Saturday, January 28, 2012

Rainbows...


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Today's daily is both inspired, pretty, and scientific. What you're looking at is a macro of a CD (really a DVD) that was put in the microwave for 7 seconds. A special thanks to Vandana and Dianne Ward for their inspiration. I saw their beautiful photos yesterday and was motivated to give it a try myself.

If you're wondering more about why CDs reflect rainbows, here's a geeky explanation that I understood.

I took about 250 pics, and the hardest part was holding everything still so as to not blur the images and actually taking images with the rainbow color that did not also contain a SP. Hi!


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This is the CD after 7 seconds in the microwave on high (my microwave is pretty powerful).  Don't let the chemicals quickly igniting and burning out around 5 seconds cause you to jump too bad!  It's just a small flash.  Turning the fan hood on the stove on is a good idea too as there is a bit of a chemical smell for a few minutes.


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A couple other pics that I liked:


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If you want to give this a try, experiment a lot with the angle you hold the CD relative to the lens.  You can make it look like lightning or veins in the body or cracks in ice or wherever your imagination takes you. Most of all if you try it, have fun!  Even Donnie was getting in on the act!


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My shots were mostly taken under a compact fluorescent light.  It might be worthwhile to go out in the sun or try halogen or some other light source.  Water or maybe oil on top might produce nice results too!

1 comment:

Susan W said...

Maryanne, this has produced such interesting effects. Love them all.