134: Brass Chambers

Settings: f/1.8, 1 sec. ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 26mm extension, tungsten light, tripod.

104: Nasturtiums & Halos

I glanced at these well-grown nasturtium seedlings on the kitchen windowsill and noticed the fascinating pattern of shapes they cast.
I've chosen to use my mirror lens again today because I'm getting to love the weird out-of-focus highlight rings. To accentuate the effect here, I sprayed a fine mist of water onto the window behind the plants, as the background looked decidedly lacklustre without it.

Plus, yet again another one-take wonder! Maybe I'm economising on the shutter actuations because of my ~500 frame animation blowout from a few weeks ago. I should hopefully be getting another [old & cheap] DSLR to animate with. I'm quite excited about the prospect of it...

Settings: f/8, 1/30, ISO 200, 500mm Tamron SP mirror lens, tripod.

102: Soft Light Rings

Spooky effects from a hanging lampshade and a mirror lens. It rather looks like evening light seen through a bushy canopy.
Deliberately out of focus, of course. I didn't even try, as when the lampshade came into focus the whole image detracted from the effect I liked shown here.

Settings: f/8, 1/160, ISO 200, 500mm Tamron SP mirror lens, 50mm extension, tripod.

092: Daffodils & Light Rings

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

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.