INTRODUCTION


The pictures on this site are taken through a microscope. If you are interested, read the following explanation of my techniques, to understand what you are looking at!

crystals	bubbles	plastics	sand

MICRO-CRYSTALS are made by dissolving a chemical and evaporating the fluid by heating, or otherwise. During this process tiny crystals appear, which can be studied in polarized light.
Almost every chemical crystallizes under the right circumstances in an endless variety of form and structure.

Nothing but optical coloring is used. The pictures are taken with a camera mounted on the microscope.
Magnification: Imagine the pictures covering an area of ± 1 mm².

The BUBBLE PICTURES are taken without the help of polarization filters, but most of them, like the crystal pictures, through the light microscope.
A few are made with the help of my stereo microscope, when I needed a bigger surface. For coloring I used home-made plastic filters of various design, with one or two or many colors. So: the coloring is purely optical, though not natural.

The FLUID pictures are photographed with my light microscope mainly. The fluids were captured between two glass plates. Sometimes I used colored filters to give them a nice touch.

The THIN SECTIONS , very thin and transparent slices of common rock , were photographed through the light microscope, which reveils their crystal structure in polarized light.

The PLASTICS are partly photographed with the light microscope and partly with the stereo. Polarization is used, because plastic is often highly polarizing material.

The PATTERNS, most of them from fluids, are made by using Photoshop to multiply and mirror the original pictures. It's amazing how patterns are formed and seemingly unimportant details suddenly stand out in great beauty. In some cases I manipulated the colors a bit for visual effect.

The pictures of SAND are all taken through a monoculair zoom-microscope I use for this purpose almost exclusively. It has the same low magnifications as a stereo, and the area photographed for the sand pictures ranges from 1 mm for the very fine sand, till 1 cm for the coarser varieties.

I have chosen not to mention all the individual chemicals I used for the crystal pictures, for several reasons. One of them is that it is impossible to get about the same pictures twice, if somebody wants to try. Another is that I often used more than one chemical, in quantities I never register. So giving you the names wouldn't do much good.
I use many household chemicals, on their own already quite often composed of different elements. It would be impossible, and quite boring, to mention them all.
However: the chemical tour you're about to embark on has 3 distinctive highlights: Ascorbic Acid (vit.C), Paracetamol and Cholesterol.
Those wellknown substances are presented in their full and varied glory, to prevent you from forgetting that you are looking at crystallized chemicals... and not touring an art gallery somewhere....

Although there are no names attached, the information about any picture can be obtained, of course. Just give me the number and the gallery, and I'll be happy to inform you.
Should you have questions about the technique or my equipment: look at the FAQ's first.
If you want to use a picture for some purpose, please contact me.

And now I'm going to take you with me on a tour through the wonders of my small world.
If you please...?