Marian Dowling, a local photographer who captures nature and wildlife images, will be one of nearly 70 exhibitors at the South Coastal Delaware AARP Artisans Fair. The show is set for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, May 25, at Lord Baltimore Elementary School, 120 Atlantic Ave., Ocean View.

Fair admission and parking are free. For more information, go to southcoastalaarp.org.

A bizarre, parasitic plant that looks like a scowling owl has won a global photography contest for the best snapshot of a plant or fungus. Nestled in dark soil, the “owl” glows an eerie emerald, according to the World Nature Photography Awards.

Photographer Chatree Lertsintanakorn snapped the mesmerizing image in a secluded wildlife sanctuary in Thailand, where the miniscule plants’ blooming bodies pop out of the ground at the base of trees. 

The plant, Thismia thaithongiana, is a myco-heterotrophic species, meaning it doesn’t photosynthesize but obtains its energy and nutrients from fungi — more specifically the fungus associated with the roots of trees. In 2018, scientists discovered it in the Doi Hua Mot Mountains in Thailand.

Little is known about this plant, but its peculiar shaped body has led to its name,”Phisawong Ta Nok Hook,” which translates to “mysterious owl’s eye,” according to Nation Thailand.

T. thaithongiana spends most of its life underground until it bursts up, revealing its peculiar fruiting body. 

Lertsintanakorn learned about the rare species while meeting with photographer Suchat Chanhomhuan, one of its discoverers.

Related: ‘Hauntingly beautiful’ image of a golden horseshoe crab wins wildlife photography competition

With the help of Chanhomhuan, Lertsintanakorn located the plant in the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand’s Tak Province. “I noticed it grew primarily near the base of trees, making it easy to overlook,” Lertsintanakorn told Live Science in an email. 

Its location is prime real estate for the tiny parasite. In general, some species of fungus live around and inside the roots of enormous trees. They produce an underground network in search of minerals that they pass on to the trees. In return, trees give them nutritious sugars — in an alliance known as a symbiotic relationship.

T. thaithongiana interrupts this relationship by stealing the nutrients produced by the fungi.

T. thaithongiana is only visible when its fruiting body grows out of the ground, and even then, it is incredibly tiny. “I was surprised by its diminutive size, measuring a mere 2 to 8 millimeters [0.08 to 0.3 inch] in length,” he said. Lertsintanakorn’s image was awarded Gold in the Plants and Fungi category in the World Nature Photography Awards. Founded in 2020, the competition is now in its fifth year with over 3,000 image entries this year. 

“Our winners never fail to take our breath away with their stunning images. As always, it’s such a joy to see the amazing caliber of entries into the awards,” said Adrian Dinsdale, cofounder of the World Nature Photography Awards in a statement.

Other notable images from the competition include a haunting collection of olive baboon (Papio anubis) heads and skulls at the Abomey voodoo market in Benin, an orca (Orcinus orca) splitting a herring ball underwater, and a group of crabs grabbing onto the lava rock-encrusted shoreline under a wave of water.

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In June of 1902, the founder of the Keystone View C. reported that he feared for the safety of George Pratt, a Meadville photographer working in Asia, for no one had received a letter from Pratt since November of 1901 nor his shipments of photographic plates (photo negatives).

The good news is that, though Pratt had become gravely ill, he returned to Meadville in 1903.

The Johnson-Shaw Stereoscopic Museum, 423 Chestnut St., Meadville, has a new exhibit showcasing the challenges of working in foreign countries during the early 1900s.

On exhibit are 16 stereoviews showing the Asian countries Pratt visited as a Keystone photographer, as well as three views of Cuba during the Spanish-American War, which Pratt photographed. Stereoscopes will be available so visitors can experience the images’ 3D effects.

Also on display are copies of early 1900s newspaper articles regarding George Pratt, plus images of early photographers working in rugged areas since no photograph of Pratt could be found.

The Johnson-Shaw Stereoscopic Museum is open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through November.

To tour the museum on a weekday, contact Lance Johnson at (814) 720-4306 to make arrangements.

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Kati Chau is a digital photographer in Seattle.

Seattle Refined: How long have you been creating? What mediums do you work with?
Chau: I first started photography in the 7th grade, and since then I haven’t been able to put the camera down. In terms of mediums that I work with up until this point, I have mainly worked in the digital realm of photography. Sometimes I’ll print the occasional book, or large-scale print for a project.

Can you tell us about your artistic process and how the different stages work into it?
So, I’m a list person. I love making lists of things I want to create in my sketchbook. Usually, I’ll just ideate with a list of words that come from an idea that sticks with me. Sometimes, I’ll try to challenge myself by rephrasing my list into questions, answering them and kind of going from there. I find that I have a hard time deciphering what I want to do with each new project I start. So, finding a way to focus my thoughts helps me as a jumping-off point.

Tell us about where your inspiration for your art comes from.
I was inspired by my parents to pursue photography. Growing up, my mom made scrapbooks and my dad had a little point-and-shoot he would bring with us on family trips and or events. In the summer of 2017, my mom passed away due to medical complications due to a complex procedure from a few years back. After her passing, I found myself flipping through her old scrapbooks. After some time I thought that I should try to take over and see what comes of it.

Do you have a specific “beat” or genre you like best – nature, food, profiles, etc.?
I find that I like the portraiture of people. But I find that I don’t necessarily like to pose for them or anything specific. I sort of find that I like personally connecting with them — treating it almost like a hangout with a friend I haven’t seen in a while. I like to find beauty in the present.

Do you have one piece of art that means more to you or is extremely special to you?
My undergraduate senior showpiece “Interwoven Solitude” is my most prized project. It’s a project that I’ve been working on for almost seven years now. It visually expresses the longing to lose the everlasting spirit of someone I held close to my heart.

What experiences in your life have affected your art the most?
I think the biggest experience that’s affected my art has been attending college. I’m a first-generation student who graduated from a four-year program. Being in school has taught me so much about myself, forced me to try new forms of art, and to seek out different kinds of opportunities that I don’t think I would have otherwise pursued.

If we want to see more of your work, where should we go to find it?
Currently, the best way to find my art is through my Instagram @nightlywishes_pt.2. Currently, it’s where I post a lot of my photography and other in-progress work.

What is next for you? Anything you’re working on right now that you’re excited about?
Over the past couple several months, I’ve been challenging myself to expand my portfolio. I’ve found that I like the Seattle music scene for its environment, people and community! I think the process of finding an artist who embraces their craft with their heart is so special, especially for smaller bands or musicians. Being invited to events in a big city and finding opportunities has been such a unique and fulfilling adventure.

Lastly, how do you take your coffee? (We ask everyone!)
I actually don’t care for the taste of coffee. Whenever I find a new cafe, I play a silly little game called try everything else besides the coffee. Though my essentials to order include coconut milk and sometimes a pump of vanilla, or if it’s in season mint.

About ‘Artist of the Week’: This city is packed with artists we love to feature weekly on Seattle Refined! If you have a local artist in mind that you would like to see featured, let us know at hello@seattlerefined.com. And if you’re wondering just what constitutes art, that’s the beauty of it; it’s up to you! See all of our past Artists of the Week in our dedicated section.

Last week, thousands of people in the US and UK were lucky enough to see the ethereal Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, delighting sky-watchers across the globe. But with the widespread observation of the phenomenon came the inevitable question: why didn’t it look as good in reality as it does in photos?

The Lights were visible in the night sky after one of the strongest geomagnetic storms for years hit planet Earth, with the highest rating of G5. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a rare solar storm warning, which last happened in October 2003. 

A geomagnetic storm is a major disturbance of the Earth’s magnetosphere that happens when there is an efficient exchange of energy from the solar wind, into the space environment surrounding the Earth. 

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Clear skies last weekend made the Northern Lights visible from almost everywhere in the UK and parts of the US, and social media accounts were full of the rare sightings. It quickly became clear to people, however, whether taking their own photographs or perusing others, that the Aurora Borealis looked even better through a camera lens than with the naked eye.

This has led some people to leave disgruntled reviews of tour companies in countries such as Norway or Iceland, promising to see the Northern Lights, as people expect to see the same vibrancy as in the photographs.

As explained in the below video by YouTuber and photographer, Jan Jelle, it’s all to do with light wavelengths, and the limitation of the human eye compared with that of our cameras. Modern cameras and smartphones are able to capture the intensity of the Northern Lights far better than our eyes, just like they can with any other source of low light.

To compensate for the low light conditions, a camera can just take a longer exposure, gathering more light and for a longer period of time. This creates a vivid picture of the scene, collecting colors that the rods of the human eye simply cannot detect.

In low light our eyes are less sensitive to color than normal, while camera sensors are not afflicted with the same human limitations. This is why photographs taken at low light appear to be more vibrant than our brains remember.

The Northern Lights will be reportedly visible across the US and UK again this weekend. While we now know why they look better through a lens, remember to put the camera down once you’ve got a few good shots and witness this spectacle with your own (albeit limited) eyes.

If you’re in to going out light hunting, we’ve rounded up the best cameras for shooting in low light here. We’ve also put together our favorite picks of the best cameras for astrophotography, as well as the best astrophotography lenses. 

I have seen only three photographs of my father’s mother. In each she is neatly dressed and proud of her son, who is the reason the picture was taken. There are perhaps 10 images of my granny on my mother’s side; half are studio photos, a few more casually posed. These are images of people making a picture of themselves for future eyes, including mine, and their hopefulness makes me nostalgic. My granny is also accidentally included in a portrait of my mother’s dog, taken out in the garden. There she is in the background, scrubbing away at something in a zinc tub. Her sleeve is rolled up and the bare arm is shocking, though not indecent. Very thin and working hard, its whiteness shows how rarely her skin was in the sunshine. It looks so real.

If you want to imagine the privacy of the past, the shame it protected, or the way it was used to control women, just look to the many parts of the world where it still exists. Last month, the Iraqi social media influencer with the handle Om Fahad was shot dead, after her release from prison, for dancing on TikTok and talking about makeup and clothes.

The pictures I see so easily online might once have been divided into “personal” or “public” but, these days, it can be hard to tell the difference. And though the algorithms tend towards prettiness or atrocity, it seems that no aspect of female life now goes unrecorded. If I pick up my phone, I can be served – whether I want to see it or not – a woman revealing to her husband that she is finally pregnant; a woman standing in rubble and weeping at the death of her family; a woman laughing while hitting her child, hard, with an egg; a fit woman doing a handstand; a woman recommending a book by another woman, or by herself; a woman painting or protesting. Other phones, in other hands, see women differently – some, at a guess, very differently indeed.

The pictures I get are curated for me and towards some idea of “self-fulfilment”, but there are days when that seems an idealisation too far, and belief drains out. “Oh, her again,” I say. “In her fantasy life.” Can someone really be “seen” in the mirror of their own lens, or is it just their self-regard that is on display?

But as you look at a Kardashian selfie, consider how many rules had to be broken to get her to this moment of self-commodification. I sometimes feel progress, for women, is not a line but a kind of shattering into multiple individual pathways. Each to her own, you might say.

There are now more than 4tn images in personal storage on Google Photos and 3.2bn images are shared online every day – a number of them by my family, who often send photographs instead of text. “Here I am.” “This is what I think.” Search. Laugh. Send. Pictures are easy: they are complex and complete – much less contentious, in our house, than words.

But they still matter. My children, filmed by people and machines every day of their lives, have iron-clad rules about snapping and (God forbid!) posting, which mostly involve vetting and deleting stuff from their parents’ phones. The lens has not lost its power to claim and possess. This is especially true when it is pointed at a woman. Even when the camera is in her control.

Most of the pictures reproduced here happened on paper. They were events; passed from hand to hand, then gone. You couldn’t “look them up”, except in your mind. Their impact required a sense of bounded public life that could be shattered by new truths. Or they expanded the visual grammar available to women, and this was also considered shocking. Some broke the barrier between public and personal to reveal everyday secrets about domestic violence, poverty or abortion. The most powerful show women existing instead of “appearing”, captured in motion, uninterested in the lens. The wittiest show those who own the pose.

How do you feel about the passive state of being “seen” – does it make you feel understood or exposed? The best photographs, the ones that bring about change, do both. They expose the context and help us understand the subject. They show us what she is going through.