I bought this original LavaLamp at a garage sale a couple of months ago for $5, partly because I figured it would make a good photo prop, and partly because it's one of the trends from my childhood which is now "in" again (like my ponytail; I guess that officially makes me a dinosaur).
Last-minute, of course, found a bulb, fastened the socket back into the base, and discovered it actually worked. Set up looking out my kitchen window to silhouette/outline the shape, help define the extrusions inside (hard to get right with auto-focus), and to provide interesting diffracted images through the back wall. Also help to minimize all the bright specks produced by front-lighting the irregularities in the glass. I found it interesting that after lying long-dormant it tended to make these long, stringy shapes instead of the usual, more bulbous ones; I'm glad I thought to shoot these right after I turned it on instead of waiting for a thorough warm-up.
Ran four different tone curves to adjust the look and bring out parts I wanted, and reduce the background on the right. Two passes with USM, trying to avoid making those specks too visible. At first I tried to avoid the reflection on the seam where the glass was molded, but from this angle I think I like how it helps define the shape without obscuring any of the contents.
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Dont get much of the 'lamp' feel from this with the daylight shining through, but I know it can be hard to get a sharp focus in low light... perhaps some sort of screen in the window to soften the light coming through.
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