352: Sponge Foam Structure

Settings: f/11, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 88mm extension, 1/4 flash (bounced,) cable release, tripod. Colour and tone curve adjustments, 100% centre crop.

347: Purple Peel

Close up, banana peel shows some tiny starchy clumps, but without a bit of adjustment it can look very flat and boring. Blue-Purple-Pink really seems to bring out its textures better.

Settings: f/16, 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44-2 M42, 76mm extension, 1/4 flash (bounced,) foil reflector, tripod. Colour and tone curve adjustments, crop to square.

343: SXPXXACWPSW

Yeah, exactly. It made some kind of sense if you were there.

Settings: f/1.4, 1/40, ISO 800, P-FA 50mm. White balance, colour and curves adjustments, crop to square.

340: Space-Time Ice Bubbles

I brought a plastic jug full of ice indoors from the garden. (As you do.) It was full of tiny frozen bubbles, in many shapes and sizes. I took various angles, with different lighting (lamp and flash,) and chose this shot because I thought it had simply the most interesting bubbles. The droplets contrast nicely with the streaks, suggesting a sense of movement.

Settings: f/8 (approx,) 1/8, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 25mm extension, fluorescent lamp, black velvet, foil reflector, cable release, tripod. Colour and levels adjustment, square crop.

335: Mints on Pink

Settings: f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 19mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, green paper, tripod. Colour & levels adjustments, crop.

330: Trickly Peace

Settings: f/5.6, 1/100, ISO 400, DA 16-45 (16mm.)

327: Pillars of Frost

Settings: f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44M M42, 21mm extension, 1/4 flash (bounced.)

326: Berries, Frost & Leaves

Settings: f/11, 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44M M42, 21mm extension, 1/4 flash (bounced.)

325: Broccolilies

Flowers are not just for unusual salads - One bite of broccoli (calabrese) contains hundreds of these delicate, tiny green buds.

The anthers on these broccoli flowers look slightly like those of lilies - a big generalisation, but it led conveniently onto the title.

Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 51mm extension, 1.4 flash, black velvet, tripod.

317: Scratch & Shine

A detail from a metal spoon directly under a halogen light, shot very close up. Quite a soft image, but with a ton of tubes and a wide-open lens, it's almost a certainty; also hand-holding the camera doesn't help much.

Settings: f/1.8, 1/8, ISO 200, 50mm Cosinon M42, 83mm extension. Colour adjustment and crop.

309: Fireworks Night

It's the time of year for bulb exposures once more, and I'm at least consistent in turning up to the same fireworks display for the third year running - with the same main intention. The difference this time is that I brought along my 16-45 instead of the 18-55. Favouritism, I know, but wider is more appealing.
The main challenges in this event seem to be anticipating where and how wide the fireworks will burst, and trying to avoid the glow from the massive bonfire on the left.

Ironically, most shots didn't seem to need 16mm wide - if only I was right over the field with the lighting crew. That'll never happen, but maybe next time I'll try to find a radically different spot to shoot from (that doesn't involve stepping out into the forbidden zone.)

Settings: f/10, 3s, ISO 100, DA 16-45 (38mm,) remote release, tripod.

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.

307: Watery Lens

Noticed on my spectacles after coming in from walking in the drizzle; this light distribution of droplets form a pleasing contrast when the lens they lie on forms two distinct bright and dark tones underneath.

Settings: f/5.6, 1/10, ISO 800, 35mm Photax-Paragon M42, 30mm extension. Hand-held in front of a CRT monitor. Square crop,monochrome conversion, sharpening, levels adjustment.

306: Cornystyrene

Settings: f/8, 1/6, ISO 100, 35mm Photax-Paragon M42, 30mm extension, fluorescent lamp, tripod.

274: Glitter Wall

Settings: f.4, 1/125, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 9mm extension, tripod. Colour boost, levels adjustment & crop.

268: Skin, Scored

Settings: f/16, 1/4, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44-2 M42, 19mm extension, 1/4 flash, black velvet, tripod. Cropped square.

242: Match Row

Settings: f/8 (approx,) 1/4, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44-2 M42, 51mm extension, 1/4 flash, white card, black velvet, tripod.

241: President Weevil

Settings: f/9.5, 1/40, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 25mm extension, tripod.

238: Calendula Seed Head

Settings: f/8, 1/180, ISO 100, 35mm Photax-Paragon M42, 9mm extension, 1/4 flash, white cards, tripod.

037: Cardamoms

A little scene of cardamom pods that look like people in a crowd; Many of them seem to be looking upwards, in the way I see it.
The pods were well past their best. They were stuck to a sheet of glass with small blobs of blue plasticine, hence the avoidant high angle; I cropped the photo mostly to avoid some stray blue blobs at the lower sides that I didn't notice before. A piece of pale yellow paper ran under the glass and emerged upwards behind as a backdrop.

Settings are 1/180 sec, ISO 100, 50mm M42 with 20mm extension. I used the flash firing up and forward with a white refector above. I tried f/4 to start, but I settled on f/5.6 as it provided a more rounded exposure.
I also couldn't help adjusting the colours from the RAW file, as there is a very stylised and faintly strange feel to this scene. The added contrast also improves the texture of the pods.