"The shape of the penicillium is random and it needs time to grow, so it took me hundreds of attempts to test and shoot it before finally getting the ideal scenes," Zhu says.

Each attempt lasted about 72 hours and Zhu had to be so careful with the whole process, because one small mistake could cause the shoot to become a failure.

"If a bug flies around and blocks the lens, or dust flows into the scene, all of the previous hours of that particular shoot are wasted," Zhu says.

The final scene was finally captured on one afternoon in August. She started shooting from 3 pm and finished at midnight.

"I had to adjust the focus every several minutes as the penicillium grew as the focal point would keep shifting, and we couldn't use the air conditioner in the lab because the temperature had to stay at a certain level for the penicillium to grow," Zhu says.

Besides micro photography, Zhu also uses thermal imagery to make the temperature visible－she filmed a scene with the tossing of an iron pan to demonstrate how hot it can be when frying ingredients.

"Sometimes we would catch nothing on camera, and then, when we did, the scene was so different from what we expected－the scenes we recorded were random, and there seemed to be no end to shooting them－I think that's the fun part of doing this.

"Shooting things in this way expands not only our eyes, but also our minds," says Zhu. "It can help us see clearer, closer, further, slower and faster than our eyes will allow, and, in some ways, you can also see the past, present and the future."

Contact the writer at liyingxue@chinadaily.com.cn