Macro

Filmmaker Jan van Ijken captured this amazing microscopic scale time-lapse footage of the development of an amphibious alpine newt. Watch in awe as it grows from a single cell to a complete organism in just 6 minutes. More here.

Warped Perception takes an up-close look at a highly critical, but underappreciated element of every rocket launch – the igniters which get the rocket fuel going. The result is some truly stunning slow-motion macro footage. Watch in 4K if you can.

Gavin and Dan of The Slow Mo Guys turn their attention inwards, capturing detailed macro footage that shows how the pupil of a human eye reacts to light. Gav used one of those unique Laowa macro probe lenses to get right up to Dan’s peepers.

Artist Thomas Blanchard provides a tempting video for coffee drinkers, with a series of macro visual compositions filled with the colors of coffee and cream. Now before you dream of drinking it all up, there’s also a bit of oil and paint mixed in for effect.

Macro Room calls this video “Everyday Objects From Inside”, but it’s more of a continuation of their Everyday Objects in Macro. Except this time, all of the shots are zooming out from impossibly tight angles. We’d really love to know how they did it.

Photographer ZALUSKArt captured these impressively detailed time-lapse macro shots of ice crystals forming along the surface of soap bubbles as they’re frozen. Since each crystal is unique, every bubble is a one-of-a-kind, yet temporary work of art. More here.

Motion designer Harrison Vincent’s short film features eye-popping close-up imagery inspired by macrophotography, but was created entirely with computer graphics. The breakdown video is just as fascinating. He also provided the Cinema4D source files for download.

Waterballet creates incredible slow-motion macro videos using colored inks and water, along with ambient musical tracks to accompany the mesmerizing footage. The scenes look like weather fronts moving in on an alien landscape. More on Vimeo.

Drew Geraci presents an eye-popping macrophotographic look at items like salt, pepper, fruits, and vegetables. He captured the 1000x magnifications using a microscope, a Sony A9 camera, and devised a tiny slider rig to smoothly move the microscope’s tray.

We’ve seen popcorn popped in slow-motion before, but that was “only” at 6,200 fps. Warped Perception captured the explosive force of heated popcorn kernels at 30,000 fps in front of the macro lens of their Phantom v2512 ultra high-speed camera.

BBC Earth show The Hunt captured crisp macro footage of hotrod ants, as they make their way through the scorching 150ºF+ Namib desert, where it’s so hot that they would die if they stopped in the sun for even a few seconds. But the extreme heat isn’t their only foe.

Artist GMUNK created this mesmerizing and relaxing video by capturing slow-mo macro footage of fluids and objects subject to vibrations, a reflection of nature’s “willful, conscious impulse” for change. The footage starting around 4:15 is especially noteworthy.

Timelapse Vision used a combination of macro and time-lapse photography to give us an up-close look at what our fingertips look like when they start to sweat. It’s easy to forget that we’re looking at a human finger and not some strange alien landscape.

You’ll want to put your headphones on and go full-screen to get the most out of Stereokroma’s hypnotic video, featuring super crisp macro photography of frozen fruits and veggies being thawed, accompanied by appropriate, if not exactly realistic ASMR sound effects.

Our new favorite timewasting YouTube channel Macro Room cut vegetables, shoes and other household objects in half, then kicked things up a notch with crispy close up shots and reverse time-lapses. Made with the help of the Adaptalux and Syrp Genie.

Using multiple lenses, along with some editing trickery, the folks at Macro Room take us up close and personal with a variety of ordinary objects, then zoom out so we can see what we were actually looking at. We were so convinced that Coke bottle cap was a red bell pepper.

UK Talent Janet Waters created an extraordinary series of abstract photographs by taking macro shots of bubbles and foam with her macro lens. The result is intricate and ethereal. (Thanks Danna!)

This close-up video by Ahmet Özkan shows an ant being hog-tied by a spider. Not only is the photographic detail incredible, there’s an extra-special surprise if you stick around until the end.