Only a photographer could love this.

[Mike Buckley]

Honest, folks. I didn't break it to make the photo. It was already dead on arrival and, ahem, never saw the light of day.

[FlyingSquirrel]

Mike

I like the deliberate placement of the shard to the right which adds interest and balance to the composition. Perhaps this is nitpicky, but I might consider cloning out the label on the base.

[Mike Buckley]

I'm glad to know that you like the placement of the piece on the right, Matt. You're not being nit picky at all about the label. Ironically, I did my best to include all of it. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to do that and properly position the gap where the missing piece had fallen from.

[FlyingSquirrel]

Ironically, I did my best to include all of it. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to do that and properly position the gap where the missing piece had fallen from.

Considering that you wanted the label in the photo, a possible option that occurs to me now is this: Photograph the bulb as shown here. Then rotate the bulb to show all of the label but keeping the bulb positioning identical. Then just photoshop the desired portion of the base and label into this photo. Just a thought, but of course I wouldn't have thought of this until afterward.

The multi exposure coverup method described there reminds me of something I read in a book that explained using it to remove people from crowded scenes. Take a ton of identical photos of the same scene, waiting for all the people to move around. When you are sure you have enough photos where each area is clear, you can combine the blank areas together. Then you have the crowded scene, with no people in the photo! I thought it was a cool idea and nifty trick for travel photography, perhaps.

[graynomad]

That also works with a time exposure. Trouble is there's always somebody having lunch on a bench who doesn't move

[MilT0s]

That's exactly what I call a creative eye Mike. I like it very much.

Too bad however the rest of the reflection is not there.

BTW I hope it broke outside. Hopefully no mercury vapor is trapped in your studio but unless it's -20oC outside you should open a window for a while.

[Mike Buckley]

Photograph the bulb as shown here. Then rotate the bulb to show all of the label but keeping the bulb positioning identical.

A person with normal manual dexterity would be able to do that. I'm such a klutz that I would never be able to keep the bulb positioned properly after rotating it. Heck, I was rather glad to have knocked a small light stand and light onto the tabletop only once while making this photo.

That also works with a time exposure. Trouble is there's always somebody having lunch on a bench who doesn't move

Ahhhhh, the benefits of working only with a very dead light bulb.

[Mike Buckley]

Too bad however the rest of the reflection is not there.

I originally envisioned it using the entire reflection. After seeing it, the image looked static. Photographing part of the reflection rather than all of it solved that problem for me. Even so, thanks for the idea, as on a different day I might have used it.

BTW I hope it broke outside. Hopefully no mercury vapor is trapped in your studio but unless it's -20oC outside you should open a window for a while.

Thanks for your concern! The bulb was already broken at the time it arrived in the box, indicating that it broke during shipping or even earlier.

This reminds me that making a Daguerreotype involved placing the exposed metal plate over a container of heated mercury. The mercury vapors combined with the silver on the plate to form the image. I wonder if Daguerre and his contemporaries were aware of the danger of being repeatedly exposed to mercury.