“Macro photography is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life size.” – Wikipedia.

Some may ask, ‘Why would anyone want to do this? Well, we don’t often see the beauty present in the small things simply because our vision is not able to magnify these objects. It’s a fascination I have with macro photography that I am able to see and appreciate images that I would otherwise not see: eg.  this shot of the external reproductive parts of the hibiscus flower! The fine hairs on and under the stigma, the individual pollen grains in different stages of ripening, the brilliant colours, all visible. This picture was taken in the grounds of the Iles des Pines airport while waiting to board the flight to Noumea in Caledonia. The matured hibiscus flower had pollen grains bursting all over!

Pink-white lotus. Details of it’s reproductive parts. Picture taken at a plant nursery in Singapore.

The Passiflora vitiflora, or red passiflora, shown with the anthers rising as if from the corolla, after a brief shower. I placed the flower with a black background to highlight the water droplets which are actually resting on the black filaments arising from the corolla.

Much often seen orchid flower, the white Phalaenopsis.

The inside of a purple tulip flower growing along the fence at my sister’s house in San Francisco.

Dandelion seeds coming off it’s ‘head’. Dandelion flower heads mature into spherical seed heads called blowballs or clocks containing many single-seeded fruits called achenes. Each achene is attached to a pappus of fine hairs, which enable wind-aided dispersal over long distances.