Much of my photography is focused on the nature which is to be found in the Indiana Dunes. I find myself particularly drawn to the small details. I enjoy finding ways to see things differently, often by removing context so that an object is reduced to abstract patterns and colors that make the viewer question what it is that they are looking at.

My appreciation for the beauty in nature however, encompasses a much wider range of subjects than what is to be found during a hike through the dunes. One of my favorite subjects are birefringent crystals as viewed through crossed polarizers, often using microscopes to obtain high magnifications and on which I have posted before. To me this is as much “nature” photography as taking images of plants and insects. All of the shapes, patterns and colors in the following images are the product of the nature of light and how it interacts with crystals of vitamin C which have formed on a microscope slide. The birefringent properties of the crystals are likewise the result of the natural processes which come together to arrange vitamin C molecules into crystalline forms. The results, when viewed up close (typically magnifications from 20x to 100x) are stunningly beautiful.

As I have described in previous posts on the technique of cross polarization micro photography, the details and colors in these images are true to how the crystals really look. Nothing in the images are computer generated, nor are the colors artificially enhanced. If you were to look through the eyepiece of the microscope this is what your eye would see.