326: Berries, Frost & Leaves

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

319: Twig Corals

Discovered in local woodland on Sunday, this rotten twig sports many tiny, coral-like fungal growths. I knew I wasn't going to get a decently lit and well-considered shot out in the cold woods, so it had to come home; and here we have it.
The twig was about 25mm(1 inch) wide, and measures about 2200px on the full 3888px wide image. This makes it about 13mm wide on the sensor, so the magnification ratio is around 1:2.

Settings: f/9, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 29mm extension, 1/4 flash, white cards, foil, black velvet, tripod. Slight levels adjustment and very light sharpening.

300: Tomato-Twig Arrangement

The 300th image so far; Only 65 more until the year is up...

Settings: f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44M M42, 9mm extension, 1/4 flash, white card, black velvet, tripod.

182: Twisty Twigs

This could be mistaken for a twisted little old tree shot at night-time - near a nearby sodium street lamp. In reality, it's a bit of an old fuschia bush (1/2 metre long,) lit by a halogen lamp on the upper right, and a handheld flash from the upper left.

Settings: f/5.6, 1/4, ISO 100, P-FA 50mm, 1/4 flash, tungsten light, black cloth, tripod.

177: Fir Cone Duo

Settings: f/4, 1/4, 50mm Pentacon M42, 10mm extension, 1/4 flash, white cards, tripod.

073: Serpentine Twig & Lichen

Check out the 70s Doctor Who style monster costume warty bits on the lichen. Rather freakish but interesting.
This was taken on a small potted fuschia bush, with the morning sun hitting the garden in the right place. I had no tripod with me and needed to hand-hold the camera; no easy thing when high magnifications are involved. Not so much because of the risk of camera shake, but more due to the shallow field of focus slipping back and forth as my body refuses to hold completely still.

Settings: f/4, 1/400, ISO 200, 50mm M42, 29mm extension.

023: Ladybirds on Holly

A lucky find today.
I was doing some pruning at the end of the garden when I discovered some red spots on the stubby end of a holly twig, partly obscured by a bushy growth of leaves. I didn't expect to find ladybirds somewhere like this in January.
I set up a tripod right next to the twig and mounted the camera with flash. After much fine repositioning (a requirement of very shallow focus range) I took this final image at f/7.1, 1/180 sec. ISO 100, low power flash. I pointed the flash forward with a foil reflector to angle the light down, and used a piece of white polystyrene underneath to reflect some light back up.