My name is Dirk Vermaire
I am a chemist by training and worked for most of my life in the chemical industry from research up to senior management functions. I have had an interest in photography from my early twenties. A year or two ago I started to delve into the possibilities digital photography offers in visualizing chemistry, thus combining my love for photography and chemistry. For me it has been a real treasure trove.
I use a macro lens often in combination with cross polarized light, and sometimes with wave plates to shift color, to visualize crystals and precipitates. I am continuously experimenting with new ways to form precipitates and to crystallize common compounds or salts from solution. The way in which precipitates or crystals are formed has a tremendous effect on the results. As precipitation and crystallization processes are highly unpredictable, it means a lot of trial and error.
