Look Down At The Ceiling

All Was Calm, All Was Bright

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

I've posted a few pointers to macro shooting in the last few days, but I guess this would have to be one of my favourite macro shots. I was at work when I noticed I could see an almost perfect reflection of the ceiling - in my teacup. In the high-resolution version of this shot you can actually see the pitted pattern of the ceiling panels, and even in this low-resolution version you can see the fluorescent lights clearly. Luckily there was water in my teacup, because the shot would not have worked with anything else except maybe black tea or black coffee.

Mug Shot

Has Someone Been Using Ceiling Wax?

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Here's a couple of shots I took with a Pentax K10D, an updated version of the K100D that I own. I was sitting at my desk at work and took this shot, focusing on the rim of my dark blue coffee mug. Then I reversed the focus, trying to get a clear shot of the surface of the water in the mug. I was pretty impressed by how clearly I could see the reflection of the ceiling panels and the fluourescent lighting above me.

These are just low-resolution versions of the two shots, but the high-res images are pretty impressive. Interesting experiment all round - but I realised later that the reflection would not have been so clear if there had been tea or coffee in the mug. And as regular readers know so well, I do not digitally enhance my shots in any way. What you see here is exactly what I shoot. Nor have the images been sharpened with the aid of a computer programme.