Butterfly Wing Scales

Magnified Butterfly Scales

Today I am starting to create a new series of images; butterfly wing scales. Above is one of my first attempts.

The picture reads a pure abstraction, simply a pattern. However, this is an unaltered close-up view of a butterfly's wing. The colored patterns on butterfly wings are created by minute scales or plates. These scales are pigmented but they also can have iridescence, like you see in the blue scales above. The iridescent colors are created by the play of light on the surface.

Thanks to Dr. José Leal for letting me have access to a dissecting microscope to do this work.