Small World Redux

Here's yet another re-run, kinda-sorta. This past August I put this up:

Peter Parks, Sea water with mixed zooplankton and needle eye (20X) Fifth Place, 2007

About the image you see directly above… I was perusing the archives for a bit last evening and came across a post I put up last July that directed you to the “Nikon International Small World Competition,” which is an annual micro-photography contest sponsored (strangely enough) by Nikon. And I got to wondering if they’d updated their site this year. The answer is “yes.” And, as usual, there are some amazing images on display in the galleries, which go all the way back to 1977. This site could be a serious time waster if you’re into photography, only your time wouldn’t really be wasted at all. You could consider the time spent here as inspiration. Or education. Or simply an excuse to revel in the beauty of a world most of us never see. Good stuff, this.

Nikon announced the 2008 winners of the competition this past October (or thereabouts), and the NYT ran ten of the photographs along with audio commentary by the photographers on some of the images. The Nikon site has a comprehensive look at the official winners (as chosen by Nikon's judges), plus a "People's Choice" gallery. I particularly enjoyed the NYT's commentary, though. Here's the 2008 sixth-place photo:

Klaus Bolte, Chrysolina fastuosa (Micro leaf beetle) on a pin head (40X)

This is also one of the "annotated" photos at the NYT link. And, as noted above, there are galleries of every year's past winners at the Nikon site. Marvelous stuff.