Pictures of Plasma

Yesterday, I posted pictures of all sorts of lovely things that I have on my desk (including, but not limited to, Silmarils and Jim Bone the Desk Diplodocus).  There was one major thing, however, that I did not photograph.


That was, until last night.


Meet my husband's plasma ball:

Yes, it really is a plasma ball.  (And yes, it really does belong to my husband--I am just borrowing it.  For an extended period.  Really...)  Purchased from thinkgeek.com, this lovely little beauty is attached to my computer via USB and is constantly swirling with purple/pink plasma.  


It is absolutely mesmerizing, and fantastically geeky.  It is also ridiculously hard to photograph.  But there is no challenge that my new camera and I will not face!  Of course, I should mention that it was my husband who figured out the best settings to use, but ah well.  He shows me these things so that I can look good, right?


Here are the fruits of our labor:

I was happy with the distinct lines visible in this picture.

This picture captures more of the plasma's movement.

Plasma ball from above...  fun with different angles!

I have also been playing around with a new photo editing software (nothing fancy, but still rather daunting--to me, at least).  So far, I haven't figured out how to scale images down to different sizes, but I have learned to take this:

...and turn it into this:

And I didn't even have to get my husband's help!  ;)  


I have been having an extreme amount of fun with this whole process.  It looks like my original picture project has just taken on a whole new light!  (And, no, I don't do crazy effects on my store photos--that was just for fun.)


Let's see what I else I can take pictures of around here...  Watch out, world, I've got a camera!