Slashdot Mirror

Gee, I don't know about you, but I didn't have an actual photograph of the solar system when I learned about it in second grade. Somehow, the textbook visually represented that information using something other than areal photography.

Some of the standards for images are available on the website.
http://www.visions-of-science.co.uk/f-categories.h tm

This is my favorite, the deformation of the water due to a clip's weight.

It made me remember something... when you hold a small thing (like a clip) very near your eye (so it blurs), the images you see in the background bends near the borders of the object... why?

How I would shoot this photo:

• An aquarium full of water
• white background
• light the scene from the bottom
• drop blue ink in
• shoot away until you get an interesting shape
• display the photo upside down (so it looks like the ink is rising)

Note the blobs on the bottom are air bubbles that have floated to the surface.

http://www.visions-of-science.co.uk/f-2005winners. htm
that's just plain nasty I could of gone my whole life not knowing this, and been all the happier for it. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

What about this first place picture? It sure could of had its own corporate backing. I can see it now.

"It looks like you're trying to take an award winning science photograph. Would you like some help?"

Notice that most of the photos were artificially colored.

The contest seems to be public relations advertising. It is supported by Novartis, a pharmaceutical company that perhaps should not be trusted completely: Kindness, or maximizing shareholder value?

For those too lacking in curiosity to browse through the other neat photos, here's the pea weevil