So, more shots from by BlackBerry 9790 + a cheap plastic lens busted out from a disposable camera. Lots of trial and error (mostly error). Recalling how well the green die turned out last time, luminescent and all, I poked around Dave’s museum and found a really awesome set of ancient marbles and a giant hunk of amethyst-encrusted rock (respect to the Imaginarium of Dr. Bromonculus). We set the marbles up on the rock and I was trying to light them from the sides with my freakishly-bright home-brew LED rig, but then Dave pulled out this LED penlight from the toolbox and put it behind the marble. A ha! Then I suggested making a snoot out of electrician’s tape to get a narrower beam, and then we were cookin’.
My buddy Brian, a photog himself, asked me today why I was shooting with the smartphone and not with the DSLR. Then he answered the question: challenge! And challenge was abounding. Once we figured out the lighting, I had to shoot a transparent object, in the dark, with a taped-on lens that had to be focused by moving the phone nearer and farther from the marble.
There are 3 things I’ve got to look into to make this more feasible on the smartphone, but I need to talk to the camera team and get them implemented in the product before I tell you what they are.
This pic above is actually kryptonite: Dave told me he was feeling weak… which I think had more to do with the fact that he wrestled an aerator over 10 acres all day.
Happy to catch the reflection here.
Tried lighting up the amethyst itself here, sans marble.
Kind of tricky to catch the orange and yellow from marble #2 through marble #1. Focus took a backseat here.
Love this gold. And super-chunky too.
Just ordered a cheap reversing ring for my camera so I can flip around my 50mm prime lens and see how that works for macro-on-the-slightly-less-cheap. That will take about 5 weeks to get here, so in the meantime, does anyone have a Nikon-mount macro lens they will loan me for a weekend?
Happy making,
DW
Pretty sure I have seen most of these shots before … on many Star Trek episodes!
Very cool.
We have a macro lens, DW- but you will have to borrow the camera too.
Ping me if you want!
..v
Darin…
Absolutely amazing results from your trial and error (mostly trial) endeavours!
Keep up the great work… you are certainly capturing some beautiful images!
We enjoy reading your blog… honest!!