Lamp1
This was done as a study in glowing balls of light, something I need for an old image (Fount3, below) I've not worked on in a while.
Globe
The globe itself is inspired by a piece of glass I saw as a centerpiece of a conference table at work. I found it interesting how the image was on the inside, and the thick covering of clear glass acted as a wrap-around lens. POV captured the effect perfectly. If you look at the edge, you can see the "horizon" of the inner sphere. Also, the shadow is a give-away.
The image on the sphere is a Mandelbrot Set, but I didn't want to use the old overused image. So I used a detail with a mini-mandel in it so it's more of a tribute than a chiche.
The pixel effect of the imagemap contrasts with the smooth procedural texture of the bookshelf. I decided I liked it, and didn't redo the imagemap with higher resolution. Also, the "warm" colors of the background contrasts with the "cool" image on the sphere.
Soap1
This also plays with light. The bubbles are iridescent, and the sky contains a rainbow. The craggy ground is actually the most original part of this picture.
Fount3
This is something I did a few years ago, when the software was less capable and my machine was an order of magnitude slower. The lamp doesn't look realistic 'cause it's not "glowing". Some day I'll return to it.
Egg1.9
Can you say slow? Ray-tracing is not a hobby for the impatient even under normal conditions. But this one takes the cake. It's two orders of magnitude slower to render than the other pictures, thanks to the atmospheric beams. The 640x480 view took 20 hours and 38 minutes to trace on my P6-200. I figure the full size image will take 21 days. I'm still tweeking it, trying to get the fog to have just the right gloominess and close in just right on the foreground objects, and get the beams of light to be just prominent enough. This is my 9th draft, and I think I'm nearly there.