likely because the flash fired mostly on the flowers and reflected blue light to it. The background probably should have been closer, but I think the tint is fine.
I took some earlier photos of hyacinth flowers (2008, I think,) but those were not taken using a flash and it clearly shows. The colours are crisper, brighter and more contrasty this time. Especially with the distinction between the blue and violet ends, which was murky without flash. The white balance is quite accurate now - I remember that I had to tweak the earlier photos a lot to get them looking okay, and even then they were not quite right. I'm getting to appreciate the judicious use of flash light a great deal more than when I started using a digital camera a few years ago.
This is also the first photo I have posted that I photoshopped - but only to clone stamp out the most obvious dust blobs. I couldn't live with keeping them on this image - they made it look dirty when it should all just look crisp and pure.