Microscopy: Nails, Bristles, and a Special Drawing

Enjoy the complexity of mundane, everyday objects under a microscope

There is hidden detail and richness in almost everything. One way to catch a glimpse of that richness is to observe the objects under a high magnification.

Going straight to the point, here are some arresting images and stacks of various tools, bristles, and a special drawing by yours truly.

Various Tools

The pointy tip of a generic screw. Looks a lot blunter than real life. Look at the metallic structure, the unevenness, how it has been worn and scratched with time. The light, the shadows, the detail, the small thread at the top.

1*7lecEcdw4dOZL1noUbMf1A — The pointed-end of a small nail. A bit dark, obscure in the shadows, but you can still make out some of the details. The protrusion in the middle, the edges, the bumpiness.

1*eBE6qNIzVKklJxJMybsHzw — A knob-like protrusion from the surface of a tool. Same old detail, same old intricacy, yet still fascinating.

1*lYtn4A1Z2YtAJf3XkICI Q — A single coarse-brush bristle, at 100x magnification. Look at shape, the color, the shadows, the relatively smooth texture, the minute inconsistencies.

No Idea What This Is

The following is glass-like and fascinating. I found a piece of sticky, brown piece of trash on the table while I was working and put it under the microscope out of my infinite curiosity. However, I have no idea what it is. A piece of resin, a food particle?

1*9oZkrZ66TbBVHU6Ub CQyA — Very chaotic, translucent, and glass-like. Look at all the tiny fragments, like ice-crystals, and the glazed, fuzzy feeling in them all.

1*GS4ODF M9nvaUdWkYqNL6Q — Shattered, but look closely. Are those cracks, like shattered glass? Or bits of thread stuck in the goop? Look at the color, the light filtering through at different intensities at different places. A clear and wonderful shot.

Let’s set an harder challenge this time. Guess what this is and I’ll do a difficult timelapse. Though I can always deny your guess, the image being as obscure as it is.

Pink Bonsai — Or close Enough

Last article, I posted this picture at the end —

1*ubssZhcwahsrijeeVppUBQ — Phone pixels. I never imaged this is all that a screen really is, but of course it is. We’re all just staring at little colorful dots all the time.

— and asked the audience to guess what it could be, setting myself the challenge to draw a microscopic tree if anyone guessed correctly.

Surprise, surprise. My friend guessed it not two seconds after I posted the article. I was not really expecting to draw such a small tree, but a promise is a promise, and @Bopitextreme, here’s your pink bonsai (or generic tree with red leaves, because I have no idea how to draw a bonsai, and I used a pink color pencil but the color registered as red so deal with it I guess).

1*BWg8sXAq9TNetl214tRO W — For reference, this is the space I had for my drawing. This is one, single small-square from a cm-based graph paper. A single small-square.

1*KyxQI6GHgIt9VntjiW2IxQ — Pink Bonsai, or close enough. I have no drawing skills to talk about, but anything looks good under a microscope. Just look at the texture, how the pencil strokes register at such a small scale, the white lines interspacing the color. I made the leaves by dotting the pencil repeatedly onto the paper, and it made those marks, those pattern.

Of course, this is one of many versions and trials, and it was tricky to get the texture right on the microscopic scale.

Behind the scenes coming soon, hopefully.

All images were viewed with an optical light microscope at 40x total magnification (Unless otherwise mentioned under the image). Images taken with a midrange phone camera, cropped, and adjusted. The first 7images are focus stacked. Focus stacking was done with Helicon Focus.

For more wonderful images, feel free to browse my Medium Profile.

Enjoy the complexity of mundane, everyday objects under a microscope

Various Tools

No Idea What This Is

Pink Bonsai — Or close Enough

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