Nature of wonder filmed with an original camera

It's mainly in Japanese, but it's worth a trip over to Kuribayashi Satoshi's website -- or at least it is if you like bug pictures. It says on the first page of his site that this guy "always leads the world of the small creature photograph by novel idea."

I'm not going to argue with that. Satoshi is the winner of the 2006 Lennart Nilsson Award for outstanding photography of the world of insects. His novel ideas and unique methods have to do at least in part with his ability to design and fabricate the gear he uses to capture the insects in situ, including an especially novel medical device of some sort fitted with a 3mm lens. He's published a whole bunch of books and films on the subject of insect ecology, the most recent of which is a book called "In Front of the Ant."

The Lennart Nilsson Award Foundation was formed in 1998 to recognize extraordinary image makers in science and to promote research and technical development in the visual representation of science, medicine, biology, and technology. The prize of 100,000 SEK (about $13,500 USD) is awarded each fall at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Thanks to the Neurophilosopher for the link. Head over to his place if you've never been there -- lots of cool links, great pics, and fascinating posts.