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Paul Walters | all galleries >> Picture a Day FOR A YEAR >> January, 2004 > 01-22-2004
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22-JAN-2004

01-22-2004

"Oh my", I say to myself, "what shall I photograph today?" I scratch my head and ponder as a bright ray of sunlight spills through the front sliding glass door, striking me in the eye and making it difficult for me to continue staring off into space. "What?!? What should I photograph? Darned sun!" I notice the reflection of my eye in my monitor, lit up with a single ray of sunlight, starkly contrasted against the otherwise dark room. "Wait! I bet if I could get a real close-up of my eye with the sun lighting it up from the corner that would work well! Yeah, that's what I'll do!"

Nikon Coolpix 5000
1/79s f/3.2 at 10.5mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small original auto
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Guest 09-Jan-2007 02:31
spookily Impressive looks like its been pulled apart, but the light and lens flare is photoshop isnt it?
Rissa 25-Feb-2004 03:52
It striked me like a bizarre object not until I read your decription on how you made such an amazing and interesting shot. Great idea!!! Unbelievable yet...possible.
snootydog24-Feb-2004 16:59
this is fantastic Paul... I have always been intrigued by photographs of eyes (it seems to disturb some people when I approach with my camera aimed at their cornea - I wonder why ;-> ) but I must say I have never photographed my own eye. You did such a fantastic job on this one and I appreciate your explanation of how it was done. The fact that your crop makes it look a bit like a sunflower is what truly sells it. Nice work. - liza
RodTO20-Feb-2004 03:11
This is phenomenal!
Guest 04-Feb-2004 05:35
Wow! You can include this picture in human biology textbook! Very nice job!
Sam
Guest 25-Jan-2004 06:01
This looks surreal with the detail you captured.
Rob
Guest 25-Jan-2004 02:23
SOOO Cool! You have a good eye! LOL!!
Paul Walters24-Jan-2004 22:14
Hi everyone! Thanks for your many kind comments! Steven asked how I could get a shot of my own eye. I tend to use things for photography that weren't meant for photography. For ultra wide angle shots I've used an element from a broken Sigma 28-200mm lens that I place in front of my Nikon CP 5000 (See October 1st & 17th picture), and to do ultra close up photography I have a HORIZON 8x Lupe that I purchased many years ago to analyze my negatives (See June 3rd, 6th, 8th, Sep. 24th, and Jan 21st). My Nikon CP5000 has an extender tube around the lens to give it a 46mm fitting for filters, etc. That's exactly the size of the eye piece for the lupe. I put the camera into macro mode, hold that 8x lupe right on the end of my extender tube 46mm UV filter, and it focuses perfectly, and I can see things with amazing detail. For this picture I stuck the end of the lupe right against my eye socket, with the camera aiming through it, made sure the light was shining in brightly through the clear plastic edge of the lupe, then snapped the picture with the LCD monitor on the camera aiming back at my face allowing my other eye to see easily what I was photographing. :) It worked pretty well!
Guest 24-Jan-2004 15:35
Holy cow Paul! That's one heck of a camera you've got there ... this shot is fantastic!
Guest 24-Jan-2004 14:12
How exactly do you get a shot of your own eye?
gary becker24-Jan-2004 05:07
Stupendous.
Guest 24-Jan-2004 01:39
Very cool!
Faye White24-Jan-2004 00:48
I'm speechless. really. :) But I like it!
Cagie 23-Jan-2004 22:33
Now THAT is an EYE OPENING experience! :) LOL!! :) Awesome photo! Where's all the brown that your eyes have?? Odd. Very odd.
Scott Hopkins23-Jan-2004 19:28
WOW...this is awesome I am speechless!
Pall Gudjonsson23-Jan-2004 16:23
Unbelievable !
mikiruaq23-Jan-2004 05:38
Never would have imagined this was an eye photo. I first thought it was a sunflower but after reading all the comments, all I could say was WOW.
Guest 23-Jan-2004 02:29
I was thinking about taking a close-up of my eye today. Now I'm really curious how it will turn out. This is pretty wild and an excellent shot.
Ron Lutz II22-Jan-2004 20:19
Very striking and creative.
Ray :)22-Jan-2004 20:07
OMG! this is so spooky. So all our eyes are really like this, or just yours? :)
I too could only assume it was a sunflowers at first, but when I saw the sun's refelction, I modified that to a sunflower pic on your monitor. Just amazing work!
Jvan Photography22-Jan-2004 19:06
I like the catch light up in the corner and the texture very nice. One of my all time favorite.
Guest 22-Jan-2004 18:30
OMG this is very cool. Almost creepy looking. Look at all that texture! Amazing. -- angela :)
Paul Walters22-Jan-2004 17:39
Yeah, Corey. This is my eyeball. First time I took a real close-up picture of the pupil of my eyeball I was surprised to see how the colored part of the eye looks. Really, I have nice eyes, but they look quite grotesque in these pictures! :)
Guest 22-Jan-2004 17:28
Eyeball?
Guest 22-Jan-2004 16:59
All three of these for today are impressive. What are they?