Close-up photographs capture feathers’ dazzle factor

Heidi and Hans-Jürgen Koch created these vivid images by photographing various feathers in the Natural History Museum in Berlin.

To Li Gege

Few creatures in nature possess the dazzling element of feathers. They are at the heart of some of the most amazing courtships and migrations on earth and have long been central to human culture, art and mythology.

Made of keratin, feathers provide visual appeal and also help birds (and dinosaurs millions of years ago) fly. also helps to keep

Photographers Heidi and Hans-Jürgen Koch capture some of the amazing vibrancy and diversity of feathers in these mesmerizing images. “For us, bird feathers are perhaps the most poetic masterpiece of evolution,” they say.

Photographing various types of feathers housed in the Natural History Museum in Berlin, Germany, and combining individual shots taken in different levels of light, the ‘essence’ of the extravagant colors, shapes and structures of feathers to “reveal” and “bring people to their knees.” their charisma,” they say. A book of their images is due out later this year.

The scarlet macaw’s iconic coloring is shown in the main image, showing mostly red and blue plumage. Underneath are yellow shoulder feathers of the same species. Then from there emerge the black-headed parrot feathers, the oargus his pheasant’s typical eye spots, the blue bird-of-paradise feathers (pictured above), and the tail feathers of the gray peacock pheasant (pictured below). .