Desert Blues
The granite spiny lizard is sitting on a boulder in the Mexican semi-desert. The belly color of this lizard is influenced not only by the arrangement of pigment cells, but also by the presence of light-reflecting cells that contain light-reflecting platelets. These platelets generate structural colors through thin-layer interference and the scattering or diffraction of light from stacks of reflecting platelets. The picture was taken with a mirrorless Nikon 1 J5 camera, equipped with an 18 mm lens, set at f/4.5 aperture. The camera settings included a shutter speed of 1/1250sec. and an ISO of 160.
—Edgar Guevara, CONAHCYT-UASLP, San Luis Potosi, Mexico