I could wax on and on and on about the theorized relationship between Southern California photographers, light, and water. At this point I am lumping them all together as coincidental as there are so many good examples of this. The newest is from Tim Navis. He’s a local photographer who became mildly obsessed with how water and ink interacted with each other. They’re very pretty.

Navis took pink and purple (or varied amounts of one color) and dropped them into water to create these very ethereal and cosmic movements of ink through water. They somehow look a bit cosmic, these macro views of galaxies you can find under a microscope instead of above your head. It’s no coincidence that the series of work is called Pink Nebulas.

He has two different sets of photos in this light: the actual “pink nebulas” and a series titled Dark Ink. When you first see the pink series, they’re very charming. They’re instantly likable because you cannot deny their beauty. The black are totally more complex, though. Instead of just delicate colorscapes, you get a view of these scientific disasters and small worlds gone awry. There is a literal and thematic darkness to them that can be a little more interesting.

There’s a lot more photos in this set where these come from: you can find the pink ones here and the dark ones here. For more on Tim, you should check out his website (where he has a ton of brilliantly colored photographs).