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

Of Belly Buttons and Straw Hats

First of all, I wanted to enlighten my devoted audience as to who they are. Below are the top 10 web searches that send visitors to my site:

1.	worlds biggest belly button
2.	worlds largest belly button
3.	belly button fuzz
4.	adam saynuk
5.	biggest belly button in the world
6.	bubble ornaments
7.	largest belly button
8.	pieromainea
9.	the worlds biggest belly button
10.	world's biggest belly button

So, who knew there was such a huge demand for information about belly button size and the fuzz which such a belly button can collect? Should I be offended that "worlds biggest belly button," "worlds largest belly button," and "belly button fuzz" are more popular reasons to hit my photoblog than I am. And I'm a bit surprised that not one of my top ten popular keyword searches has anything to do with macro photos or photography at all!

FYI, this is the post these belly button fans find in their journey here.

The strange world of Google. Now, on to the macro photos, not that all you belly button-obsessed people care anyway.

Here are two photos of straw hats, up close and personal. One, Sarah likes, the other will be returned to the store from whence it came. Interesting how different their weaves are. One, shiny and smooth, the other rough and scratchy looking.

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

Mimi's wool winter cap

Today, I adapted my lens by "stacking" another lens with it in order to gain greater magnification. This is the result.

I had been capturing an area about 22mm wide with my previous setup. Now I'm getting about 8-9mm (with a little cropping due to an unfortunate vignette effect).

This is a shot of the fibers of Mimi's winter cap up close. I think that large white line is a dog hair, courtesy of Dash. What you find as you look at smaller and smaller things, is that there are no sharp and hard lines. Everything is a rounded edge at some lower limit, and it sometimes makes for difficult edge clarity in a shot like this.

These fibers appear to be oval, and semi-translucent, making them show up less sharp than I would like. Though this could also be an undesirable effect of my stacked lens which would not be present in a far better lens.

EDIT: OK, so I have an edit to this one. Not only was I wrong about the material (it's acrylic), but I was wrong about its ownership (it's Violet's). The hat, however, is still actually blue-green.

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