Back in 2005, I took this photo of blue marbles. I have no idea how I did it, it was one of those happy accidents thing, and I guess that the sun just hit them at the right angle (I took this one outside). I love this photo, but there’s a problem with it. Because it was 2005, the only image resolution I have is 480×360, and that’s just ridiculously small these days. So I thought I’d set out to try and replicate it using various methods, including the original sunshine method, pointing extra lighting at them, using the flash, and also using my light box to back light them. Nothing replicated the effect. Maybe the sun was at the wrong angle, maybe it was those specific marbles from 2005 that were magic (if they ever turn up, I’ll try them). I was disappointed with the results, and had to take a step away from the photos for a while to get some perspective.