Spike's Gallery. 4 - A Selection of Images of Unicellular Organisms

Spike's Gallery
4. A Selection of Images of Unicellular Organisms

By Spike Walker, UK.

Editor's note: Spike Walker, a well known and award winning British photomicrographer, has kindly suggested that Micscape can share a selection of images from his extensive portfolio.

The image selection from the CD supplied, resizing and captions (based on Spike's image names and email notes) was by David Walker, web page style by Ian Walker as used in Spike's Gallery 1 , Gallery 2 and Gallery 3.

'The main microscope bench in Spike's playpen' showing an impressive Zeiss line-up: an Axiomat, Photomicroscope III and two Ultraphots.

Five of the images below show the power of anoptral contrast; copies of two papers* on this less well known technique are on Keith Shaw's 'Microscope Group Archives' website.
*'Microscopic observations with anoptral contrast' by Alvar Wilska and 'Anoptral contrast microscopy' by M A Peshkov (English translation).

Thecamoeba - DIC

Spike remarks on the above image: "I took this in 1976 and it won the RMS Glauert Medal in 1982. The medal, of which I believe 7 were struck, is made of a particularly fine yellow gold and honoured Audrey Glauert, the first lady President of the RMS. Though it is 35 mm in diameter, it is only 2 or 3 mm thick and, because of the softness of the metal, is encapsulated in a large acrylic block."