Aphids!

This is my first post in a long time. Starting a business really soaks up the leisure time!

We planted some flowers and veggies on the deck, and recently found aphids in one of the plants. Before spraying them out (or sicking a rabid ladybug on them) i took a few micropics. The big aphid was about 3mm long, the baby ones about 1 to 1.5 mm.

Aphids were harmed in the making of these photos. Well... they were harmed afterward.

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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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Ever Wonder What Pollen Looks Like?

Well, Here you go.

The pictures in this post successively magnify the stamen of a flower and then we zoom into the pollen it's holding. I think they ultimately look like Spanish yellow rice.

As I understand it, pollen comes in all shapes and sizes, these just being one variety which is fairly large. I estimate these particular pollen grains at about .2 mm, or about 150-200 micrometers each.

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The Dandiest of Lions

These microphotos show one seed "parachute" from a dandelion, or blow flower. I've shot dandelions like this before while in Canada, here. Though the previous dandelion appears to be a bit different from this one.

Note in the last photo of this series how the seeds attach to the center of the parachute bell by way of a long thin arm, whereas the other dandelion's seeds seem to extend a stylish fin from their parachutes to their flower center.

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Sunflower Surprises

We had some large sunflowers in a vase at home, so I took a look with the macro lens. Here's what I found: A very tiny droplet and a blue crystal of some substance.

The water drop must have been quite small, considering the width of the photo measures an area only about 5mm wide. I didn't know it was there and didn't expect to find it while just shooting the end of  a couple petals.

The photo below contains some parts of the flower that I believe held pollen at one point. Unexpectedly, I found a tiny blue crystal nestled among the structures. I am guessing that it's the dried/crystallized remains of a pesticide or fertilizer that had been sprayed on the field of sunflowers.

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Hairy Sunflower Leaves

I've become fascinated with the sunflowers on our kitchen table. Their stems and leaves are covered with tiny hairs (like many plants I've observed), and wicked spotty patterns.

While these photos are not not going to be in my show for the Hoboken Studio Tour this Sunday, you should still come by and say hi! I'll be in the Monroe Center, Studio E417, from noon to 6pm. Go to the 4th floor, and turn left coming out of the elevator. My show is called Tiny Lab.

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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.

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Pumpkin Berries, Just in Time for the Fall

Here is the stem of an odd plant we found while at the park. This stem is only about the width of a nickel. The plant had little green berries that resembled tiny pumpkins, and much smaller flower-like blooms with a very small berry inside. Violet crushed one of the berries and it contained a black gooey seed and smelled strongly of green peppers.

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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 2

I think these look like lawn-sprinkler jets of water, frozen in time.

Two quick photos of blow flowers. These are the little seedy parts of a dandelion parachute ball, with their parachutes extending off their so-called pappi. Saw this in Muskoka and had to get a shot of it. These photos are not taken with my new lens, in case you were wondering ;-)

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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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85th Post, Some Planty Things

Let's take a short break from the bugs. Today we're looking at plantlife. The blossom above was about the size of a button on your cell phone. Judy and Kyla were there when this was shot, so they can correct my memory if I'm wrong ;-)

I understand why macro photographers shoot primarily bugs and flowers. They're endlessly fascinating and detailed. The smaller you go, the more detail you find. Bugs in particular are made up of all their plates of armor and bizarre hair and feathery scales, and spikes, and prismatic wings and club-like antennae and more.

But I contend that limiting one's self to bugs and flowers is an unfortunate form of tunnel vision. We've seen here at Morning Macro just how interesting the normal and boring items of our everyday life are. And, from recent conversations with some fans, I've found that this is part of the fun of the photos here—a game that site visitors play, trying to guess what these things are before reading to find out. It seems that the site's tagline, "think a little differently about the world around you" appropriately echoes the mindset of this audience.

So, this is my 85th entry to Morning Macro. I don't want to meta-discourse too long here, but I'm excited that soon we will see the 100th post here. That would put us at approximately 1 post for every 3.5 days, often with multiple photos. This venture is proving to accomplish my original goal: to make me create art regularly. So lets change that original goal to a new target.

I am going to aim for an art show of some of this content, and maybe some that has never appeared here. I also want to bring more Morning Macro to more people. This might be through something book-like, or video, or something else.

We'll figure out the details soon enough, but in the meantime, I want to ask my small (but loyal) audience to send a link to this site to their friends and family that you think might find this interesting, fascinating, beautiful, freaky, or any other emotion. In my mind if somebody has a vague to strong reaction to my photos, I've done some part of my job as an artist.

I want feedback and ideas for more photos. I want to know what you think might be interesting should we see it magnified. I want more ideas in more places. And we'll see where this little adventure goes.

I'm so thankful to those of you who have been following the past nine months.

Above, you see a cute little berry which was about the size of a BB. I like the fall-ish colors of this photo. Very Thanksgiving-y for those visitors from the U.S.

Below is a close-up of a spiky plant thing. I like the sense of dimension in this one as the object turns away from the lens. Also note the teensy tiny cobweb. I suppose it could be caterpillar silk or something else made by a little guest I'm not aware of. Either way, consider that this is the closest I can currently magnify an object, so the little guy that made that silk must be just about microscopic.

Thanks again for all your support and encouragement!

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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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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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