Macro Photography- Tiny Beetle

I've been taking some macro photography using a lens for my iPhone that I received for Christmas this year. It is awesome for taking photos of tiny natural features and textures.

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

I saw this tiny beetle crawling on my desk & wanted to see how detailed of an image I could get of it. When I say tiny, I mean it was smaller than the tip of a ballpoint pen! To illustrate the size, I took a few "zoom-out" photos, showing it in relation to a pen. The macro lens magnified it so well, I was able to see its head & the camo-like pattern on it's back.

 

Summer of Bugs

 This summer, I was able to take a lot of nature photography, especially macro close-ups of insects & spiders. Being able to zoom into the intricate details of these creatures gives you a deeper appreciation of their amazing complexity.

Nature Photography
by Paul Micarelli

This post is a roundup of photos I've taken of interesting creatures in my backyard. (I try to use my finger for scale whenever possible.)

First up is this little jumping spider that was staring at me as I snapped his pic:

Here are some alien-like macro shots of a kaytdid. Thankfully, I'm part of a local Facebook nature photography group, so they are a big help in identifying some of this wildlife. Otherwise, I would've thought this was just some kind of grasshopper:

 

Have you ever seen a katydid breathing? Now you have:

The next photos are actually post-mortem of what I was later informed was a cicada killer wasp. I was in the yard with my 3-year old son & it started buzzing around our heads. So, I took Paulie up to the porch, tracked it down, & sprayed it. I'd already been stung by multiple bees & wasps this summer, and this one looked it could definitely hurt one of us. I watched it fly across the yard & drop. I went over to the dead wasp & decided that it was pretty insane-looking, so I might as well get some photography of its physical features. 

Well, I caught a lot of shit from people in the nature photography group, because I had killed it. It actually cause a bit of a debate among the members who were defending me vs. the wasp defenders. Lol. I found out that cicada killer males put on a false show of aggression & actually are not super-dangerous. Although I don't want to kill any kind of life if I can help it, I truly felt that this wasp was a threat. I don't feel bad about taking out a wasp to prevent my son from possibly getting injured. Despite it's potential threat level, it's details were definitely fascinating:

Here's another really tiny spider, that was in a web on the leaves of a hibiscus plant. It was so small, I couldn't even pick up fine details with my macro lens:

This little green fella turned out to be a juniper stink bug. I knew it was shaped like a stink bug, but thought it was a small beetle or something. I'm used to the ugly brown stinkbugs.

 

Finally, this alien-like praying mantis was waiting for my family on our back door, as we came home from a Labor Day party yesterday. It was about 4-6 inches long. My wife refused to open the door until I got it the hell away from there.

Maple Seed Macro Photo

I added a macro photo of a maple seed pod (the 'helicopter' type of seed, that spins as it falls) to my album of nature pics:

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

I love taking macro photography, because I can capture detail that is too detailed for the human eye to see clearly- and there is SO much detail in every aspect of the world beyond our level of perception.

Here is the zoomed-out image of the seed pod:

Eye of a Walking Stick - Macro Closeup

 Have you ever looked deeply into the eye of a walking stick bug?

As I used my macro lens to zoom into the barely visible head of the insect, I realized there was a discernible eye on the side of it's antennae.

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

From this close, it really looks like a strange alien head of some sort, proving that we don't need to look to other planets to find interesting life forms.

Here is the walking stick a bit more zoomed out:

Garden Spider Macro Photo

I saw this tiny spider in its web among the bushes, and wanted to see if I could use my macro lens to get a closeup photo.

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

It turned out better than I thought. You can see all kinds of interesting details on this arachnid's underside. I love being able to see things right in front of me in a deeper perspective.

Your Beautiful Eyes

I saw this awesome link on BoingBoing a while ago featuring macro close-up photography of human eyes.

"Your Beautiful Eyes"

My previous post about sacred geometry reminded me of these super-detailed photos, which show the ordered chaos that somehow forms Life. The Mystery of the circle and nature's formation of such patterns are phenomena that a person can investigate and ponder for a lifetime.

Those macro eye photos are at a detail that is ironically beyond the normal perception of our own eyes. I guess that's why they almost look surreal, like they are made of sand or yarn. After looking at these crazy images, I had to go look in the mirror and study my own irises but there's no way to see details that fine without extra technology.

As a professional designer, my eyes are my life & livelihood. I definitely don't take my vision for granted. Actually, I'm always amazed by the wonders of eyesight and perception. It's hard to understand how these small gelatinous orbs could create the rich mental images of the world around us.

"Top 20 Optical illusions"

Speaking of optical illusions, here's one I made after seeing a similar technique used for an album cover. You need to click for the larger image- then squint or stand back from the monitor.

Monkey Buddha Optical Design

Macro Photography- Coral

I received a macro lens for my iPhone from my fiancée's parents on Christmas. I love taking nature photos, and this allows me to capture new perspectives from extremely close up. I will be adding them to my album of nature photos.

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

I've been taking some random pictures of things that I think have cool textures or interesting features. This is a piece of coral that I saved from a trip to Mexico many years ago. When you zoom into it, the many tiny pieces of sand embedded in the nooks become more evident.

Reality is endlessly fractal, with ever-more levels of detail to discover.

 

Early Spring Flowers - Macro Photography

It's that wonderful time of the year (in the Northeastern U.S. anyway), where nature is coming back to life in the Spring & the plant life begins blooming again. 

One of my favorite pastimes is taking photos of nature & trying to find interesting sights, especially on a small scale. My in-laws gave me a macro lens for my phone that allows me to get much closer shots. I use it all the time, because it lets you see the beauty and intricacy of our world on a level that's not in our usual field of awareness.

Here are some photos of flowering plants emerging in the Springtime, with regular photos & my hand for scale:

Tiny Green Spider Macro Photography

I saw this miniature spider on my car, and used my macro lens to get a closeup photo. I love getting a more detailed view of the life all around us, but beneath our threshold of perception.

The spider was green, and it was so small that it was translucent! It's 4 front legs were longer than its back legs, & it had eyes that were black points smaller than a grain of sand.

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

Here is my finger next to it, to get a sense of the tiny size of this arachnid:

 

Katydid Macro Photos

 

I recently saw this large katydid on my screen door, & went to grab my macro lens to take some detailed photos. 

 Nature Photography
by Paul Micarelli

 I mistakenly referred to it as a "grasshopper" when I posted it to a NJ Nature & Wildlife group I joined on Facebook. Some of the other members corrected me on what kind of insect it was, which is one of the nice things about social media- when you actually get correct information!

Here are some more photos, including extreme close-up shots of the leg & wing, which has evolved to mimic a leaf:

Autumn Leaf Macro Photo

 Macro photo of a multi-colored autumn leaf. 

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

 
The fractal contrast between the green & red, with yellow in between, is so vibrant.

Then you look closer and see the microscopic texture, and realize that there are millions of cells working as a system & forming this structure...

We exist in a practically infinite continuum of scale, from the quantum to the cosmic... (and this doesn't even include other dimensions that may be outside our ability to experience or comprehend, at all).

Macro Photos of "Kyber" Crystals

 

Recently my son received a crystal-growing kit as a gift. It turned out to be a fun science experiment, and we pretended that they were the fictional "kyber crystals" that power a Jedi/Sith lightsaber in Star Wars.

The fractal nature of the crystals is very interesting, and using macro photography I was able to show the self-similar features at smaller scales.

 

I also found a cool little display case to keep on his desk, so he can look at them with his magnifying glass:

Flower Macro Photos

 These are some closeup macro photos I took of the pistils & stamen of flowers.

 Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli