Some Stank De-Stankin' Crystals

The kids and I cracked open one of their Christmas gifts early, a crystal-growing kit. The first thing we noticed was the strong odor that came from the bag of materials, the easily-recognized smell of sulphur. Upon opening it up and reading the instructions, we learned that the smell came from our crystal-growing seed material, potassium aluminum sulfate. And it was supplied in a variety of colors for our crystal-farming enjoyment. Naturally, we had to make the blue crystals first.

Potassium aluminum sulfate, or potassium alum, or potash alum, is the stuff used in deodorant, water treatment, aftershave and other fun industrial applications. What's funny is that it stinks so badly, but ultimately is about the cleaning and de-stinking of the world.

These photos are all observing an area about 3mm across

After our crystals were grown, about a week-and-a-half, I tweezed a few samples of the small crystals out of our experiment cup and shot them using the crossed-polar light technique. This is where I use a polarized filter on my lens that is at a 90° angle to the polarized filter on my flash. You may recall, this technique filters light to reveal some pretty psychedelic rainbow effects.

These photos were shot from above the crystals as they sat on a stretched piece of plastic wrap, suspended above the inside of a box backed with black construction paper; the flash was under the subject on one side, providing light from beneath the crystals. The use of transmissive light is one of the methods used by Ken Libbrecht to shoot snowflakes. As for why the black paper looks red in the photos, I can't account for that. Without more experimenting, I can't be sure if it looks like that because of the use of polarized filters, the plastic wrap, the dye used in the black paper (a reddish black dye vs a greenish black?), or a combination of these factors.

The color in these photos comes from several sources: The crystals were infused with some sort of blue/purple food coloring, and you can see some blobs of the coloring encased inside these crystals. Also, the cross-polarized light creates little flecks of rainbow colors inside these tiny prisms. Every mineral will bend cross-polarized light in a different way, and geologists, chemists, and other scientists use this technique to observe the presence and characteristics of different minerals and compounds in their study.

And yes, you can see the obvious dust on my sensor in these pics. Sorry about my dirty camera.

The girls and I are currently growing sugar crystals, so we can eat our experiment afterward. I'll be sure to shoot them, but if you're impatient and want to see sugar up close now, take a look at some of my past posts.

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Alien Lifeforms

The centers of poinsettia blooms (they're actually just awesomely-colored leaves as my horticulturist/landscape architect uncle Pete has informed me) contain some alien-looking parts. Like alien eggs ready to hatch, and alien baby tentacles reaching out innocently for your delicious brains. I've added a non-macro photo of these center bits below where they are nestled inside the colorful leaves of the plant, so you can understand the true size of the parts we are looking at here.

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Bee Balm

The photo above was clearly the winning picture today at the Hoboken Artists Studio Tour, as far as crowd reaction goes. This photo of the stalk under the petals of a Monarda bloom was the most well received image I showed today. Last year's crowd favorite (judged by observation) was the tap water, which you can see here.

If you missed it, by the way, I was mentioned in two different articles about the Studio Tour. One was an artist profile at the Jersey Journal (Adam Saynuk, Micro Photography) and the other was at the Hoboken Reporter (Showcasing Art in the Mile Square).

The photo that drew the second place (in terms of gasps and "no ways!") was the microphoto image of bread, as you can see below. Bread, it appears, is nothing more than cavernous bubbles encased in clear starchy, gluteny wisps.

I would say the third most liked (or "wowed") photo was the next photo down of mold on a chocolate cake. This field of flowers seemed to fascinate everyone for the same reason many of the other images did, because it's so unexpected.

Thanks to everyone who came out to see my work today!

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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.

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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.

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Wine and Cheese Social

It's standard practice to have refreshments, something like wine and cheese, for guests at an art opening or studio tour. For my Tiny Lab exhibit at the Hoboken Studio Tour, I chose to forego edible refreshments, and instead gave out small cards printed with macro images of wine and cheese. I had hoped these would be memorable and unique for my guests.

I did get some positive feedback, some visitors did seem delighted. And at least one blogger mentioned my refreshments in his blog. So I suppose it worked.

Above and below are two microphoto images of port. This came from the bottom of the bottle, so the sediment (composed primarily of shredded grape skins I guess) has collected in these drops I used in the setup. I love the color and luminance of these photos.

Below are two microphotos of cheese. The one directly below here is cheddar, and the one at the bottom of this post is gruyere. In both cases, I had simply sliced a thin sliver of cheese, and then torn the edge to get an interesting subject for the photo. Some visitors to Tiny Lab were a bit skeptical that this was cheese. I assure it you it was.

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100th Post! Hoboken Studio Tour, a Slideshow, and Bubbles?

So here we are at my 100th photo post at Morning Macro.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all three of my fans—and Mom—for visiting my photo posts so consistently. I have really enjoyed building this site, and if I could make a career of shooting tiny stuff right about now, I absolutely would.

Which brings up my next bit of news! I will be exhibiting in the Hoboken Studio Tour on Sunday, October 18, from noon to 6pm. I will show some large prints of macro photos (approx 30x45"), and I will setup two macro-lens cameras for visitors to try hands-on.

Additionally, I encourage anyone stopping by to bring an tiny intriguing item the size of a nickel or smaller. I will shoot a macro/micro photo of it on the spot and email the photo to its owner free of charge!

I will have more details about my (borrowed) studio location soon. So, make the trip to Hoboken later this month, swing by and say hi!

Last time I mentioned my impending 100th post, I said I was going to switch up the goal of the site. I wanted to look forward and bring Morning Macro to more people in more ways. Since then, we've seen a first attempt at what can be done with macro video, and I will be exhibiting at the upcoming event mentioned above. Plus, the Tiny Lab I'll setup for the Hoboken Studio Tour will bring the macro and micro world to more people. So, here's another cool thing...

I've setup a slideshow of all the Morning Macro photos, and a few that have never been posted (easter eggs!). I will try to keep this up to date, but that may not always happen. For instance, today's new post below is not in the slideshow. Oops! Also, the photos are not in the order that they had been posted to the site. So go take a look! What are you waiting for?

Now, I again ask that my three loyal fans—and Mom—send my Morning Macro site around to anyone you know who would appreciate it. And keep sending your suggestions for something tiny you'd like to see big!

Now, on to some celebratory bubbles! These bubbles below were roughly the size of this "o". I used a bit of a frozen raspberry, and squirted some cleaning solution from a spray bottle on it. The resulting shimmery bubbles against the deep raspberry color were really beautiful to me.

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Macro Flower Photos and Videos

This flower was about the size of a dime, covered in delicate petals that graduated from magenta at the bottom of the flower to white at the top. I took a bunch of shots as you can see, and also tried something new with the image series. See below...

macro flower movie from Adam Saynuk on Vimeo.

I'm trying something a little different today. I wanted to try out zooming and panning in super macro, and had to construct these movies from a set of individually shot images to make the movies. Anyway, we'll see if there's something cool here. They're real simple, so don't get your hopes up too much!

macro flower stem movie from Adam Saynuk on Vimeo.

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Fuzzy Flowers, Part 1

The fuzzy flowers above were blooming on a tree—what kind, I don't know just yet. I like their fuzziness, and their almost acrylic-like sheen and twinkle. Like Barbie hair.

They were about the size of large BBs. In the closer shot below, you get a better view of the shining strands of a blossom. One detail I noticed, only after reviewing these photos later, were the odd little white spheres buried among the fuzzies. All the flowers had those tiny balls in them. I've included a detail at the bottom of this post. I am at a loss as to what they are.

Seeds? Insect eggs? Something else? I don't know, you tell me what you think they are!

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Fastenation

I'm sorry I have not posted in about 7 days... we were out of town, and the past few days after getting back have been kinda hectic. But I'll try to keep pace here as we move through the rest of the summer.

Yes I know I spelled "fascination" incorrectly up there. It's a pun, freak. Today, we're looking closely at some fasteners.

Above you see the business end of a typical snap button. Looks a lot like a turbine jet engine, doesn't it? It's mate is below, reminiscent of a manhole in the street.

Below is Velcro™, or something like it. I think the generic name is fastening tape or sumthin'. This particular "fastening tape" was a feature on the of one of my girls' shoes.

I eat zippers. No, the thing below is not a monorail or a tiny tunnel for lower case n's. It's a zipper, silly.

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A Couple of Pretty Things

A macro of the curly end of a viney thing above which was hanging out twisted among the branches of one of mom's bushes. She didn't know that it was there and proceeded to rip out almost an entire bush-worth of vines! So FINALLY, eight-and-a-half months of macro photos have resulted in one practical use of them! Vine detective.

Below is just a photo I thought was artsy and cool. I've posted photos of water droplets before, here and here and here, and love how they warp and twist the light traveling through them.

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

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Portals to Other Worlds

Continuing with our plant theme, I've got a few that look like entries to other worlds or other dimensions. In a way, these actually are exactly that, entries to a diminutive dimension inside the blooms.

Above and at bottom are a couple shots of pollen stands greeting our journey inside the flower. Just below here are the complicated folds of a marigold. I've stripped the color from the marigold since we all know what they look like anyway, and removing the color helped emphasize many of the details of the marigold petals.

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Hairy Plant Parts

Plants seem to often be covered with a fine transparent fur. Stamens and stalks and fruits and leaves show this on close inspection. Here are a few photos to prove it!

Above is from the inside of a flower. The photo below is a very tiny early tomato, and below that, a stalk from a tomato plant, which clearly hasn't shaved in at least a week.

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4th of July Firework Flowers Superpost! Happy Birthday America!

In celebration of Independence Day, I'm posting a bunch of macro pics of flowers and flower parts that look like fireworks. I'll skip the penny comparison for these. Just go ahead and enjoy the show! Happy Birthday USA!

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