Press Releases - San Luis Obispo Telegram Tribune - 11/07/1987
Original ScanDr. Johnson uses tools of trade for photo hobby
Results will go on 'SLO MO' auction block
By Holly Wycoff
Special to Telegram-Tribune
Saturday, November 7, 1987
San Luis Obispo, CA
For Dr. Carl Johnson, the microscope is a door into another world, beyond the usual tissue studies, hematologic evaluations, and other analyses characteristic of the work of a clinical pathologist.
In his off hours, the San Luis Obispo physician prefers to use his photomicroscope to delve into a brilliant kaleidoscope of color he creates from a chemical garden of crystals.
His photographs range from layers of soft jade and earth-toned strata representing crystals of resorcinol, a laboratory chemical, to a violet and indigo starburst image of niacinimide crystals, an ingredient of common vitamins.
Two of Johnson's photographs will be for sale at the "SLO Mo van Gogh's Celebrity Art Auction" Sunday, Nov. 15, at the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Luis Obispo.
All Proceeds from the event will benefit the SLO Motion Riders, a local wheelchair basketball team.
To create his photographic images, Johnson first grows the crystal on a slide from one or a combination of chemicals. He then uses two polarizing filters on his photomicroscope & which is a laboratory microscope with a 35-millimeter camera attached & to pass a small amount of light through the crystal.
"Certain substances take the light and rotate it on a wavelength, making the colors red, blue, green, or a combination of the three visible colors by the time it hits the second polarizing lens," said Johnson.
He shoots slide film of the results, and if he likes it, has a print made.
The results are natural crystalline wonders & brilliant backdrops with pattern resembling snowflakes, a meteor shower or a coral reef.
Johnson's fascination with crystals is not new.
"I remember an instance when I was 10 years old, working at home with my toy microscope and lab kit, looking at some copper sulfate," he said.
"I started experimenting with an old pair of polarized sunglasses, holding them under the microscope. That was my first experience with crystals."
It wasn't until years later, when he was a resident at UCLA, that Johnson had access to a photomicroscope.
Most of his years of work are in the form of slides, which fill three large albums. He occasionally enlarges one for a gift, and particularly enjoys having friends over for slide shows. But he hasn't tried to market his works.
As director of the Arroyo Grande Community Hospital Laboratory, the San Luis Histo Processing Laboratory, and consultant for the Atascadero State Hospital and the Primus Laboratory in Santa Maria, Johnson doesn't have a lot of time for his hobby.
But when he does indulge in his favorite pastime, he continues to experiment with new techniques and different combinations of chemicals. Some chemical combinations have had flammable results and were quickly abandoned.
Recently, he mixed four substances on a slide and nothing happened. He saved the slide, however, and six months later the crystals grew into a vivid pattern that was the subject of yet another photograph. Another of Johnson's favorites is a double exposure that occurred by accident when his camera failed to advance the film. The effect was so stunning that he hopes to experiment further with double exposure.
"I underexpose all my photographs just a little bit, to keep the colors brilliant," he said.
Johnson's photomicroscope is a vital tool in his day-to-day work and a window to an inter realm that sparks his imagination.
"It's fascinating," said Johnson. "There is no limit to the patterns. It's another world down there."