2020 Photomicrography Competition

Red algae

Dr. Tagide deCarvalho

Affiliation
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Technique
Confocal
Magnification
63X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Tagide deCarvalho is a research assistant professor and a director of the Keith R. Porter Imaging Facility at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA. Although this image is of algae, he learned confocal microscopy as a postdoc, imaging a region of the brain called the habenula. This image of red algae, with its somewhat “skeletal” branching patterns, highlights a species that has some of the most complex life cycles known for living organisms. It was captured using confocal with a combination of natural fluorescence and acridine orange dye.

Human hair

Robert Vierthaler

Location
Pfarrwerfen, Salzburg, Austria
Technique
Image Stacking
Magnification
20X (Objective Lens Magnification)

The 12th place image is that of a human hair. Or to be more specific, a single strand of Mr. Robert Vierhaler’s (the image creator) daughter’s hair. Mr. Vierhaler works for a steel company and does macro and micro photography as a hobby. This image was created using a modified standard microscope fitted with a bellows attachment and a Nema stepper motor in order to capture numerous images for stacking.