I’ve written about looking through my viewfinder with a macro lens on the camera and navigating a new country. The topography and contours of this “country” are unknown, and it is my job to explore. It’s also my job to present a coherent slice of this jumbled terrain to present to my audience a “landscape” they haven’t seen before.

After all, collaborating with one’s viewers to show something in a new way is one of the goals of photography, or, dare I say, all art. And where could this be more true than in macro work? Of course, just because something is novel, because I’ve discovered new country in a close-up, doesn’t mean it is interesting or moving. But novel gets attention, and attention is the first step towards deeper meaning and beauty.

These macro images at not quite 1:1 show a Proteus center, glowing and wet with internally-produced dew drops. I was surprised to see the faint spiral like shape at the center of the system of styles and anthers.