Contact!

I fed my hermit crabs a special treat today, and spent some time trying to get photos of them swarming over it, chowing down.

So I'm zoomed in there, almost touching the scratched glass wall, with the lens aimed an inch away, and next to no depth of field, the screen amplified to its maximum, following a dancing hermit in swirling water, with hands that insist on shaking. In the screen, I see a bit of leg, a section of antenna, then a blur, then hairs, something splotchy, blur, hair, seaweed, leg ... And then suddenly, an eye swims into focus. And it's amazing how swift and visceral my response is; an eye! Intelligence! Contact!

"Hi!"

"I see you there!"

I hadn't noticed before the smaller patterning in a hairy hermit's eye.

Click to see full size. Hexagonal sections, laid down in striped rows.

I wonder what they think of the camera's eye, so close.