Moth Feather Leaf

A few years back, I got certified in forensic crime scene photography, which involves taking pictures of some very unpleasant aspects of modern life; blood splatter, post mortems; the ends of violence and other things most people don’t want to think about, let alone see. It’s not an easy thing to do, but you have to believe that you’re doing something to help solve wrongs. It’s still less stressful than wedding photography.

I never went to work in a crime lab; my path went in a different direction. But forensic skills are a good tool to have for a photographer. It’s nice when I can put those skills to use for far more attractive ends.

I am building background material for the Unnamed Unicorn Project (yep, the unicorn still doesn’t have a name) and these images will eventually end up in abstract pieces completely removed from their actual context. For now, I am just posting images that show the lovely detail of some rather benign objects found and given along the way.

I am very fortunate to have friends who support my peculiarities, know my fondness for macro work, and bring me gifts of dead bugs, plants, and all manner of interesting textures to photograph (nothing says “I love you” like dead flowers?) One recently gave me a large dead moth that he had found. Even though it was already dead and not through any action of my own, I still felt a bit uneasy disassembling it to get detail images of its wings.

 

 

 

 

One limitation of my equipment… Sometimes I am just not outfitted for very small objects. This is the antenna of the moth; too tiny to get a really good image, but I still wanted to show off how cool the structure is.

 

It’s not always about decay. I found a plover feather on a hike and brought it home to photograph.

 

The same is true of this poplar leaf. I love poplars (a symbol of resourcefulness) and another hike in the Steens Mountains provided this.

 

 

Another friend brought me a pretty, but heavily decayed elm leaf. It’s another example of not having the equipment to get as close as I would like to the subject, but I still think the detail is beautiful, like stained glass.