Accent on Algae

On many days, I see the world through a microscope searching for the rare, unusual, or beautiful. As an Aquatic Biologist, I have to remove myself from the scientific endeavor of identifying everything, attempting to determine their life cycle and simply enjoy and immerse myself in the beauty of the aquatic food web. It's about finding the structure, the patterns, and the art within. The majority of my searches employ algae, probably the most important plant group and the green earth. Sometimes the art is hidden in masses of tangled, what many people call, slime, goop, or frog vomit. Yet, marine diatoms produce 60 – 80 % of the oxygen on earth, provide the base of the marine food web, remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and have the potential for producing bio-fuel. The work starts with collecting algae from a wide variety of aquatic systems, putting the specimens under a microscope and using a several unique lighting sources to see what’s hidden. Bright light, phase-contrast, darkfield and cross-polarized light are essential to my workflow. Of course a Nikon Z9 camera mounted on the microscopes is essential.