187: Hard Drive Circuits

They don't make hard drives encrusted with chunky ICs (like this one,) anymore. Everything's all tiny and flat now.

Settings: f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 17mm extension, 1/4 flash, white card, tripod.

186: Glass Reflections

A furious light show of reflections between several glass jars - the flash was cast directly from the right side.

Settings: f/8, 1/4, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 10mm extension, 1/4 flash, black backdrop, tripod. Boosted colour, slight cropping.

185: Unusual Alliums

Elephant garlic flowers, cut a few weeks ago, but still starting to bloom in a small vase of water. The uncut heads in the garden are at about the same stage now.
ettings: f/2.8, 1/4, ISO 100, P-FA 50mm, 1/4 flash, white reflector & black backdrop, tripod.

184: Six Jets, Smoke Trails

The Red Arrows, performing at the Waddington Air Show. I'm not sure if they were supposed to only be flying six jets that time; maybe some of them were not ready. I also can't tell if there are five of six smoke trails here, but I reckon it's probably five.
I particularly like how the sun shines brightly though the peak of the smoke trails.

Settings: f/6.3, 1/1000, ISO 200, P-FA 50mm.

183: The Crossing Point

So we've just crossed the halfway point of 2010. Where did all the time go?
The past, of course.
I think this project is going well, despite some distinct difficulties with finding good subjects that cause me to hunt around for small things to shoot tiny details of. Note to self: Please try not to macro-scavenge so often.
There's just no substitute for breaking from familiar ways and trying something new, but some days things just don't go so well, and I end up posting three images a couple of days later to catch up.

Doubt, lazyness and insularity are the inglorious trifecta of bad ways I must fight against if I want to see this year-long project through to its end.

The EOS D30 has a definite problem with white balance in some RAW files. Loaded up in some editors they look distinctly green, and when I corrected the white balance, the blown-out sky in this shot went very purple. So monochrome was a good option here. JPEGs are usually fine - if only it had the contemporary-style option to shoot both.

Settings: f/8, 1/160, ISO 200, EOS D30, 35mm Photax-Paragon M42. Some sharpening, curves adjustment and cropping.

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.

181: Luminous Tea Glass

I tried some plain water in this IKEA glass first, and then decided to try some green tea - and the result was much more interesting. The slight hazyness is from the tea sitting in the pot for a while.

Settings: f/11, 1/4 sec, ISO 100, P-FA 50mm, 1/4 flash, glass plate, black foam and cloth, tripod.
I suspended a sheet of glass over two sturdy plastic tubs and topped it with an A4 sheet of black craft foam with a circular hole cut in the middle (just slightly smaller than the base of the glass.) My old Canon flashgun was placed under the glass, pointing directly up with a piece of kitchen paper over it as a rudimentary diffuser.