An Oyster Festival and More

As you can see, an Oyster Festival can be the perfect platform for a variety of subjects involving the Indian River Lagoon Speakers Series including a presentation by Dr. Hargraves regarding 'Red Tides', utilizing about ten of our colorised images to illustrate his discussion at the Ft. Pierce Yacht Club waterfront.

Recent Activity

At the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, FL, a community open house was recently held which in part featured over a dozen colorized scanning electron micrographs originally taken by Dr. Paul Hargraves of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.  The open house was attended by nearly 600 persons, and the dialog and photos stimulated much interest about the microscopic life in Florida coastal waters.

© Dr. Paul E Hargraves

Dr. Hargraves is in the foreground describing various points to visitors at the open house.  Some of the colorized SEM images can be seen in the background.

New Cover

I am happy to announce that a new colorization that I recently completed has been selected as a cover for  Applied and Environmental Microbiology.  The image illustrates the subject of an accepted paper on the freshwater biofilm written by Sophia I. Passy, PhD and her co-writer, Chad A. Larson. "The rates of species accumulation and taxonomic diversification during phototrophic biofilm development are co-controlled by nutrient supply and current velocity."  

The scanning electron micrograph of the diatom Achnanthidium sp. from Blue Cypress Lake, FL, was provided by Dr. Paul Hargraves.

Different Perspective

diatom genus Skeletonema ~ 'Blue with Pink Ribbon' © PEH/FD

I recently was asked to colorize some new images for a scientist out west, and in the process, I recolored the original Skeltonema image into this new one.  I am surprised that I never thought of this colorization scheme, but am impressed with the detail that I was able to obtain with this new color pallet.

End Of The Year Review

This past year has seen a variety of events that promote the colorisations, and also continued work of Dr. Hargraves.
RedBubble provided us with more popularity than ever of the Diatom Mandalas and Diatom/Dinoflagellate images in various challenges and features, and also favored us with several purchases  of individual prints.

Perhaps the most exciting event occurred with the announcement that my colorised image of Cretaceous Raptor #5 © FD was selected as the cover of the prestigious Ecology Letters journal:

"Great news--your fabulous image was selected for the journal cover! Congratulations--Ecology Letters is by far the #1 journal in Ecology and this is a great recognition for us and for diatoms, which do not get the spotlight very often!"  

On Friday, November 9th, at the Smithsonian Marine Station at Ft. Pierce, Florida, Dr. Paul E Hargraves gave 'A tripartite presentation on the lifestyles and diversity of microalgae in the Indian River lagoon system; whether or not harmful algal blooms are a clear and present danger [or not], and whether characterising the IRL as 'the most diverse estuary in North America' is a bogus claim, or a reality'.

In all, this has been an exciting and productive year.  New images are planned for the coming early spring, and perhaps a new exhibition.  More about that later. Thank you for your continued interest.

Happy New Year all.  Peace and goodwill. ~ FD

Microalgae, HABs, and 'the most diverse estuary in North America'

On Friday, November 9th, at the Smithsonian Marine Station at Ft. Pierce, Florida, Dr. Paul E Hargraves gave 'A tripartite presentation on the lifestyles and diversity of microalgae in the Indian River lagoon system; whether or not harmful algal blooms are a clear and present danger [or not], and whether characterising the IRL as 'the most diverse estuary in North America' is a bogus claim, or a reality'.

Dr. Hargraves is Emeritus Professor of Oceanography, Univ. of Rhode Island, Affiliate Professor, Harbor Branch Oceanographic inst., and FAU Research Associate, Smithsonian Marine Laboratory.

Exciting Day

© F Darling/P Hargraves

Well, I had a pretty exciting day yesterday.  My colleague, Dr. Paul E Hargraves, sent me an email telling him/me that my/our colorised image file of diatoms/dinoflagellates has been added to the website called the "Plankton Art" section of the ISSHA website [International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae].  Fay Darling's Plankton Art.  Karin Rengefors, Secretary of ISSA, was kind enough to contact Paul, and tell us about the inclusion.  "The overall mandate of the Society is to promote and foster research and training programs o­n harmful algae, and to co-sponsor meetings o­n this topic at the national, regional, and international level." [if you click on 'Fay Darling's Plankton Art' then click again on the blue bar, it will take you to our Flickr page to see more images].