Cross Polarization Crystal Photography | MC^2 Nature Photography

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.

Analogous to the way in which you can train your eye to see nature in new and different ways while out hiking through a forrest, birefringent crystals hold within themselves an inherent beauty which is not difficult to see once you learn how to look. It is quite amazing how dramatically the appearance of a simple sugar crystal changes when viewed through crossed polarizers as the following before and after images illustrate. Each pair of photographs are of the exact same part of a sugar crystal taken through a microscope with a magnification of about 50x. The only difference is that the before photos are taken with unpolarized light while the after images are taken with the addition of a pair of polarizers. The colors which appear in the cross polarized images are all produced by nature, they are not computer generated nor are have they been enhanced, you would see these same colors if you looked through the microscope eye piece with your eye instead of the camera. There is an incredible amount of beauty in nature, but often we need to learn how to see in order to observe it.

As with all of the images on my site you can click on them to see them full size.