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

Underwater Glow 

Under a beam of blue light, a plant inside a fish tank radiates with a vivid neon glow, creating a striking underwater scene filled with color and contrast.   

—Achini Ovitigala, Ph.D. Student, Mississippi State University, USA

03 Apr 2026

Beam Splitter Patterns

A red filter smaller than the illumination beam allows peripheral unfiltered light to reach a beam splitter, generating a yellow edge halo. The outgoing polarized beam produces sharp geometric images of the filter mount, replicated across the splitter faces due to internal reflections and optical beam division.    

—Image by José Armando Escamilla, Universidad Politécnica de Tulancingo, supervised by advisor Ana Karen Reyes in the lab of Noel Ivan Toto Arellano, Universidad Tecnológica de Tulancingo, Mexico

27 Mar 2026

Circular Clouds at Sunrise 

Unusual circular clouds in the vicinity of the sunrise create a beautiful early morning sky.

—Samuel F. Pellicori, Optica Senior Member, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

20 Mar 2026

Curved Grid Illusion

Straight lines bend gracefully into a vivid display of distorted geometry under a plano-convex lens, revealing refraction and wavefront reshaping and showing how lenses sculpt light and subtly redefine our geometric intuition.    

—Ramin Jamali, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

13 Mar 2026

Bluebottle Fly Eye

A closeup view of the grating-like structure of a bluebottle fly’s eye. The intricate structure enhances the eye’s optical performance, aiding in light capture and potentially improving sensitivity to polarized light—an ability vital for navigation and prey detection.[OPN 2025 Photo Contest]  

—Vittorio Cecconi, Emergent Photonics Research Centre, Loughborough, UK

06 Mar 2026

Tidal Shoreline

Temporary patterns are inscribed into apparently stratified surface layers by water flowing down a beach slope at low tide on the beautiful Scottish Isle of Skye. The upper layer particles display a bright glint from sunlight.    

—Dirk Voigt, Leiden, Netherlands

27 Feb 2026

Plant 9 for our Spätlese 

A cut of vine wood, which is used in the production of Spätlese (a white wine of German origin made from grapes harvested late in the season), is observed in auto­fluorescence using an InnoQuant slide scanner. The image title is a salute to the classic movie “Plan 9 from Outer Space” from Ed Wood.

—Sample preparation: Celia Perrin, LVBE - UHA; Data acquisition: Mathilde Bouakil, Innopsys; Image recontruction/rendering: Olivier Haeberlé and Bruno Colicchio, IRIMAS - UHA, France

20 Feb 2026