Creating Art with Fruit 

Black stripes printed on a sheet of paper reflected from the surface of diluted milk with a few berries. The image illustrates the use of structured light for visualizing small surface deformations. It also shows the working of surface tension.     

—Anatoliy A. Kosterev, Yokogawa Corporation of America, Sugar Land, TX, USA

05 Jun 2026

Stem Autofluorescence

Autofluorescence image of an avocado (Persea americana) stem cross-section. The intrinsic fluorescence highlights the structural organization of vascular tissues, with xylem vessels and surrounding cell walls clearly delineated in bright green. Autofluorescence signal arises primarily from lignin and phenolic compounds in secondary cell walls. [OPN 2025 Photo Contest]

—Maria Alice Paularie (LabNS, UFMG), Élder Paiva (PlantSeR, UFMG), Leandro M. Malard (LabNS, UFMG), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil

29 May 2026

Metal Complex Beauty 

Orthoscopic image of random growth of copper(II) phenanthroline-based complex crystals on a glass slide viewed under a 20× polarizing microscope Nikon ECLIPSE 50i POL and captured with an iPhone 15 Plus at the eyepiece. [OPN 2025 Photo Contest]

—Shahrul Kadri Ayop, Sultan Idris Education University, Tanjung Malim, Malaysia

22 May 2026

Rainbow Lightsail 

This photograph captures the world’s highest-aspect-ratio nanophotonic element: a nanometer-thick, centimeter-scale photonic crystal “lightsail” suspended on a silicon wafer. The membrane’s billions of subwavelength holes allow for high reflectivity, producing the vivid rainbow colors seen here through optical interference. [OPN 2025 Photo Contest]

—Richard Alexander Norte, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

15 May 2026

Caustic and Shadow Artwork 

Grazing sunlight illuminating a glass of water generates an artwork of caustics and shadows.  

— Andrea Aiello, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen Germany

08 May 2026

Droplet Optics  

A raindrop resting on a leaf forms a near-perfect sphere, transforming it into both a spherical mirror and a spherical lens. Its curved surface reflects a miniature image of the surrounding sky and trees, while within, the droplet magnifies the fine cellular structures of the leaf. [OPN 2025 Photo Contest]

—Vahid Abbasian, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, USA

01 May 2026

Rainbow's Ghostly Twin 

A fogbow arcs across the foggy Murodo Plateau. This ghostly twin of the rainbow is born from the same optical phenomenon as its colorful sibling.

—Naila Zahra, University of Osaka, Japan

24 Apr 2026

Stress Revealed in Color 

A curved acetate sheet placed between crossed polarizers exhibits vivid interference colors due to stress-induced birefringence. Mechanical deformation creates anisotropy in the material, causing phase retardation between orthogonal polarization components of transmitted light. The resulting chromatic fringe patterns visualize internal stress distribution through photoelasticity and polarization-dependent optical interference.  

—Image by Nuria Vargas, under the supervision of advisor Ana Karen Reyes, Universidad Politecnica de Tulancingo, Mexico

17 Apr 2026

Spider Rainbow

Sunlight passing through a spider’s web diffracts into a rainbow of colors.    

—Robert Schalck, Optica Senior Member (Emeritus), North Bend, OR, USA

10 Apr 2026