Capturing mercury in a thermometer: MACRO on the table #1

I have two purposes in mind:

• Try out Macrophotography for the contest of @bambuka MACRO on the table

And

• Take this challenge of macro photography to the next level - To capture the mercury inside the thermometer. It is a silver line or column within the glass tube of the manual thermometer. I have always found it difficult to discern that silver line. To overcome this challenge, I have spent the last three hours experimenting with various angles and techniques to precisely capture the mercury line in its column.

I understand, @bambuka, you advised against capturing reflective surfaces for this contest. However, I struggled to find anything interesting on my side-table. Then, I opened the drawer of the side-table and found this yellow thermometer. While it may not be artistic enough, it certainly tested my patience to the nth degree.

To ensure accuracy and, in my case, to capture the mercury in its column, the viewer has to read the thermometer at eye level, looking directly at it. This minimizes parallax error, where the angle affects the reading. Photographing this was quite challenging, but here are the results. So, without further ado, behold my masterpiece! Hehe.

_{Macro photo of a yellow thermometer against a black background. Can you appreciate the demarcation of mercury precisely in the microtubule of this manual gauge?}

_{9:16 Black-and-white macro photo of a thermometer depicting the demarcation between the mercury and the empty tubule within the thermometer. The measurements on the tape are in centimeters.}

Some more experiments with different parts of thermometer and backgrounds:

It was fun participating in the contest. Just to clarify, the rise in mercury has nothing to do with my fever; I had to put it in hot water to make it come out of its bulb.