6 TH place winner, Discus scales

[Apistomaster]

Go to #6 to see a beautiful microphotograph winner in the annual Nikon Corp Contest.
Scales of a discus magnified as art.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/1...t/?ref=science

[fishkeeper59]

WOW!!!! how awesome, never realized that a discus scales has so many different characteristics, makes you appreciate the fish that much more, i saved that pic. in my favorite file. thanks.....

[Discus-Hans]

ha ha ha remembers me of the first "scrape" of a Discus I made and put it under the microscope, scared the heck out of me. Was complete in panic what the heck do I've on my Discus lol lol lol

Hans

[TankWatcher]

Pretty cool picture.

[Apistomaster]

ha ha ha remembers me of the first "scrape" of a Discus I made and put it under the microscope, scared the heck out of me. Was complete in panic what the heck do I've on my Discus lol lol lol

Hans

I have looked at Discus scales under my microscope and I have a good one and I saw the structures but not the brilliant colors this contest photo has captured. It takes some creative light from above and below to capture so much color.
Butterfly wing scales are also that way although they look good under normal light transmission from below your sample you can see much more color if you even just supplement the light from above with a high intensity flash light.

I figured a lot of us would enjoy seeing this photo and I was very surprised after looking at the photo reading that it was of Discus scales.
What was also surprising was it was taken at only 20X.
Microscopy is one of those hobbies which is very complementary to fish keeping in general.
In any given established aquarium there is an absolutely amazing diversity of life that normally goes unseen. It has been done before but one thing I have never done is sample the skin of a Discus during the brood care stage when the secretocytes are much enlarged.

[2075turner]

Very cool pic. Thanks for sharing

[blue acara]

Great pic, also check this close up of a sajica I took. not fully in focus but still cool

[poconoboss]

I've done some extreme macro shots with my camera that I will share:

Close up of the foam in my camera case:



Cross section of a chocolate covered pretzel:



Sheetrock screw:



Grain of sea salt:



Peppercorns:



Italian bread with sesame seeds:



Postage printed on an envelope:



My watch face:



End of a banana:

[Cooldadddyfunk286]

awesome macros, I used to have some KILLER insect macros that I took with my old cam, on my old comp. too bad I dont have them uploaded somewhere.
Nice watch too bub

[wgtaylor]

This is not a macro but nature is beautiful even full size. When I saw this moth I thought....wow....that looks like a Samuari Warrior with his head bowed. Of course everyone thought I was crazy and well....I live in the boondocks and hang out with discus all day.

[Disgirl]

Thanks so much guys for posting these pics. I really enjoyed seeing them!!!
Barb