Shooting Broccoli, Cauliflower, and a Tomato
Regular readers know I am revising a manuscript (to be illustrated with photographs). I am at the stage where I need the photographs to help me push through to a new level with the text. I spend many of my waking, and near-sleep hours considering options. This weekend, though, it was time to shoot again. I put together the light box we made last year, and here are some of the resulting images.
Largest intact, niceish looking broccoli head I could find at the local grocery store.
Largest piece off of the head.
This is the fifth of six iterations of broccoli pieces. (This is my favorite — me being a sucker for macro photography, and all.)
Whole cauliflower head.
Cauliflower head with one smaller head removed.
Whole cauliflower head, taken apart.
A tomato.
They look good enough to eat. Where do they fit in the math?
I like the whole cauliflower head
A very lovely tomato. Had one just like it for dinner tonight. What does it have to do with fractals?
Patty, the shapes of broccoli and cauliflower heads are fractals because they are shapes that can be separated into smaller copies of the same shape.
Dave, the tomato is an example of a natural shape that is NOT a fractal, but is very like a sphere, one of the regular geometric shapes I talk about in the manuscript.
Peggy, thanks.