Ink droplets in motion snag top prize in Nikon Small World contest

Posted by _Microft 2 days ago

Ink droplets in motion snag top prize in Nikon Small World contest(arstechnica.com)

197 points | 28 comments

yhjc2692 5 hours ago|

"Neurons in an expanded mouse brain" (3rd place) is also stunning:

https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2026-photomicrogra...

I didn't know brains actually look like this inside. Our world truly is beautiful, across all scales!

changoplatanero 4 hours ago|

i'm not an expert but i think the word expansion here is referring to techniques they use to spread everything out in order to make it easier to see. someone told me that they use the same material that baby diapers are made out of which expands when you soak it in water.

landonxjames 5 hours ago||

There is an interesting video of his rig for this shot in this article: https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/masters-of-microscopy/ole-bi...

_ache_ 3 hours ago|

The video is nice but the movement is inverted from the photo.

I would like to redo the setup myself.

doctorzook 6 hours ago||

It’s a great photo, but the second-place jumping spider is my favorite: it is just so adorable.

https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2026-photomicrogra...

JumpCrisscross 5 hours ago||

The parasitoid wasp doing its little dance move [1] gave me a chuckle.

[1] https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2026-photomicrogra...

nafey 45 minutes ago|||

This pic reminds me of the Children of Time series of novels

jacquesm 6 hours ago||

It is! What are the little balls, are they pollen?

hack1312 6 hours ago|||

Yes, the title of the photo is “Jumping spider (Salticus scenicus) with pollen”

jacquesm 6 hours ago||

Hah, ok, totally missed that, thank you. But it seemed an obvious candidate, they reminded me of those clingy balls that come off some plants so I figured they must be something like that.

King-Aaron 6 hours ago||

When I first saw this photo I refused to believe it was real. This is just so otherworldly, it's fantastic.

Smoosh 5 hours ago|

I still have misgivings that it is AI generated or modified, but assume that the judges have done their due diligence. I’m a little saddened that I now have to question things such as this.

Liuser 4 hours ago|||

From the article: “Bielfeldt does not use AI in his images, preferring to rely on traditional techniques.”

gnabgib 4 hours ago||

Yes. Macro photography always looks a little fake. Plus Nikon Small World doesn't have a good track record in 2026.

Smoosh 4 hours ago||

I see that it uses stacked images, so that can account for the lack of normal focus cues.

madaxe_again 19 minutes ago||

Presumably he used software for this rather than doing it in a darkroom?

FWIW I’m an astrophotographer, and I don’t really view 30 hours of stacked exposures as “a photo I took”, rather as the outcome of a lengthy signals processing chain.

I suppose the question is where the line is drawn. Ten years ago, I doubt “I made this picture in photoshop” would have qualified as photography. Now that we have AI, the window has moved.

MBCook 5 hours ago|||

I think they had a problem with that last year, so I suspect they may be extra vigilant.

gnabgib 4 hours ago||

Last month https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49934521

hn-aarvin 7 hours ago||

The same photographer has two other photographs[^1] which previously were ranked highly in the contest. All seem to focus on chemical reactions and are stunning.

Interestingly, the previous two—of a candle and match—used 2.5x magnification, where as this one required 20x magnification, which just goes to show as to how tiny the printer mechanics really are.

[^1]: https://nikonsmallworld.com/people/ole-bielfeldt

selectodude 6 hours ago||

Inkjet printers for their faults are some of the most insane technology that I can think of.

yhjc2692 5 hours ago|

Yep, the entire field of MEMS is both outlandishly complex and fascinating. For those who are curious, take a quick look at https://courses.washington.edu/me557/nthu/mems.pdf, which gives a nice overview of the different mechanisms and manufacturing processes involved.

HelloUsername 1 hour ago||

Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50204697

luipugs 1 hour ago|

Linking to a page that links to the source is wild.

melq 4 hours ago||

Pollen (second photo with the spider) looks so sinister!

jcims 5 hours ago||

Looks like this is the instragram page of the photographer for the inkjet photo.

It's very obviously not a standard inkjet printer setup, but if you poke around you'll see some custom rigs that make it come together.

cellsstudio 3 hours ago|

Thanks for sharing - what an incredible perspective on the mundane. Seriously seems like peering into an alien world and really it's just what's happen while someone sips their coffee and stares at a wall haha.

Anyone seen Thirteenth Floor that old 90s VR movie? Really reminds me of the power for that.

More comments...