this is a closeup shot of the feathery scales on a Monarch butterfly wing. each scale has a length of around 1/220 of an inch, so the height of this entire shot would be equivalent to the thickness of 3 sheets of paper. this particular butterfly died naturally near our studio, so we took the opportunity to explore what it had to offer.

Indiana wetlands

I'm climbing down inside a volcano crater and am amazed with the variety of rock/soil colours that are so neatly piled about.

long and soft water drops at the upper Talafofo Falls in southern Guam

a super closeup photograph of a swimsuit (Ocean Pacific, if you're curious). all the nylon/spandex fibers are white and only the portions toward the outer surface are dyed with a pattern of colours. the spaghetti-like strands seen here, are the ultra-tiny fibers that make up a single thread. these 'micro-threads' measure only 0.0004 inches in diameter (thinner than kitchen plastic wrap), and quite a few are bundled together to create an actual thread used to knit the fabric.

if you can't find any fruit stands in the Chernobyl district, you can create your own wacky-looking berries by dipping them into a vat of radioactive waste (or high fructose corn syrup will probably work the same). okay, this is actually the center area of a Grecian Windflower that happens to resemble raspberry-like shapes and colours. each protrusion measures 0.007 inches in diameter (equivalent to a single bristle on a toothbrush) and is surrounded by tiny clear hairs giving the appearance of ice crystals.

this is an extreme closeup shot of a silicon wafer that has shattered. like most hard & brittle materials, the broken fragments have scalloped patterns along the shattered edges (like broken glass). this particular fragment's pattern resembled a lightning storm and shows off an area of 0.0055 x 0.0037 inches (averaging out to the thickness of a sheet of paper).

This is the remains of Bristol Lake in the Mojave Desert. After the water evaporated and lake bottom began to dry, the variations in temperature caused the drying surface to crack and the soft elements underneath to ooze out between the cracks, forming little walls. The surface is extremely hard and rock-like and the jagged walls are strong and sharp.