too small to see

I have to be honest, I did not notice all the color in this dried stem until I photographed it. The colors showed up more visibly in my view finder, than to the naked eye–not unlike the Northern Lights. We had several aurora borealis events in the Twin Cities last fall that were barely visible to the naked eye, yet looked spectacular when captured with a long exposure on my iPhone. It’s interesting when pocket cameras capture more than the eye can see. It’s like having scientific instruments–microscopes and telescopes–in our pockets. I sometimes refer to these photos as “hyper-realistic,” and therefore not very STILL-like (with STILL I was aiming for a naturalistic realism, not hyper-realism). But I am letting this hyper-realistic dried sunflower stem slip past my curatorial editing, as I find this image both beautiful and interesting, which makes it a STILL double winner.