The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 17,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 4 Film Festivals
Photo of a fruit fly (Drosophila) compiled from a stack of 43 images using Zerene stacker. The images were taken with an Olympus e-620 DSLR using a Cnscope 5X microscope objective mounted on a vintage Olympus auto bellows
Almost exactly a month ago I posted a photo of a sow bug (order Isopoda) I created from a stack of 57 separate images (see Image stacking revisited: macro photograph a sow bug—take 3). At the time I didn’t think the photo was all that great and mused on the need to invest in more equipment. I noted that I had ordered a 4X microscope objective off Ebay and was planning to build a precision focusing rail from a Zeiss Microscope Focus Arm. I’ve mentioned a couple of times since that I was working on the focusing rail. The lens I ordered was a 4X plan achromatic objective from Cnscope (see 4X plan achromatic objective on Ebay). At $20 with free shipping it was a real deal!
The focusing rail is now functional (see below) although not finished—I still have some cosmetic details to complete. I actually had it done over a week ago and happily tried it out for the first time by stacking images of a cricket’s eye. However, the resulting photo was still not good enough. I had resolved some of my equipment problems, but clearly I still needed to work on my technique. Most importantly I needed to find a better way to light my subject. I needed to provide soft, even lighting to a tiny specimen positioned only 14mm from the front of the lens while simultaneously avoiding lens flare. I also needed to find a suitably photogenic subject.
Macro focussing rail built from a Carl Zeiss Jena Laboval 4 Microscope Focus Arm (on its back). An Olympus e-volt 620 camera is mounted on a vintage Olympus OM System auto bellows. The lens, a Cnscope 4X plan achromatic microscope objective is concealed by the yogurt container flash diffuser
I caught a fruit fly and left it in the freezer (to humanely kill it) while I peeled off the label from the yogurt tub, cut a hole in the bottom and set-up my equipment. I pushed a fine sewing needle through a scrap of green foam core and then carefully impaled the deceased fly on the point of the needle, taking care not to push the needle all the way through the minute critter. This wasn’t the easiest thing to do with my bad vision…it took my reading glasses, a 5X loupe and several tries to get it done. My caffeine jitters from 3 cups of morning coffee didn’t help! The foam core was held in place with an alligator clip. I also made a simple lens hood for the objective using a strip of black construction paper and tape.
Lateral view of the lens (covered by a paper lens shade) and fruit fly specimen on the tip of a sewing needle. I removed the outer barrel of the lens and added the shade to reduce the chance of lens flare
Eventually the specimen and the yogurt container were positioned. Lighting was provided by my trusty Vivitar 283 positioned directly above the yogurt container…creating a miniature white box!
Lateral view of the set-up with the yogurt container flash diffuser (white box) in place
Photographing the fly was a slow process. I took a total of 43 pictures, adjusting the focus by 25 µ (0.025mm) between each. Then the images were stacked and retouched in Zerene. The final image was further edited in Photoshop Elements 8. Interestingly, the picture looks much better if you zoom in on it—on my computer at least. I don’t think the screen of my laptop has good enough resolution to do justice to the fine details otherwise. Below is another (closer) look at the photo.
Portrait of a fruit fly (Drosophila) cropped from a photo compiled from a stack of 43 images
This is the first stacked photo that I am really satisfied with. The focusing rail worked perfectly and the yogurt container white box produced exactly the quality of light I was looking for. Now I need to practice. It’s a pain-staking technique that can produce amazing photos when it all comes together. And of course I am already saving my pennies towards my next lens purchase…something to provide even higher resolution, higher magnification, or both…
Cheers,
EC
The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR mounted on Olympus OM auto bellows
Lens: Cnscope 4X plan achromatic microscope objective
Settings: manual exposure, shutter speed= 1/125 sec
Lighting: Vivitar 283 flash and VP-1 Vari-power adapter (1/8 power)
ISO: 100
I haven’t posted for almost a week and I have been feeling quite guilty about it. I picked-up a nasty virus late last week and haven’t been feeling particularly inspired (or healthy) ever since. But this morning—once I stopped trying to cough-up a lung—I decided to grab my camera and take a few photos.
My subject today is an Israeli pillar tail scorpion (Orthochirus scrobiculosus negebensis). These are very odd little critters, and quite different from “typical” scorpions. They are small, tubby and have a disproportionately huge, fat tail (metosoma) that has a much textured surface. They wave their odd tails over their head in a really distinctive way as they walk around. They are about as cute as a scorpion can get.
I bought a group of these critters last summer. I naturally photographed them shortly thereafter, but I was disappointed in the initial photos and didn’t feel they were good enough to be posted here. I really liked the scorpion pictures that I uploaded in my last post (see A scorpion, a white box and 15 minutes) and so today I thought I’d give this species another shot, so to speak.
There are several challenges to taking really good pictures of these scorpions:
I was hoping that by now my Orthochirus would be well established and would maybe have cleaned some of the dust off their exoskeletons since my last attempt. Unfortunately, as you can see from these images, this wasn’t the case. This scorpion is still dusty and these photos really aren’t as good as I’d like.
It is so tempting to wash this little beast off in some warm water. But as I said above, they come from a very dry environment—they don’t even have a water dish in their enclosures. I’m afraid that immersion in water, even for a short time, would stress the animal badly or even worse, cause it harm. But I sure would like to get some nice photos of these fascinating animals and it’s hard to imagine that a quick dip would hurt. But I am hesitant…I might just have to be satisfied with these photos—at least until one of my Orthochirus moults and sheds the dust along with its old exoskeleton.
Cheers,
EC
The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (F16 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: Vivitar 283 flash and VP-1 Vari-power adapter (1/4 power)
ISO: 100
A couple of posts ago (see Photographing down the food web: silkworms) I was lamenting the lack of critters available to me to photograph at this time of the year. I (half) jokingly suggested that I would need to turn to earthworms and “feeders” like crickets. Well I am happy to say that the problem has been resolved—for the time being at least—by an influx of new specimens to my household. Last week I took possession of 19 new “pets” including three new species of scorpions, two species of tarantulas, and one centipede. One might jump to the conclusion that I used the dearth of photographic subjects as an excuse to buy some interesting critters (and one would be right). Most of these critters are still really small—five of the tarantulas are only about ¼ of an inch across. But all of the spiderlings and scorplings will grow and will end-up in front of my camera at some point.
The other problem I have had lately is a lack of time to spend on photography. Between work, chasing kids and getting ready for Christmas, I just haven’t had much spare time. Plus I have been trying to work on construction of a macro stand for more (and better) photo stacking (see). Last night I finally managed to find a whole 15 minutes to do a shoot, so I quickly set-up my white box and took these pictures of one of my new critters: a lovely adult female desert hairy scorpion (Hadrurus arizonensis).
I knew the moment that I saw this scorpion that she would look great when photographed in a white box. Fifteen minutes isn’t a long time, but I have used the white box set-up enough over the past couple of months that I have all the kinks worked out. Plus, desert hairys are typically pretty calm, and this one is no exception; so it wasn’t difficult to keep her under control while taking pictures.
Speaking of the photos, they show pretty clearly why this species is called the desert “hairy.” Apparently the brown hairs that are so prominent on this species are used to detect vibration in the substrate.
This isn’t the first time I have featured this species on this blog. Way back in June (see A tail of two scorpions) I posted a scanned version of a photo I took of one of these scorpions more than 20 years ago. There is no comparison of course; these photos are so much better it’s almost embarrassing…not bad for 15 minutes!
You can expect to see more photos of this nice beast in the future. At the very least I need to take some more pictures with a natural background.
Cheers,
EC
The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (F16 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: Vivitar 283 flash and VP-1 Vari-power adapter (1/8 power)
ISO: 100
I took this photo last summer, filed it, and completely forgot about it. It was created from a stack of 42 separate pictures using Zerene Stacking software. See Image stacking revisited: macro photograph a sow bug—take 2 for more information on image stacking.
Like other stacked photos I have uploaded, the picture has a softness about it partially because the lens I have been using (Zuiko 50mm F1.8) just doesn’t provide the resolution I would really like. However, I like this photo partially because of the softness—it kind of feels like a painting. Of course the best thing about this photo is those gorgeous eyes! The softness of the photo has been emphasized by the very tight crop. The original, uncropped picture is below.
I mentioned in a previous post (Image stacking revisited: macro photograph a sow bug—take 3) that I had purchased a used Zeiss Microscope Focus Arm that I was hoping to turn into a macro stand that will allow me more control when photo stacking. I’m working on it now and have ordered a sharper, higher magnification (microscope) lens. Hopefully I’ll be able to produce more (better) stacked images soon.
Cheers,
EC
The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 50mm F1.8 reversed on an Olympus OM auto bellows
Settings: manual exposure (F5.6 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: Vivitar 283 with vari-power module (set at 1/16 power)
macrocritters 