Back to the tent with the samples of a day out safely stored in glass jars

Beauty is in the eye of the shrimp lavae

One and a half mm long!

This shrimp was collected again same place as the plaice red dotted markings reminiscent

of those highly decorative caterpillars you see on a balmy summer evening

Pond Babies

In a lancashire terrace yard there was a built up pond with the usual fish and lilies. New fish and plants bring in unexpected visitors so it seemed theat overnight there was a plague of duckweed.

Imagine one leaf from a strand of duckweed then magnify it to one cell

then amazingly within that one cell appears a family of dark eyed grublings.This is my most favourite photo to date.Even more stunning on a 38inch screen

A Day Ends

 Losing the light so away with the microscope and out with the telescope. Is there no end to the pleasure?

A Single scale from a butterfly wing recovered after the photos were taken reminds me of a pine cone seed

The Collection Point

         The sea sample was taken at low tide on the left

Tail fin



Anal fin



Closer now Are they knuckles?

Even the fin bones had the camouflage patina at this magnification almost like little dollops of paint.See how they are jointed into the muscle of the main body.

On closer inspection

A little further down the fish ( which frankly at 6mm long was far too big) the beautiful patterning continues
like sunspots on a strange sun, Painted on such a translucent canvas as to allow us to get a glimpse of the underlying structure. There like the bands of clouds on a fast spinning planet far back in the solar system is the spine. The optical illusion fades and it is no longer a spherical planet but a flat 2D image of a fish bone. For me the mind image formed while undertaking the venture is indelibly printed the breath is still caught away and find myself caught back to reality with a jolt " What are you doing now? Get a  real life"

Beauty like appreciation is obviously  in the eye of  the beholder. No point trying to explain so back to the mundane.

Your'e not on this planet

Often said to me.
Most of my friends when seeing this picture assume it is some planetary phenomenon.
In reality the shadow is the eye of a tiny plaice the shape being the visual scope through a standard optical
microscope. Taken with the same camera.
I love the awesome design already present on the scales. Like a tiny work of modern art.

From early beginings

At the tender age of four the first awakening began.
All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small.
All things wise and wonderful, the LORD God made them all......

Little did I know how profound an effect the song learnt parrot fashion would have on my life.
Therin started a fascination with the small things.

On closer observation the two grasshoppers stand head to head A three hour mission to capture the moment.
Taken with a basic 5mp camera