Actual pictures of electron densities (orbitals)
pipeline.corante.com
pipeline.corante.com
All optical properties we see macroscopically (light interacting with objects) can be broken down to photons interacting with electrons. The Quantum Electro-Dynamics theory (QED) explains this. There are actually some really great and entertaining free video lectures about this, given by Richard Feynman: http://vega.org.uk/video/programme/45
Now, I think what you were referring to is that we can't see electrons in an optical microscope because the electrons are smaller than the diffraction limit imposed by visible lights wavelengths.
So, in my admittedly limited understanding, you can't see an electron with a light microscope, but almost everything we consider optics is determined by electron-photon interactions.
If you're not familiar with these concepts, re-read the above but skip the stuff in parentheses.
http://education.jlab.org/qa/electron_01.html
and converted to MPH. I was contributing something I thought was of interest and very much on topic.