Those Busy Busy Bees

Here we have two products of our friendly bee architects.

The photos of hexagonal structures, obviously, are part of a honeycomb which we found on the beach in Akumal, Mexico. Each cell of this honeycomb is about 5mm wide, and the entire sample piece is actually quite small and fragile. I don't know what kind of bee made this and we never did see the original owner bees when we found it abandoned.

You can see that the honeycomb is composed of tiny, woody, pulpy strands and chunks "glued" together with what I assume is bee spit. What amazes me, even after inspecting it closely, is how precisely the walls of the structure are positioned to create the regular, repeating hexagonal pattern. These guys don't work with rulers and compasses, so I have no idea how they get it so right. Amazing!

(NOTE: the squiggly hair-looking things are most likely just some dust that got stuck to the honeycomb sample sometime during transport home)

The next few photos are close-ups of another piece of bee ingenuity... a wasp nest. The sample was kindly contributed by a friend who found it in his attic while doing some home renovations. At normal size, it looked something like this.

When we get close, however, the papery layers reveal a fragile mesh of undulating, interconnected woody strands reminiscent of a mat of hair (though far smaller). It looks like some kind of deconstructed curtain. These photos capture an area between 5mm wide and about 10mm wide. I can't imagine the effort needed to weave just the parts captured in these photos, much less the many dozens of layers like it that are needed to form a nest about the size of a soccer ball.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Dragonfly Eyes

It was really strange, and kind of sad. In fact I'm still thinking about it days later.

We recently vacationed at Peninsula Lake, in the Muskoka region of Ontario. The vacation was not sad at all, it was relaxing and beautiful. I'll post more nature pictures from there in the coming days.

But the experience we had with this dragonfly was just bizarre. My daughter and niece found this kind-of-busted dragonfly on the dock, and were able to pick him up easily. So I decided to shoot him for this site. He would try to fly now and then but was unable to coordinate his wings well enough to even get of the ground. his head lolled about like a senior with Parkinsons disease. He would sit still with us touching and moving him to a better position. He never cleaned the sand off his eyes, as you can see above.

I think this little guy must have been snatched by a bird earlier in the day or within the last several days, and that perhaps damaged his neck/spine. Something had happened to him, and he'd lived life through to adulthood, so it must have been a recent trauma. But now, he was powerless to fly, defend, and I'm sure, hunt. So we were shooting his portrait in perhaps his last evening of life.

Perhaps I'm overthinking it... I don't expect dragonflies have feelings or that this one can recognize the futility of his situation. I don't even know if he could feel pain. And there's no dragonfly hospital to accept this victim. I don't know why, but the helplessness of this dragonfly's situation has stuck with me, and I feel sad because my own projected feelings for him are those of cold, fear, and loneliness.

So, enjoy these closeups of our dragonfly friend. His eyes are ridiculous/amazing, actually. So many hexagons. And his little whiskery face almost looks like that of a small dog or cat. Below, you can see his stained-glass wings, their cellophane-like layers creating a slight rainbow effect.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Brown Leather Bag

This is leather. In actuality, it's not particularly shiny or anything... just a regular old floppy leather bag. But light does funny things, and when viewed at this level of magnification, leather becomes this shiny, scaly landscape.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Leaves, leaves, leaves

Something a little different today. The leaves are so beautiful and the weather today was perfect for a fall day; I just had to pick up a few leaves.

While I realize these are not actually macro photos—in fact, they're much larger than what I typically shoot—they are still a wonder to look at and explore. They are still imagination food.

SimpleViewer requires JavaScript and the Flash Player. Get Flash.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Little Acorn, Tick, Price Label

The acorn above was about 10mm wide, a teensy tiny little acorn found in the park while the girls climbed and played.

Below is a photo of the dried remains of the tick that tried to eat Sarah alive. She found it on her leg after we returned from Stone Barns, a beautiful farm near Westchester, NY. She was worried she had popped its head off when she yanked it out, so we're happy to see the head intact here. This tick was about 1.2 - 2mm long.

This pic isn't super sharp to my liking—I had to use my extra macro adapter to make the tick large enough for the photo and this affects the sharpness. What happens at magnifications this high, with lenses as big as the 65mm MP-E, is a distortion called diffraction. Essentially, overall sharpness decreases with high magnification and high f-stop (small aperture). This is different than a shallow depth of field, which we also experience in high-magnification photography.

OK, enough with the macro/microphotography lesson!

At the bottom, we have a close-up of the print on a price label. I love the distressed typography and the texture of paper pulp.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Homage to How It's Made: Broken Stick End, Holiday Ribbon, Bread Tab Printing

I love the simple, eclectic, postmodern-consumer poetry of the How It's Made episode descriptions in my Tivo guide. "How It's Made 5- Episode 4: Javelins, Cuckoo Clocks, Hearts of Palm, Windshield Wipers."

"Stuffed Olives, Astrolabes, Western Saddles."
"Pencils, Metal Recycling, Coffee."
"Sails, Walnuts, Wheel Immobilizers, Honeycomb Structural Panels."
"Giant Valves, Sardines, Barographs, Disposable Diapers."
"Accordions, Pineapples, Artificial Joints."

It's just too awesome. The items in these lists never go together. The production of the show is no-nonsense. It doesn't attempt to tell any story beyond what steps are necessary to manufacture the subject. The musical accompaniment sounds like simple muzak from the bonus CD in your Cheerios box. The show could not be done any more perfectly and I love it exactly like it is.

So, I'm going to try to imitate the How It's Made descriptions with my next several posts. I am not consciously trying to put incongruent items together, I'm just grabbing what I've got and posting. They might all be bugs or not. They might all be man-made or not. Doesn't matter. But they are simply the product of me taking what I've got and putting it out there.

Broken Stick End, Holiday Ribbon, Bread Tab Printing

Above we have the broken end of a stick, which was about 8mm wide in total. You can observe the xylem and phloem holes, through which would course the water, sap, and other nourishment the tree needs to grow. You can also see the fuzzy pulpiness of the wood toward the left side. We've seen paper pulp before, so here it is before processing.

Below is a microphoto of shiny holiday ribbon. This particular one was a translucent piece of ribbon, and unexpectedly (or maybe not in retrospect) the threads of the ribbon are clear. Pretty cool. You can also see how it is made of a simple woven pattern of these threads. I'm guessing they are acrylic.

At the bottom we have a number which had been printed on the closure tab for a loaf of bread. You know, those little plastic dealies you crimp on after twisting the extra bread bag closed? I shot the number because I like numbers and I like printing, and found this particular printing process left a cool texture within the number.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Yellow Leaves

Some more leafiness and fallness.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Hoboken Studio Tour/Tiny Lab: Tiny Jewels

Another visitor to my Tiny Lab exhibit for the Hoboken Studio Tour asked me to shoot her earring {I think this was an earring}. The gems were very small, and the blue was enamel, I think.

The photo above was shot in beautiful, soft, white ambient daylight by a huge studio window. The photo below shot with a flash. You can see the difference in depth of field between a small aperture {below} and a large aperture {above} setting on my camera.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

All the Leaves are Brown, and the Sky is Grey

And this is the first post of my next 100.

These pictures of plantlife getting crispy for fall were shot in mom's backyard. I love the fall palette emerging in these photos.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

A Couple o' Nuts

These are acorns, I swear. Mimi and Violet found them at the park and wanted me to shoot them. So I did.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Fly Me to the Moon, or Right Into a Lightbulb, if You're a Moth

And here come the creepier crawlers!

Above is the face of a moth. This was a rather small moth, actually. A larger moth would have had a larger head with more "feathers" and bigger eyes. However, I am happy with this shot anyway, because it's pretty much in sharp focus. Which is hard for such a tiny thing.

In other tiny-things-in-sharp-focus news, below is some sort of fly on a leaf. Maybe I'll find it's actually a bee and have to correct it like my last post.

One interesting detail I noticed is the little fly feet. I guess I've never seen or noticed what fly feet look like. Take a look at them, they're two little claw things, and two sticky pads. This particular fly appears to be missing the claw/pads on its left middle leg.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Critters

Say hello to my little friends.

Here are a few critters I encountered in the wild vegetation of my parents' back yard. If you haven't noticed, the last several posts have been plant related. I snapped lots of material in my recent trip.

The wasp above unfortunately had to be sprayed, since its nest was attached to the deck next to the pool where our girls spent much of their time. In the photo, the wasp is dead. Alive, its antennae would have been extended above its head, not curled down.

The spider below was a little surprise I found under the curled edge of a leaf. I had been shooting a spider web, and came across its foreman, on a snack break. Union workers, sheesh.

At the end of this post is an OOF (Out-Of-Focus) shot of some sort of fly. I've included it because I find it pretty for reasons other than being a good macro/micro photo. I like the softness of the colors and the buttery warm light. And that the fly appears to be made of metal and chrome like a motorcycle or a helmet.

We've seen critters here at Morning Macro before: some kind of butterfly, cicada wings, bizarre tiny creepers and their even smaller buddies, the cicada face, a slug, a teensy tiny snail shell, and a blue dragonfly.

Below are the petals of a clover, those tiny flowers among the grass that bees love so much.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

The Rest of the Weird Plant Things That Violet and I Found

Alright, here's the rest of the weird stuff V and I found at the park. A strange pit-like thing covered in spines, some brown, some green. It looked like an alien egg or something.

I guess I'm too lazy to figure out what these things are. A google might turn up an answer. Or maybe not.

We found a really strange thing at the beach the other day. Totally strange and alien. I don't have a photo of it, but we think it's a seed pod or something.

And that's what these things appear to be too.

Here's the other seed pod thing. Again, with the size comparison on a penny, I think it's helpful!

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Icy Beer Frost

I had placed a beer in the freezer last night to cool it off quicker, then forgot about it. Took it out tonight, completely frozen. The bottle immediately began to frost over, so I shot it in macro.

In the photo above, you see the script "s" at the end of the Sam Adams' debossed in glass on the bottle, covered in condensation frost. Below is another shot of the side of the bottle. Below that is a 100% crop detail of the photo, so you can see the ice crystals that make up the frost.

To the naked eye, the frost appeared to be a uniform and smooth matte white coating. In macro/micro, the frost appears to be irregular and lumpy, though I had expected it to be a little more crystalline.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

My Jomentum, Screwed

Yes, this is my first Morning Macro post in several weeks. Thanks to Project M, my mojomentum with Morning Macro has been screwed. So, above is a lovely close-up of a rusty screw for your macronius pleasure.

Sorry for the big hole in content consistency for this little site. Getting back into the swing of things at work/home after two weeks of Project M'y goodness has proven a little of a shock to the system. I can say, however, that Project M did confirm for me that there is value and success in the way I make decisions, knowing the right one when I've arrived at it rather than "project managing" absolutely every detail.

If you know me, you know that I am sort of an anti-project manager. That tends to make the people I work with/for a little nutsy. But it's how I've always done good work.

Enough about me, how about that cool rusty screw up there? Just, how about it? Seriously. Send me some ideas for tiny stuff you want to see big. Do it now, before the end of the world comes and you missed out on knowing what coriander seeds look like, or toothbrush bristles.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

What I wouldn't give for a good celery seed right about now

Celery seeds, surprisingly wrinkly. More like fluting or ridges that encircle them. I think they kind of look like pistachios.

These guys are very very small, so I am pleased with the amount of detail I've been able to capture with this photo. Go ahead, take a look at the celery seeds in your spice collection. Bet you'd never guess what they look like. Well, now you know. So stop squinting at you celery seeds, weirdo.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Bean there, done that

I do love coffee. I do not like bad coffee. Often I've had coffees that are bitter, acidic, thin, watery, you name it. We've all had them.

The bad coffees taste like plastic, they taste like gutter water. They don't come from anything looking beany. They come from giant buckets of freeze-dried granulated crap.

Good coffees taste full, they taste complete. I describe it as a round taste... all the flavors are in balance, soft and warm and welcoming. I like to grind beans fresh for my brew. You can see a bean above. Coffee is truly best when when freshly ground.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

I Eye Captain.

So this one is kinda creepy, I know. Yes, it's my eye.

This is actually the third macro shoot I've done to try and get a good photo of an iris. There are all sorts of neat little folds and details in that muscle that makes up the iris, I wanted to capture it. This picture turned out to be more about the reflections and the overall eye instead.

I've shot my own eye twice, and once Sarah volunteered. But she didn't care much for the claustrophobia-inducing closeness of the lens, and it was a quick shoot. I will try to bribe her to do it again, because I saw something really interesting in the differences between our irises.

Besides the basic color differences (me brown, her green), my irises as you can see above, sort of look like thick dough. Alternately, Sarah's green irises looked like thousands of wavy green threads arranged radially. The difference is very interesting. I'll post a comparison in the future.

In other eye trivia, the eye's lens is the only place on our bodies which is not oxygenated by blood, rather, it gets oxygen directly from the air. Contact lenses have micro perforations in them that allow the air to still contact enough of the eye to keep it healthy. This is one reason why cleaning your contacts is important, to keep those tiny holes from clogging up.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Superpost: 6 Seasons in Macro

Just your typical black pepper.

I've shot some spices and seasonings to compare their makeup. It's interesting seeing differences that aren't immediately apparent with the naked eye. For instance, the pepper above is gnarly and big. Being a dried berry of the pepper plant, it's skin is similar to that of the dried wrinkly berry from the previous post. Though smaller, blacker, and crispier.

Below is a look at more seasonings. See how the sugar and the salt are composed of completely different kinds of crystals? The sugar crystals are prism-like and often well formed little geometric shapes. Whereas the salt is sort of chippy, like chipped ice or something. Try rubbing the two between your fingers separately, and see if you can feel the difference in their structures. The sugar may feel more rolling, and the salt may feel more slippy, like all those tiny plates sliding against eachother. The difference is very subtle with such small forms, however.

I've also posted a shot of cinnamon, which, according to this report, is one of the 10 best foods for your health that you're not eating. I, of course, am eating it because it's freaking delicious on toast. Just not every day.

Also further below are red pepper (ground cayenne) and crowd-pleasing curry.

Just regular old white sugar.

Just plain old sodium chloride... er, salt.

Tasty, and apparently good-for-you cinnamon.

Firey ground cayenne pepper powder.

Delicious curry powder.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images