I'm putting this up for four reasons: One) I've been on a lion kick lately, so I just felt the need to continue on in that venue, two) I'm rather proud of this pic, as it's a super-close-up of an eye and the lighting's not all blown out, and it's actually in focus! Three) this is, of course, part of the continuing conspiracy to not only provide you artists out there with good reference pix, but to constantly inspire you to continue on in your refinements and growth. If we're not learning then we're not changing. If we're not changing then we're not growing. And if we're not growing, then we're dying. And finally, four) because only in "macro" photography can we even begin to capture the profound and awesome intricacies of nature, IMHO.

I have seen some truly breathtaking scenery in my tenure on this fragile planet. I have stood on the precipice of Glacier Point in Yosemite before there was a huge fence to get in the way of the view. Oh the contrast of color from vivid green to stark granite to the almost royal blue of the sky, to the tapestry of colors from the wildflowers of the meadows of the valley floor! I have stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon and gazed out over the chasm. From the rich blue of Snake River far, far below, to the reds and browns of the canyon walls, to the stark and dark greens of the sparse vegetation that dares to defy even gravity and grow in the most precarious places! Oh the beauty and sheer magnificence in nature is just profound!

But there is equally profound beauty to be found in the tiny-scale elements of nature as well. There is a vast depth - even "deeper" than the Grand Canyon - to be found in delving into a close-up image of the flower of a dandelion. The yellow brilliance to rival the sun, and the tiny, thin petals that are thinner than tissue paper, so very fragile, and yet having such amazing intricacies of color variations in that tiny space. The anthers that are so very fine and delicate. The almost microscopic bundles of pollen are artworks unto themselves.

In this picture, I delve into yet another of nature's finest and most intricately detailed art: an eye. I think that it it the very finest of natures art. In this case, it's Mufasa's beautiful, rich, amber/brown eye. I love this pic because it's pretty high-res and it's in focus, which means you can zoom right in and see all those ridges and valleys that most folks don't even realize are there in the cornea, the blood vessels that run almost maze-like just below the colored surface, and even the musculature of the iris that can widen or contract to make the pupil impossibly small, or unreally large, that look like the rugged peaks and valleys around a crater. If you zoom out just a little, then you see how the fine fur just abruptly stops at that strangely black skin, perfectly aligned, equidistant almost all the way around. If you zoom out even more, you can see how the cornea takes up virtually the whole, visible portion of the eye, leaving so very little white exposed at all. Back out even more, and you can see how the eye sits so perfectly into the face.

Macro Photography is truly a wholly different world, but it's just as breathtaking as the big stuff! Maybe even more so.

So this is yet another one of Mufasa, the window to the soul of the lion. What infinite depth! I hope you enjoy it!

This picture was taken 25-Dec-03. The image was taken with a Canon EOS 10D and the EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM lens. The original was taken at full frame of 3072x2048x24b, ISO eqv 400, 1/180 shutter, f/5.6. This image was shrunken down for space conservation.

Disclaimer: I hate to have to put this on here, but the pic is copyright me. Please do not distribute, copy, alter, etc, without my permission. Having said all that, feel free to download and use it for your own inspiration.