All My Blogs

Water drops on leaves after a rainfall. I do not like taking my camera equipment out during the rain but it can be very profitable to do so after it stops.  There are a number of creatures that prefer the wet, most notably amphibians.  It is rare to run into them though even in damp conditions, so fauna does not tend to be a big draw for me.  Flora, which may have otherwise not been of much interest, takes on new dimensions as water droplets can often be found dancing on leaf surfaces right after modest precipitation.  Time is of the essence because the water may evaporate, be absorbed, or be driven off; the sensitive droplets at the mercy of wind or touch. So it was a couple of days ago when, after a brief downpour, I took my camera and macro setup out to see what moments I could capture.  A neighbour's garden proved to be the perfect scene as there were plenty of water droplets on ephemeral display.  The lupin I chose was of particular interest beca...

A damsel bug waiting for its prey. Hemiptera.  True bugs.  Not just a "bug" in the generic sense of the word, but an insect of a very particular group.  True bugs are characterized as having incomplete metamorphosis, that is they young look exactly like the adults except without wings.  They all are tube feeders with biting mouth parts that allow them to suck liquids from their food source into their bodies.  They also have this peculiar little triangular piece behind the thorax called a scutellum.  This particular bug is a damsel bug.  I have never seen one before and its discovery for me was a unique experience.  As I pondered at it I wondered exactly what it was.  It was definitely a true bug, but what were its habits?  One look at the front legs and I decided that it must have a carnivorous nature; they were meant to grab onto something and not let it go.  Herbeferous ones tend to have weak front legs; stink bugs are a goo...

Ground beetle, genus Agonum , shown with photoshop layers for image stacking Most people associate the use of slides with microscopes, but you can also use anything that will fit under the objectives to view.  The issue is translucency, as thicker subject block the light which typically comes from underneath the specimen.  The key then is to use multiple light sources that shine directly upon the subject from acute positions to adequately illuminate it. Image stacking, also called focus stacking, is a method of increasing depth of field.  Microscopes are notorious for having a very narrow depth of field, becoming increasingly narrow as magnification increases.  At low-power there may be as much as a millimeter but at high-power it can be measured in microns (also called micrometers; 1000 µm = 1 mm).  Taking any one photograph (inset, bottom right) will render a great deal of the specimen out of focus.  This is where image stacking helps. Starti...

An ichneumon wasp I found yesterday on a walk. Insects can be very hard to identify.  Most of us are pretty good at the local and very generic classification system in common use.  Ladybug, butterfly, ant, fly is the vocabulary most of us have for the 6 legged creatures we find in our midst.  Being more specific than that becomes increasingly difficult because of the sheer variety and the lack of general knowledge.  Although I really enjoy discovering new and interesting "bugs", my passion falls in the area of photographing them and sharing related information to others. On a walk yesterday I came across the small beast in the above image.  Equipped with my birding lens and camera, I was not able to get a great picture of it.  The photo above was the best I could muster - the final image represents a significant crop of the original file.  Yet it was enough to identify it to the genus level.  It is an icheumon, genus Mesostenus . I spent a...

Covid-19 on a cruise ship metaphor. If you have ever been on a cruise chances are you enjoyed it.  If you enjoyed it chances are you have wanted to go on another.  Then along came a spider (Covid-19).  What is the likelihood that you would ever set foot on a cruise ship again given the recent experience of many guests?  Chances are that, like most challenges that fall upon us, there will be an initial avoidance with a gradual return to normalcy.  Consider traffic accidents, for example.  You are considered to be a good driver and have developed a normalized series of behaviours for operating a vehicle.  Then you get into an accident or maybe witness one.  Chances are that you will try to be a more cautious operator afterwards.  This is because you are focused on the consequences of a mistake, even if it is not yours.  The crisis is at the forefront of your mind.  Fear and trepidation modify your actions. It doesn't last thou...

Drosophila fruit fly enlarged 40x (top) and 250x (bottom). Ever since I was in grade 9 I loved microscopes.  I would spend countless hours at school before it began, after it ended, and at lunch peering through their depths at whatever I could scrape up.  Mostly it was aquatic critters I found in the biological science's aquarium that I maintained.  It provided me with an unending supply of protists, rotifers, annelids, and insects to examine.  That passion carried on through my adulthood as, over the years, I have collected a number of microscopes. My first microscope was found at an auction.  I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into but the thrill hit me and I got it for $100.  It came with a wooden case, had three objectives, and a single 5x ocular lens.  The quality was, I discovered, not great.  It did get me going though.  Later I saw one in a doctor's office.  A better version of the one I had, it had 4 objectives ...

Details of Queen from a Canadian Coin - Macro photography gets you close. There are many ways that you can capture a close up of any object.  Typically the methods vary in cost from pennies to thousands of dollars.  Many compact cameras come with a macro mode that allows you to get within centimeters of your subject.  Cell phone cameras, with the addition of a snap-on magnifier accessory can also provide a great deal of magnification.  Most people don't need much more magnification than this.  The challenge with these devices is that lighting and shooting distance are severely limited. Any macro shooting situation can be addressed by examining five parameters; magnification, illumination, depth of field, image quality, and shooting distance.  Low magnifications can be achieved with most cell phones and compact cameras without any accessories.  Inexpensive accessories allow more magnification.  If you happen to have a DSLR or CSC (compact sys...