Wonky

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Spirit level doesn't look quite right, either...

Kaputt

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Today has been a day of fixing things - I started out repairing my washing machine, where years of vibration had worn through the paint, and it was starting to go a bit rusty in a couple of spots.
Later on, I picked up a lamp from my parents' that needs a bit of first aid. I shall rewire it and put in new LED lamps to replace the old halogens that have cooked part of the wiring and the lampholders.

Here's one of the bulbs that's given up the ghost - not a particularly amazing shot, but I suppose it tells a story. EOS R5, EF100mm f/2.8 L IS Macro, LED cube lights

Put Your Brain In Idle

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I had another play with bubble photos this evening.
I wasn't that pleased with the results on the back of the camera, but when I got them on the computer, I found a few I liked.
I particularly liked the dreamy, abstract effect in this shot, it feels like a different side of bubbles than I've captured before.

I've been inspired by my recent discovery of @clemdb.raw, who's on a mission to take an abstract photo every day. His page is worth a look if abstract is your thing.
He makes a video about shooting and editing each photo too, which can be quite interesting.

If You Recognise This...

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You may be old, a geek, or quite possibly both!
In case you are neither of these things, congratulations - It's a serial port connector, one of the primary ways of connecting computer peripherals before the now-ubiquitous USB appeared on the scene. It still sees semi-regular use in older designs of industrial or other specialist equipment, although it's slowly fading even further into obscurity these days.

Property Of F. D. Green

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This week's 52Frames challenge is "Something Old" with an extra challenge of focus stacking.
I thought I'd shoot some of my Grandpa's old tools (which I still use quite regularly!)
This is a focus stack of 30 images.

Damaged And Displaced

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Some of the damage from the recent storm we had. Pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.
I thought the broken fence panel and torn-off leaf fitted quite well into this week's #52frames challenge, which is Wabi Sabi.
Wabi Sabi is a Japanese term loosely meaning beauty in imperfection. As I understand it, it's rather more of a general philosophy than just that punchline, but the imperfection and impermanence of a fallen fence, rusted nail, and decaying leaf seemed fitting.

Unleash the Lego

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I have been re-acquainting myself with my old friend Lego over the last few days, so I thought I'd mark the occasion.

Head Start

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The first bud has appeared on my Christmas cactus.
It doesn't feel late enough in the year to be seeing this yet, but time is most definitely ticking on!

Not a bananaologist

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If I was any kind of made-up-ologist, I suppose "randomologist" might be the most fitting!
Enough of the incoherent babbling, anyway; the main pic here is a backup one, taken a couple of days ago, but the second one (after the jump) is from today.
I'm not entirely happy with the second pic, but I'm posting it because an imperfect attempt is usually more valuable than an abandoned one...

Little Things, Little Places, Little Steps. Big Emotions.

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One year on. I'm sometimes amazed that I'm still going at all.
Good family, good friends, and good memories are strong medicine.
You know who you are. Thank you ❤️.

This mug is part of the first present Lucy gave me. I'm picky about mugs, but she really nailed it - these are perfect.

Out of the mist

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Playing with a mini smoke machine...
Quite fun.

At least the world contains chocolate...

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And pizza, and beer.
3x macro of the end of a Twirl.

Featherlight

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Playing with feathers again.
A pure white feather this time, backlit, and producing colours by diffraction through the fine structures.
@andrewfusekpeters has some incredible shots of this effect in the wild, so make sure you check out his work if you don't already know about him.

Silica Gel

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Copper

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I've spent rather a lot of time in the last few days working with lots of copper in various forms; from very small wires, up to giant bars of the stuff, none of which I can really share here.
However, there's nothing stopping me from sharing these copper chips left over from making something from this remarkable metal!

This stuff is absolutely essential to the function of virtually every electrical and electronic device in the world, and much else besides.

Whiteboard Marker.

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A couple of shots of a whiteboard marker in action. Both are stacks captured with the WeMacro rail and stacked with Helicon Focus.
The wider shot was with my Sigma 105mm macro, and the closer shot was with the MP-E65mm macro lens. I'm not totally satisfied with the closer shot, I think it's got a touch of motion blur from the focus rail being in fast mode without sufficient settling time. One to revisit, I think.

One more after the jump.

Selenia

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I have been upgrading my laptop's SSD and running backups for most of the evening, and I thought I was going to have to fall back on a backup photo tonight.
However, this little one appeared in my bathroom, and became the accidental star of the show.
It also gave me the perfect opportunity to try out the additional LED cube lights I received yesterday - They seem to work quite well.

Counters(t)ink

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One spotted by my colleague today. He was countersinking some metal plates for a prototype we are working on, and noticed the cutting oil was making interesting smoke patterns.

I could have done with some more light and time on this one, but you do what you can with what you've got on hand!
I might have another go at something like this in the future, I think it could be better with some flashes and a bit more setup effort.

One more from last night too, also fitting the mono theme, after the jump.

Herb Robert / Opportunistic Spider

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Went for a quick wander in the woods to see if I could catch the last few rays of sun on the bluebells. That was moderately successful, but I preferred this one.
I gave it a little bit of help with a mini cube LED light with a snoot fitted, which I think quite nicely mimicked a gentle sunbeam, and just lifted the subject out from the background a bit more.

The spider in the second picture (after the jump) isn't in perfect focus in quite the right place, but I was reasonably happy with it for a very opportunistically grabbed shot. Again, I gave the beastie a bit of light from the LED cube, as it was rather dim in the undergrowth.

Fully Transistorised

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It turns out that I am more mathematically incompetent than I had realised, so the photo I had planned for today will have to wait for another 13 days!
After scratting around for a while, I eventually settled on this as a subject. It feels fairly fitting, I've been doing quite a bit of electronics at work recently.