OK, so it’s the British Summer, and once more, it is raining – again. It’s not very tempting to go outside for landscape photography, and there’s a limit to how many times you can photograph the rain on the window.

“Summer’s rain – again” by Derek Gale
I took this image with my Panasonic GF-1 and a Nikon-fit Sigma 50mm macro lens. I’ve got a Kiwifotos lens adapter. I set a wide-ish aperture to give a nice fuzzy background. The white highlight on the largest drop is the sky.
Photographing raindrops is fine, but I asked myself what else I could photograph in this terrible weather? Then I remembered my flexible fibre-optic light source. It’s really for a microscope but can be used for getting light to unusual places. Like inside a tomato…

“Lit from within” by Derek Gale
I made a small hole in the tomato and pushed the end of the fibre-optic source into it. I put some cling film over the end of the fibre-optic so it didn’t get covered in tomato juice. It’s definitely worth remembering to use cling film. I had a bad experience with a marshmallow in the past…
I held the tomato in one hand so the glow from within lit my fingers. The fibre-optic light source fitted nicely between them so it was invisible. I manually focused the camera (which was on a tripod), and took the shot.
Bad weather? No worries. Just get some light, a tomato*, and you’re laughing.
* Other fruit are available.
by Derek Gale