This one is special for me, obviously clearly staged but these studio shots are a lot of fun and inventive. Before we dive into the details, I just want to let everyone know that I have a macro photography workshop coming up from February 3rd to the 24th which has a few spots left. It’s interactive, there are assignment critiques and live demos, which you can find more about here: princetonphotoworkshop.com/classes/macro

(also for those curious, my podcast Photo Geek Weekly has just been restarted: photogeekweekly.com/podcast/photo-geek-weekly-episode-181... )

This is another example of a photograph taken with the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Moment 75mm macro lens. This time it’s on the main camera that is capable (with the right app) of shooting 48MP raw images. My preference of app is Halide, which offers up manual focus and exposure controls, including focus peaking to see where the exact point of focus is located. It’ll also give me the giant raw file; it’s not the same as a 48MP file from a larger-sensor dedicated camera, but it does offer some additional details that you cannot achieve from the basic camera app.

This is staged (obviously!) using a bed of moss and a number of aquamarine crystals. Aquamarine is in the beryl family of crystals, which includes emerald among others. I collected these hexagonal prism crystals a long time ago with the hopes of creating a stage like this, but never got around to using them… until now! The crystals are arranged to look like ancient pillars of a long-forgotten temple, though they are carefully arranged in a single line so that the narrow depth of field can capture everything in a single frame. The refraction of the flower, however, is something different.

I tried many variations on this image, some using wildflower seeds or flower petals, but these were unsuccessful. The initial problems were caused by the light used to illuminate the aquamarine coming in from behind the flower, backlighting the scene. This light would also hit any other objects and make them too bright for the composition to work. However, what if I just placed a sphere in the scene? The sphere is actually a “water bead”, a tiny gel ball that absorbs water until it reaches the size of a marble. You can find them easily on Amazon for a few dollars ( www.amazon.com/NOTCHIS-Transparent-Floating-Centerpiece-D... ) but I’m sure your local dollar store will have some as well. The water bead is placed further back in the scene and is not technically in focus in the image. The refraction through the bead focuses at a different point than the bead itself, and the position lines up with the rest of the crystals being nicely sharp.

Here's a “behind the scenes” shot of the setup: donkom.ca/bts/PDKP8069.jpg

Lighting for this was a bit tricky – the background light is “flagged”, meaning I am using something to obstruct part of the light path to narrow where the light can spill. Some people use fancy equipment for this, I just sed some pieces of a cardboard box. The other light is aimed exclusively at the orange Gerbera Daisy to evenly illuminate the backdrop and the refracting flower image. Most of the gear is held in place with equipment from Platypod: their new phone grip, handle, Platypod eXtremes and Ultras, goosenecks, clamps etc. – they put together a nice kit: www.platypod.com/

I could have used any camera to create this shot – I have many. The purpose of shooting this with an iPhone is to illustrate that any capable camera can create great work, and effectively it’s not the camera that takes nice pictures – it’s the photographer. I also know that many people now shoot exclusively with their phone for various reasons, and I want to showcase what is capable on this platform. Mobile photography has improved so much in recent years that it’s a viable option. Would I use it to photograph snowflakes? No. There are many subjects that still require the “big guns” and I’ll be showcasing some of that soon. But, isn’t this fun?

Tags:   iPhone iPhone15 iPhone15ProMax macro Moment halide platypod water bead refraction beryl aquamarine crystal moss science studio phone mobile daisy Gerbera mineral mineralogy

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One of the upgrades on the iPhone 15 Pro Max is an increased telephoto reach from 3x to 5x, only for the Pro Max. This additional reach will also play will into magnification, when paired with a Moment 75mm Macro lens you can get some pretty intense magnification out of that camera!

The main camera (1x) on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max cameras (as well as the 14 equivalents) is capable of shooting 48MP raw files. This is not true for the wide and telephoto cameras which are still both limited to 12MP. That said, there is a lot of potential even with the limited resolution, as you can see in this image. The scale is extremely small, a couple millimeters. This is cropped slightly, but you can see that high magnification with a phone camera is certainly possible!

We must understand that there are certain limitations at play here, and it’s not just the resolution of the camera sensor. The closer you get to your subject, the shallower your depth of field becomes. We are also playing at the extreme edge of resolving power due to diffraction; even if the telephoto camera was capable of generation more than 12MP, I doubt it would translate into anything meaningful in the final image due to diffraction. I’ll save the physics lesson on diffraction for another day, but this is a realm where a larger professional camera could get better results. Not saying the results here aren’t worth achieving, though! Especially as so many people are ditching the interchangeable lens cameras for shooting more exclusively with whatever fits in their pocket.

This dandelion seed isn’t fresh. If you pick these seeds, they’ll usually keep well enough for a year so you can use them over the winter – just store them in a small cardboard box so they can completely dry out. The majority of the droplets come from a spray bottle but the large one in the middle is placed with a hypodermic needle. A Gerbera Daisy is placed in the background – notice it has a greenish center? That green is what creates the background. These daisies work best when the center of the flower has a different colour than the petals which allows for a lot of colour contrast across the frame.

As for additional equipment, the shot is set up using LumeCube 2.0 lights and a bunch of gear from Platypod: their new phone grip ( www.platypod.com/products/platypod-grip ) is a key component, but so is the handle, the gooseneck arms, the elbows and the clamps. The clamps are good for holding larger things for the very precise grip needed to hold a dandelion seed, it’s augmented with an alligator clip. You might want to create images like this under a towel, as you’re going to get a lot of water everywhere.

You can find a "behind the scenes" view of the setup here: donkom.ca/bts/PDKP8061.jpg

A few people asked based on the previous iPhone photograph I shared, “which lens is best for [insert phone name]”? I can tell you that the Moment 75mm macro lens ( www.shopmoment.com/products/75mm-macro-mobile-lens-t-series/ ) is a great option and it’ll work for any iPhone, Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy phone when you get the case and the T-series drop-in adapter. That’s not to say it’s the only option available! However, be wary of grandiose claims like “50x microscope” or extremely inexpensive offerings. You get what you pay for. You’re already pushing up against the limitations of the physics of light, so you don’t want your lens to add additional faults.

Tags:   water droplets water droplets iPhone iPhone15 iPhone15ProMax Moment Platypod halide macro refraction reflection science physics flower daisy gerbera dandelion pink splash phone mobile

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I love creating water droplet images, this one attempting to depict the flow of water down across flower petals, each droplet refracting the image of an orange Gerbera daisy in the background. The real fun part of this image isn’t the subject, but rather the equipment; this image was photographed using my phone.

Since the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple has allowed the capture of 48MP raw image data off the main camera. This was photographed using the iPhone 15 Pro Max with the same feature, as well as a new lens that can allow for macro magnifications on the main camera (normally relegated to the wide-angle camera). The Moment 75mm macro lens is a simple attachment that pushes capabilities of the iPhone to the extreme. I’ve used an older Moment macro lens on an older iPhone, but the results were nothing quite like this.

Let’s take a look at the rest of the gear involved, here’s a BTS shot: donkom.ca/bts/PDKP8059.jpg You’ll need a Moment phone case to mount the lens, and everything needs to be as sturdy as possible. I am lucky to be testing the new Platypod Grip ( www.platypod.com/products/platypod-grip ) which is the most robust phone holder I have handled. It’s everything you want it to be for integrating your phone into a photographic workflow, and more. A bunch of other Platypod gear is used too – clamps, elbows, goosenecks, handle etc. – and the lighting is coming from two LumeCube 2.0 units. These work very well in tight places, and are waterproof.

You’ll need a good camera app to handle all of this, including being able to record that 48MP raw file, as well as manual controls for focus and exposure. Halide has been on the cutting edge of this for a while now, and they’re using the first out with major improvements and innovations. The company behind Halide, Lux, is always pushing the limits of functionality of mobile photography.

The droplets are placed with a hypodermic needle, filled with plain old tap water. Nothing fancy, no additives, and they tend to “stick” well enough to the petals of Gerberas. If the droplet wants to roll away, it can be beneficial to “hold” it in place with the needle for a moment before pulling the metal tip away. This would allow for some of the surface tension properties to shift in your favour. By the same measure, the droplets will eventually become slightly flattened over time, so it’s best to work as quickly as possible. The one drooping down at the bottom was attached from the bottom, not the top.

Mobile Phone Photography has reached a level that I didn’t expect it to. Sure, you need the proper skills to get the most out it – but creations such as this have just become much more approachable to a wider audience.

Tags:   water droplets refraction reflection iPhone iPhone15ProMax phone mobile macro Moment Apple science physics floral flower gerbera daisy nature macrophotography platypod lumecube Halide

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I’ve been working on this one for a long time. More time has been put into this snowflake than any other edit in my history. What you’re seeing here is BOTH sides of the most complex snowflake I have ever photographed, mirrored.

The original image (left) was published as a part of the 2017-2018 snowflake series: flickr.com/photos/donkom/39289310091/ - and it was such a compelling crystal that, in the field, I did something I rarely do: I photographed both sides of the snowflake. Once the first set of images are taken for the purposes of focus stacking, the snowflake is then flipped over using a delicate paintbrush. The reverse side is then photographed in the same manner. It’s not the first time I’ve done this, but it certainly is the most elaborate and the first time I’ve been able to mirror it against itself. The right-side image was never edited until now, and it the final composite took me a few days to create.

The mirroring process is no small feat. While the images are generally the same structure, they are not taken at precisely the same angle. Geometric corrections are made to match the two sides in Photoshop using the Distort tool with a blending mode set to “difference” which allows for the direct comparison of the footprint of the snowflake to align both together. The match isn’t perfect, as the snowflake would have sublimated between the two sets of images, and each side has different features. Those different features are what makes this image so unique.

I’ve talked about this before: one side of a snowflake has topographical grooves, ridges, valleys etc. while the other side is mostly smooth. This image is the perfect way to express this differential. You can even spot certain features like a branch growing on multiple levels, and that is reversed in the mirror image. Colour from bubbles trapped in the ice via a prism effect are more noticeable on the right side vs. the left as well. There’s a lot of visual comparisons to be made as your eyes jump between the two halves of this image!

Snowflakes normally do not get to this size and complexity while still staying roughly symmetrical in features across all the branches. Symmetry isn’t the best word here, but rather “balance” with puzzle pieces fitting tightly against each-other. The chiseled edges indicate slower growth, something also uncommon for a crystal of this magnitude. This specimen represents an extreme rarity, and while we might expect snowflakes to look like this in our imagination, such creations are extraordinarily rare in nature.

I hope 2024 brings you peace, is filled with beauty and wonderful memories, and contributes to the positivity in life that helps define you. This is a year that contains insurmountable uncertainty for so many millions of people, and a year where the world is resting on a razor’s edge. Because of this uncertainty, it is especially important that we all admire the good in our lives – including the people we hold close and the friendships we have cultivated. Reach out to friends you haven’t heard from in a while, they’ll be glad you called. 2024 needs to be a year of growth and prosperity – I hope you all find that in the 365 days to come.

Tags:   snow snowflake flake mirror reflection fractal symmetry ice nature natural sky science physics weather meteorology hydrology mineral mineralogy water frozen macro micro microscopy focus stacking winter Canada real Canon 1DX2 MP-E65

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Where there’s colour, there’s information. This particular specimen has a lot of knowledge to give due to its sublimative collapse, giving us a unique look into how snowflakes “age”. Before we explore those details, I’d love for you to check out my new snowflake coin design, minted by the Royal Canadian Mint into a pure silver hexagonal coin: www.mint.ca/en/shop/coins/2023/dollar20-pure-silver-hexag...

Thin film interference is the reason for the colours in snowflakes – at least, these sorts of colours. We can also find similar colours in soap film, and the thickness of the film has a direct relation to the colour that is presented. Here’s an amazing resource that describes it, and more importantly, provides a thickness chart that corresponds to the colours: physics.stackexchange.com/questions/380657/soap-film-sudd... . Do you see that colour chart expressed in this snowflake? I certainly do!

Due to sublimation, this snowflake is returning to thin air (evaporating from a solid without first becoming liquid). If it was melting, you’d see little beads of water sitting on top of the crystal. Sublimation happens in the reverse order as crystal growth – whatever sticks out the farthest, sublimates the fastest. This means the outer edges fade away faster, shrinking the footprint of the snowflake quickly. This makes shooting them difficult with the focus stacking nightmare involved, but it doesn’t stop there.

If you pay attention to the lower-left side with its large gradient of colours, it fades to white, which corresponds to roughly 100nm of thickness. 100nm = 0.0001 millimeters. If you look at the lower right area, you’ll notice the same pattern, though slightly more condensed and the stringy-like bubbles on the outer edge have completely collapsed due to external sublimation (the top layer evaporating).

Those stringy-like bubbles, resembling the map of tunnels in an ant farm, I believe are the result of internal sublimation. We have a dance of decay here, both changing the outside and the inside of the snowflake until there is nothing left to admire. How long has this snowflake been sublimating? Hard to say, but those tunnel-complex bubbles would likely take only a few minutes to form under the right conditions. They can begin to form while a snowflake is still in its growth phase, but I have evidence of their formation in this specimen with “before” and “after” shots, measuring only 30 seconds apart. Take a look at that here: donkom.ca/bts/_DKP0171-sublimation-comparison.jpg

The comparison between these two snowflake “states” reveal the constantly-changing nature of the crystal. The colour bands across the bubbles have all changed, with the most prominent gradients reverting to colours representing a much thicker structure. As I had previously suspected, these trapped bubbles shrink in diameter while becoming thicker, leaving a network of bubble tunnels behind them.

Imagine my frustration putting the final focus-stacked image together!

Tags:   snow snowflake flake ice crystal natural nature winter macro micro microscopy color colour thin film interference sublimation hexagon Canada science physics fractal weather meteorology hydrology mineral mineralogy focus stacking Lumix LumixS1 S1 lumixstories

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