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I was referring to just the iris, but that might actually be better.
Sorry, I realized that after uploading. Trying to take advantage of some uninterrupted computer time.
I would honestly lose the letters in this case. At small sizes they do nothing but muddy up the icon in my opinion.
I couldn’t help but play with something real quick…
Maybe have a photo itself flowing through the iris (iris at the top), just as light would do?
Ah! I was just working on something along those lines.
Oops! Forgot to upload the icon.
This is how it looks in my dock at 32px.
This is what I was working on along @patdavid’s suggestion.
<img
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I’d get rid of the bottom rings and close the aperture blades a bit… I think that one is a winner though.
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I agree. Maybe add a subtle gradient and I’d say it’s good.
Thank you Thank you Thank you!!! You are all so great! 
@MLC’s water drop + iris has several excellent qualities: the visual metaphor makes perfect sense (photo + flow), no letters (works much better internationally), it looks equally good at different sizes, it’s unique, and maybe best of all, it’s simple and elegant. I think it would also pretty awesome if one day it were animated. Great work!
Yes, that one 
I totally agree with you! The only downside I’ve noticed is that at the smallest size the white lines between the blades and the inner iris are not very visible…
@MLC could you try to make the lines between the blades a bit bigger and maybe also increase a bit the size of the hexagonal iris?
@Dariusz_Duma we could maybe use a similar effect than the one you used in your attempt, to give the drop a slight 3D effect? And maybe a more evident blue → black gradient?
I really feel like we are converging to something nice and unique!
It would be less convenient, but you could have different designs for different sizes so that you can have thin lines at large sizes and thick and visible lines at small sizes.
My opinion is that there are some nice designs here, but they all are over-complicated, they all contain too much detail, which prevents them from working as icons. Splash screens are a separate issue.
The diaphragm-in-the-water-drop icon above is a great idea. To make it work you would need to fatten up those lines (I’m thinking of making them triangular instead of rectangular), and perhaps change the shape of the water droplet to something more round, more comic, to reduce the vertical height. http://i.imgur.com/WsU6Pxw.png
Something similar would be definitely great for the water drop part. Anyone skilled enough for that? I’m not… 
As it happens, I have an alternate.
I’m afraid I have to call it quits, however. Here is the link to my SVG containing both versions and some other randomness.
@damonlynch Thanks for your input and encouragement. It was fun to get back in the swing of things and brush up on my Inkscape skills. 
