314: Green Dome Matrix

The rubber keyboard dome: A nice example of cost-cutting industrial design. Glued directly to the membrane, these things not only save weight, cost and complexity over older individually-switched designs, but are also quieter to press.
I'm even using examples of these as I type this post...

Cheap rubbish! Where is my good old clicky keyboard!?

Settings: f/4, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 33mm extension, 1/4 flash, white card, tripod. White balance, colour & levels adjustments, slight cropping.

308: Emotikeys

Taken as an entry for the BBC 6music MPFree EP cover competition. The subject was Punctuation Marks, on account of the band !!! playing in session today.

Settings: f/5.6, 1/8, ISO 200, 58mm Helios-44M M42, 61mm extension, fluorescent lamp, tripod.

UPDATE: Damn you, 6music. It didn't win - never mind. What were the chances, eh? At least I took part, and I enjoyed the results here. It's quite a sweet picture, really. (despite the old ground-in grime, although it adds a measure of authenticity.)

Speaking of !!!...
This video is quite saucy, in an entertainingly implicit way. And the music's good too, which helps. Never make a video for music you don't like, unless you're being paid a truckload.

304: Interference Weave

Shot of the side of a plastic film developing spool; backlit and turned so both sides of concentric rings create interference patterns by crossing each other.
Looks a bit like a basket, too.

Settings: f/4, 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44M M42, 77mm extension, 1/4 flash(bounced off steel bowl behind subject,) tripod.

302: Optical Occlusion

Settings: f/5.6, 1/2, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 51mm extension, fluorescent lamp on white card (behind subject,) tripod, varimagni finder.

298: Radial Plastics

A detail of a cheap plastic fan. Weirdly, the only reason I took this photo was that I brought this fan out of storage to discharge some NiMH batteries for better recharging. (my flash only seems to use half their power before it refuses to work any more.)

Settings: f/8, 1/6, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44M M42, 36mm extension, fluorescent desk lamp, black cloth.

279: Acrylic Diamonds

Settings: f/4, 1/250, ISO 100, EOS D30, 50mm Pentacon M42, 8mm extension, 4x starburst filter, black velvet.

236: Wrapped Straws

Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 16mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, tripod.

231: Split Sphere

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

162: Sweet Wrappers 2

Settings: f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 16mm extension, 1/4 flash, white card, tripod.

084: Red Pegs

This image was another "Oh look it's nearly midnight" shots where I quickly wrack my brain for visual inspiration before the next day begins.
Taking a shot like this with a digital camera is nearly always problematic, so my advice is to shoot RAW, ask questions later. Sure, the colours here are quite heavily post-processed, but they don't exactly look unnatural. The camera JPEG of this was quite an eyeball-burner, and that was with neutral settings. Red mush is how I would describe the original image, and tweaking the RAW really can reveal the "truth" in an image, despite a few white lies.
The Pentax K10D doesn't impress much with its noise levels, but it's quite a performer for dynamic range. I am constantly impressed by how much luma and chroma detail I can push and pull around in a RAW image.

All in all, a hurried photo, but a worthwhile image. The metal spring adds a detail that really pops out, and lends a clue to an otherwise rather cryptic composition.

Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 1/4 flash, glass plate, foil, white boards.

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.

027: Plastic Orc

More an objective study than a composition, this small plastic orc stands proudly on the pink ground, his weapon glistening with the blood of his enemies... Does he like pink? Who knows. I thought it worked in an unusual way.
The figure concerned is from an old HeroQuest set that I painted [some] of the figures. Maybe I'll get round to painting some more of them. I think I'll have to buy a size 000 brush first, as I want them to turn out a little better than this one. (you can really see all the imperfections when looking this closely.) I like very much how I did the bloodstain and the drybrushed areas, but it's not all neat, especially around the gloss yellow. Better stick to matt finishes in future.
I took this at f/16 on an old Super-Takumar 50mm f/2 lens (with an 8mm extension ring) and all other settings as usual. This lens seems to give some dodgy results exposure-wise, but I like using it occasionally.
This is only one half of a picture of two similar figures, but I cropped it as I thought just the one looked better. I also removed some dust spots. I'm not very happy with the shadow, but I don't think I could have improved it much. Also the background has a nice gradation to it.

026: Pen Tops

I felt like taking a picture of some pens today. Again, an expample of not having a satisfactory range of colours, but there are plenty of differing forms and details to make up for it. The camera was tilted to the left and I regarded the image as landscape through the viewfinder, but the auto-levelling function decided it was a portrait format shot... I could have rotated it, but I kept it as it was as I prefer it.
I also could have dusted the pens a bit first. There's a surprising amount when you look closely.
Settings were f/7.1, 1/180 sec. ISO 100, low power flash, 18mm lens extension. I used a generous amount of white reflectors around the bundle of pens, which were tied together with a rubber band and stood in a mug.