Look Closely

I've always been fascinated with the very small, in nature. 

A somewhat bigger grid than mine was!

When I was in seventh grade, I created a miniature "dig" on one square foot of my back yard, using sewing pins and thread to create a one-inch grid, as I'd seen archaeologists and paleontologists do in books. 

As I recall, my excavation yielded some empty snail shells, rocks, broken toy bits, and that's about it--but it was a fun project for a summer afternoon (so sue me--I'm a nerd). 

Macro Moss: Photo by "Celine"

In high school I did a Science Fair project on moss, rocks, and wood as seen through a magnifying glass.  It didn't win any prizes, but it was visually interesting, and for me visually interesting is always a high value.

Anyone who's looked at my artwork probably is sitting there saying, "well, duh, Jan!"

My point in this post is that from time to time I plan to share images in this space that focus on the very small, and the beauty that can be found in looking closely at something. In that vein, I'll leave you with a photo of the starfish species Patiria pectinifera,by Alexander Semenov.

Alexander Semenov's cool starfish closeup . . . one of them, anyway.

Semenov's work was featured last February in a Smithsonian article.  If you like this, you may enjoy Semenov's website, too.

Photo Credits: Many thanks to Native American Net Roots for the image of the grid on the archaeological site, and for the moss image by "Celine" on the Stayton Daily Photo site. The Alexander Semenov photo of the starfish is from Smithsonian.