Photomicrographer James E. Hayden, RBP has been a consistent winner of the Small World competition for many years. Featured below is a photomicrograph of a zebrafish specimen taken with darkfield illumination.

Danio rerio (Zebrafish) Gills Original Magnification: 7.7x Specimen: Hematoxylin and Eosin Section Technique: Darkfield Illumination

Additional exploration of sections from the zebrafish turned up additional, interesting patterns at higher magnifications. As the serial sections approached the gill area, it only took changing the composition slightly to discover even more patterns. First seen at a lower magnification, this "eagle totem" interpretation was not apparent until the view was tightly cropped. With further experimenting, the gill branches on the left side of the image provided yet another visual abstract as seen in this zebrafish image.