Bubbly Potato Root

Bubbles in layers.

Contemplating the Apple

Cells of an Apple Fruit and Skin

Fruit cells low and medium power

Apple Skin Cells Low, Medium, and high power

New Experiments with Dark Field

Using small dark field "filters" placed on my shelf over the light source and moved until optimum, I have found better levels of contrast and sharpness.

Pictures of the salt water sample.

Features on a Fly's Thigh

I'm experimenting with dark field and top stage illumination. I discovered that insect skin (the external skeleton) is not smooth but has a lot of texture and odd outgrowths such as horny extensions.

Trying to Understand the Anatomy of a Two-Millimeter Fly

I took a series of micrographs of a fly I found dead on the bathroom sink. The fly is not transparent so it's hard to get the details beyond the outline visible in the light microscope. I have to use a dark field technique with top stage lighting. I'm not very good with the microscope yet so getting these to work is hard for me. Then I have to try to figure out what I'm taking pictures of. In some parts of the fly it's not obvious.

The fly itself, taken with my digital microscope, is the first image . Then come higher magnification images that I try to identify with labels.

You can see that the fly is a little beat up in the slide--probably from carrying it to mount it.
Here are the micrographs.

a mysterious tube like protrusion on the thorax

 probably the antenna

 wing

 part of the antenna resting on the slide

 leg joint

 another leg joint

another picture of the wing

Unable to get off

Unable to get off
I found a bit of the world
so far away
measurecd in scale
it might be alien.
I rest here
still alive,
but out of the reach
of voices.

Banana Skin Cells inside and out

 Banana Skin Cells Outside

Banana Skin Cells Outside

Banana Skin Cells Inside

Banana Skin Cells Inside (dark field)

Banana Skin Cells Inside

Special MCC Contest (Letters and Numbers)

Manage Fruit

The Mysterious Salt Water Biome

It's the kind of crowded place you have to focus through. A micron of focus change reveals a whole new neighborhood.

Cactus Cells

My sample wasn't well microtomed--it's likely several cell layers too thick. It's still quite beautiful. It looks like the cells contain tiny oceans.

and under higher power I could see the organelles within the cells moving back and forth.

I can understand
how the sea was in it
although it clearly
did something to the ocean
before grabbing it, bloating
in its bag. What does it
hold the ocean in? How do its
tiny belly bubbles shine?

Odd Number of Things Camera Club Contest

Orange Peel Cells

Into the Wilderness

For our lately instituted 2 pm art coffee break, I did the following card. The inside says, "Don't forget the trees."