Frosty Forms

 While we were out enjoying our walk along the riverside dykes in Squamish, I couldn't help but notice the stunning blades/feathers of frost which had formed. I expect it was some combination of wind from the sea picking up moisture from the open river, but if anyone out there has a better explanation I am all ears. Even to the naked eye the ground looked like a little forest of ice.

 Luckily I had both my macro lens and my wife's patience, so I took a few minutes to hunker down and get some close ups of these shapes at the same time. Between the bright light of the sun and the contrasty highlight nature of the frost itself, I was able to shoot handheld with a high aperture and capture some very interesting images that would be invisible to average passerby. One thing I have truly learned to love about macro photography is finding the surreal or beautiful in day-to-day events we take for granted.

 There were lots of twigs and grasses poking above the snowline, and a totally different type of columnar frost had formed on them, radiating out at every angle. These shapes really remind me of the crystal plinths in Superman's "Fortress of Solitude." So for any of our snowbound readers out there, remember that even though you're sick of the snow by now and ready for summer, there are some pretty spectacular aspects to it if you only take a minute to stop and appreciate them.

Low Tide Shellfish Macro

I got a very nice macro lens this spring as a post-overtime reward and have been very happy with it. For those of you that follow such things, its a 60mm equivalent that can do 1:1 macro and has a focusing distance about an inch from the end of the glass. Low tide offers some pretty great macro opportunities and a few are below. Starting off with an oyster which most of you can imagine the scale of from experience.

Below is a snail on that oyster. You can see the one in the picture above as the little black dot near the top of the lip of the oyster. The biggest trick with pictures at this magnification is the focal depth is incredibly shallow and its very easy to have your intended object out of focus with the tiniest movement. Case in point only part of the snail below is actually in focus.

Here we have some barnacles feeding underwater. Their shells are maybe the size of a pea, which should give an idea what this new lens is capable of. For those of you bored by camera tech I do have a few barnacle fun-facts: they begin their lives as little swimming larvae which eventually glue their heads to a suitable surface and then spend the rest of their lives catching food with their feet. Throw in being hermaphrodites with the largest genitals-to-body size ratio of any animal in the world, and maybe you don't really want to be looking at them much closer than this ;)

Aquarium Macro and Mobile Octopus

Geordie got his macro lens and has been taking pictures of all things small and wee.  Like the below Grunt Sculpin which is one of his favorites at the aquarium.  They aren't much bigger than a postage note but with the right camera you can get right in and get detail that you may have missed.

The below being from another world is a Hooded Nudibranch. Steven, Geordie and I had to look this one in our big marine life book as we had no idea what it could be.  It looks like a huge mouthed horror but actually the biggest ones are as half as long as your hand.  Nudibranchs come in so much variety they are one of my favorite squishy things in the ocean.

Speaking of squishy things the Giant Pacific Octopus at the Vancouver Aquarium has grown so large that he can no longer fit in his various hidey holes.  While we used to play 'spot the octopus' its now splashed all over his tank.  They can grow to 9 metres across.  I have unofficially named this one one Splortch. 

Aquarium Amphibians which Act Awesomely

Frogs are fun and cute.  Sounds like the title of a kids book. I mean look at that little self-satisfied expression on this Waxy Monkey Treefrog (yes, you read that right).  The amphibian exhibit at the Vancouver Aquarium is pretty good, but I prefer going out and finding my own. Though there's lots of stuff that we don't get up in Canada.  Poison dart frogs for one.

Axolotl's are another. Apparently they taste like chicken but I would be really really hungry before I grilled one.  They look made for kebabs though.  They have very wide mouths and pretty pink frilly things around their gills.

These poison dart frogs pictured below are super tiny. They are about as big as your thumbnail.  You need a macro or really good zoom to get a reasonable focus on them.  They bounce up and down a bit sometimes. I am not sure if its mating display or a territorial display. Or maybe they are just bouncing because they are happy pretty red froggies.

Escargots Anyone?

 "There's a big snail on the balcony, you should check it out when you get home."
Sensible enough advise from a wife fascinated by all animals and sweet enough to humor my newfound macro obsession. About the width of a quarter I found this snail eating some bird droppings on the pavement and started playing around with my macro gear. Eventually I poked it a bit as it had retracted into its shell when I approached.

 "Sweet merciful God, why won't it stop screaming?" you are probably thinking at this point. Snails seem to be able to fold up and invert pretty much their entire head, to the point that its eyestalks (which are probably a third of its body length each) can be not only retracted into its shell, but withdrawn completely into its own head.

 Even a pair of tentacles by its mouth (that they apparently use to smell) are likewise suctioned right into the head, presumably so nothing is dangling out and an easy meal for a passing bird. Once the face fully flopped out it peered around with its eyestalks peering in different directions and surveying its surroundings for predators or anything else that should concern it.

Once again I appreciate macro photography for taking the more insignificant things in life and making them stunning. I have seen thousands of snails in my life but rarely stop to take in what a marvel of biology they are in their own right.

Macro Madness

 A few years back my father-in-law passed off some vintage lenses he wasn't using and there was a nice 50mm prime in there. Hooked up to some $10 extension tubes from ebay, I have been able to start experimenting with macro photography to a degree I was unable to previously. Below is a closeup of the nasal cavity of a deer skull that Kathryn cleaned up herself a few years back.

 This beautiful lattice is actually a decaying leaf Kathryn found on the ground. It looks totally unremarkable from a distance, but when you zoom in you can see an amazing fractal mesh left behind as the softer parts of the leaf rotted away.

 Its great fun to find abstract patterns and landscapes in commonplace objects, but its also fun to have a closer look at very small things. The barnacle cluster below is smaller than your pinky fingernail but with my new setup, everyone can get a nice closeup look.

All the pictures above are larger than they appear in the blog here, and if you click on them they will enlarge for easier viewing.