For the bored photogs with nothing to shoot

[Mike Hollingshead]

Watch a show about Tesla, wind up buying a plasma ball for something "similar" to photograph. Picked one of these up yesterday and it has been kind of fun shooting the "bottled lightning" in there. I'm guessing it would be all the more fun with a macro lens.

http://www.extremeinstability.com/08-11-18.htm

[Rob Wadsworth]

Imaginative - and colorful. I thought page 1 was xlnt; but page 2 was best.
And another use for the 'nifty 50'!
Edit: There are a few web pages that can show you how to make a Tesla coil with scrap material - making the parts that need to be bought to a minimum.
Being around lightning so much has lowered your fear of it?
Tesla coils = potential danger too...

[Chris Kennedy]

cool shots, I havent used my nifty fifty in forever

[Aaron Gerhardt]

Awesome shots Mike, I don't think I would ever think of neat stuff like that for a shoot. I would most likely walk into a Spencer's store and see one just to play with it :P.

I especially like the 5th and 12th shots on page 2, I mean it looks like some crazy sci-fi wallpaper. The final pic on page 2 looks like a crazy solar eclipse, awesome.

[Maggie Kahman]

I have one of those things, only mine looks like a lava lamp and is tri-colored. Never thought of taking pictures of it, might have to try that sometime. :)

[Tyler Burg]

those are some pretty sweet pics Mike. after looking at your account, I watched a bunch of tesla youtube vids. lol

[Caleb Lawrence]

http://www.feoamante.com/Movies/M/Matrix/sentinel.jpg

[Andrew Ryan]

Nice pics mike!

My friends and I were bored one night about a month ago and here's the results we came up with:

http://www.shearamazement.com/images/PlasmaGlobe_3 copy.jpg

http://www.shearamazement.com/images/PlasmaGlobe_4 copy.jpg

http://www.shearamazement.com/images/PlasmaGlobe_6 copy.jpg

[Rob Wadsworth]

The white hand and silhouetted arm is a very nice touch.
Crop it sweetly (using the "1/3 proportion rule") and it would be CHOICE.

[Paul Hadfield]

You aren't kidding Mike, loads of fun. From Winter 07, one of my absolute faves...
http://pawleewurx.com/st/avateslacoil.jpg

Edit: Second to the last on page two of your series reminds me of an Alex Grey (http://www.alexgrey.com/) painting.

(Props to yours as well Andrew)

[Mike Hollingshead]

Imaginative - and colorful. I thought page 1 was xlnt; but page 2 was best.
And another use for the 'nifty 50'!
Edit: There are a few web pages that can show you how to make a Tesla coil with scrap material - making the parts that need to be bought to a minimum.
Being around lightning so much has lowered your fear of it?
Tesla coils = potential danger too...

Yeah I've seen the plans but it looked more involved than I wanted to mess with. There did look to be some parts that one would need to make the cost add up still, unless you found them all on ebay or something. I'm just not that motivated to make one I guess. I did find a site you can buy them pre-made at though.

Just like I don't see any reason to fear lightning if you aren't stupid about it, I don't see any reason to fear a Tesla Coil. I wouldn't stand out there and let it pop away on my head or anything. And yeah, I could probably get myself into trouble if I chose to try to build one, but I realize it's more involved than I probably want to mess with.

Nice shots Andrew and Paul. That clock one is sweet, as is the "head shot"! Must have had a small light on somewhere with that one Paul? I wish I could get the flash on my camera to go even weaker, but I don't think I can behind offsetting it -2 stops. That is one thing I never ever really use, a flash for anything.

[Laura Duchesne]

Thanks for the great idea, Mike! I decided to try something similar a couple nights ago. I used a tornado shaped plasma lamp. I also have one of those round plasma lamps, I should bring it out and try to do some photography on that as well.

I am curious what all of you used in your camera settings to capture those great image? I used ISO 1600 because it worked out the best for me.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/laurawx/Other%20Digital%20Photos/plasma2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/laurawx/Other%20Digital%20Photos/plasma1.jpg

[Paul Hadfield]

Nice shots Andrew and Paul. That clock one is sweet, as is the "head shot"! Must have had a small light on somewhere with that one Paul? I wish I could get the flash on my camera to go even weaker, but I don't think I can behind offsetting it -2 stops. That is one thing I never ever really use, a flash for anything.

Thanks Mike, the light was filtering in from a basement window located directly above. I had her up on an old work bench with a black cloth draped behind. Kick myself though for not turning off the other ambient lights in the room including aquarium and monitor which show up on the glass. ISO 800, f3.5 being as she was moving around considerably. It was a surprise this even came out, thankfully she paused for just long enough.

Edit: Awesome theme you have Laura!