066: The Year We Make Potatoes

Not the year 066, I mean 2010. As far as I know, we haven't made contact yet, or built a great big spacecraft to travel to Saturn to check out all the weird happenings there...
Crap Sci-Fi film title reference aside, we can at least grow potatoes. Check out the super furry shoots on this one - coming along nicely.
A maincrop potato like this "Desiree" variety doesn't benefit much from chitting before planting, but it's not like I have a choice; they'll just start anyway. So they're kept in the light, where they go green, short and furry instead of in the dark where the shoots go long, pale and stringy.

Settings: f/11, 1/180 sec, ISO 200, same lens as yesterday but with black background.

009: Mystery Potatoes

Potatoes, for me, are appealing not only on the plate but also in the eggbox - where they wait to be planted in March. Rescued from a paper bag in the cupboard, these were sporting thin and straggly shoots. Removed of these, they sit patiently on a windowsill while the sunlight assists them in growing some thicker and greener shoots instead.
I wish I knew what variety these were, simply for want of knowing. For another year these will be my "Mystery Potatoes."

I took the photo with a bounce flash at f/5.6 - very close up. The Pentax DA 18-55 AL is good for having a very close minimum focus, but it can display a curious grainy foggyness in out-of-focus areas. It's definitely different to other lenses I have used. This can work as a nice effect sometimes, but in high-key shots such as this one you can see the contrast falling off quickly with the blur.
...But I might be wrong about this, as I've known bounce flash to interfere with contrast at times.