Photographer and Nature Lover …
To view how some of the garden birds approach landing on a feeder, I photographed them at high shutter speeds. The composite image below shows some of the results:
click image for a larger view …
They each appear to approach at significantly different speeds. The chaffinches certainly seemed easier to catch in frame than the blue tits, who frequently beat my reactions!
Just a brief post for now – its been a busy week 
The long-tailed field mouse or wood mouse, as he is sometimes called, occurs across most of Europe including the UK. They are mainly nocturnal, living in woods, fields & hedgerows. Only occasionally will they visit houses and then only when hungry & in the absence of house mice.
This little fellow jumped across the floor of the horse barn as I was shutting up for the night:
click image for larger view …
They have a good jump on them too, managing up to about 3ft, quite something for somebody who is only 3.5 inches long (excl. tail).
Wood mice live in burrows with separate chambers for breeding, food storage and toilets. Food types include berries, seeds, grain, nuts, snails, insects and any other opportunistic offerings. Only a few survive the winters but if they do, they may live up to 2 years. Predators are many including foxes, owls cats & weasels.
For those of you interested in the photography:
Here are some pictures of welsh birds of prey, from our trip to Nant yr Arian, Ceredigion; yesterday afternoon.
Click on images for a larger view …
The Welsh uplands have become a stronghold for the beautiful Red Kite (Milvus milvus). There are several places where the wild kites are fed, to help in the continuing conservation effort; Nant yr Arian is just one such place. I have counted 39 Red Kites in the picture above; so the kites obviously know where to come for a snack!
Click image for a larger view …
This second picture looks a bit closer and the clear reddish colour & forked tail of the kites can be seen as they wheel above the welsh uplands.
I’m still working my way through the images that I took but below are 4 more that show:
Click any of the images for a larger view
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Kite posters will be available from Posters Wales, later this spring.
And finally a short YouTube video of the kites …
Well its that time of year again where many of the UK’s families get out into gardens & parks to count the number of birds that are there. If you’d like to find out more please visit the RSPB web site. We duly did our count, with the noticeable change being more house sparrows & less goldfinch. We’ve recently had an issue with our supplies of niger seed, so that explains the Goldfinches and its very pleasing to see more sparrows.
Having received my Canon 5D MkII on Saturday lunchtime, it seemed suitable to take some test shots of the garden birds, here’s a blue tit:
Click any picture for a larger view …
Various members of the tit family were here in significant numbers and so were the ever present chaffinches. This little Robin kept trying to creep up unannounced:
Shy Robin
I don’t have the hide out at the moment, so these images were taken with the camera & I all camouflaged up but standing out in the open. The setup was 5D MkII on the back of 500mm L with 1.4 extender in place; all mounted on a monopod, to help me support the weight.
House Sparrow
I always loved the 500mm lens on my 5D but I think it’s even better mounted on the MkII. I just had to try out the video feature so here’s a brief YouTube video for you. Please forgive my slight wobble but 700mm fl on a monopod in a breeze, it is not the easiest thing to steady 
The recent weather, though mainly wet & cloudy, has given some opportunity to capture a few of the winter colours that Snowdonia can display. I was out walking the other day, looking for interesting macro shots, but couldn’t resist taking this panoramic of Cadair Idris:
click images for larger views …
150mm focal length wouldn’t perhaps be the automatic choice of lens for a Landscape shot but as a result the full stitched panoramic is over 12,000 pixels wide; making large poster prints possible.
Another view on the walk involved the late afternoon sunshine:
I really must finish the annual accounts, so that I can get back up in the mountains.
Well all good things have to come to an end, as they say. Tonight is twelfth night and for everyone who follows the tradition its time to take down the Christmas decorations.
I like the bright colours and sparkly glitter, so here’s a picture to remember them by:
Click image for a larger view …
And look forward to putting them up next year
There are many ways to photograph a horse, one classic composition is the facial portrait. Whilst it is possible to use flash lighting & artificial back drops, this is not necessary; rewarding portraits can be achieved with just natural light. This does of course require some patience, waiting for the desired lighting. Today was just such an occasion, the low freezing murk cleared at lunchtime, leaving a brief sunny spell that was ideal for purpose. Here are some example images, all taken today.
Click image for a larger view …
The key in each of these shots was to encourage the horse to make a characterful expression. Sometimes it is easier to do this with an assistant but here I was on my own. Of course there are other points to consider as well, such as:
The opportunity can also be taken to do some close detail shots of the horse, like below:
Finishing can include the production of Black & White images, colour variations, the addition of vignettes and many other things; its great to experiment & explore.
Happy New Year to all. Well the old year ended with plenty of ice and the new one has begun with fire, so maybe I should have said “Ice & Fire”.
After a very cold night everywhere was covered in a heavy layer of frost – just the sort of thing to test my new macro lens on. The picture below was taken using a tripod & mirror lock up; its of tiny ice crystals on a car windscreen:
Then this evening I was just heading out to check the horses & wish them happy new year when I noticed that the neighbouring village of Corris was having a fireworks display. Only had time to run, grab a camera and shoot a couple of frames but it was still a pretty way to welcome the new year in.
Hope 2009 turns out to be a good year for everyone.
I’ve been in need of a longer focal length macro lens for a while. Today I took delivery of a Sigma 150mm f2.8 APO Macro DG EX; that’s quite a name! Now I usually stick to Canon L series lenses but this Sigma EX has a very good reputation and is quite a bargain at the moment. Anyway took the lens for an afternoon stroll in today’s dull, cloudy and sub zero weather. The lens seems promisingly versatile being suitable for portraiture as well as macro work. Tamsin & her pony, Snowy, seemed like good subjects to take trial portrait shots of. The gloomy afternoon would ensure the use of higher ISO & open aperture, I used only natural light for these shots. Here’s an image of Snowy, taken with the Sigma lens on a Canon 5D:
I am very pleased with the nice bokeh that this lens produces; it is also acceptably sharp from wide open and gives a pleasant feel to the picture. The build quality appears good but perhaps not up to the rock solid build that Canon L series lenses give you. Focusing is quiet and of an acceptable speed for a macro lens but the AF doesn’t feel as accurate as a discerning photographer might wish for. Here’s a sample shot of Tamsin:
Overall, I am very pleased with the lens and look forward to taking more images with it. I expect to use it for macro, portrait (animal & human) and wedding photography. A brief test with both extension tubes & a x1.4 extender promises well for achieving good macro shots with magnification in excess of life size (1:1).
I don’t like missing photo opportunities, so it’s rare to find me away from home without a camera. Yesterday was no exception, we needed to pop out to the local farm suppliers to pick up a new rug for Tamsin’s pony, Tarragon. On the way there, we noticed a welsh mountain ewe; proudly standing on her piece of mountain. By now it was well into dusk and I had no tripod with me. Fortunately I had the 5D & 24-105 lens with me so I upped the ISO setting and fired off an exposure compensated trio whilst the helpful sheep stood still.
It may be no Monarch of the Glen but I think she deserves the title of " Mistress of the Mount".
Click image for a larger view …
I really love this piece of countryside, the views are ever changing and yet centuries old.
Tamsin has been working on her first attempt at casting a plaster model of a horse. She’s now finished it and so here are some views of her handy work:
 Click image for a larger view …
I’m really impressed with it, there are a few air bubbles and her painting technique will improve for practice but it’s a good start; guess I’ll be sent out to buy more plaster now.
Microsoft have just released their new photo toy “Photosynth” from beta, so when Tamsin asked if I’d make an animation or 3D shot I thought that was a great excuse to have a go with Photosynth. [Given that its a new web feature I guess most people will need to install Microsoft's Photosynth ActiveX control but its just like flash & other such things]. Here’s the synth: (more…)
Last weekend saw the culmination of the Gatcombe Park Festival of British Eventing presented by BETA. We were fortunate enough to be press photographers at the event. The first thing that I must say is that it was a pleasure to be working there, the organisation was excellent and it would be an enjoyable outing for anybody.
We concentrated on the intermediate section, this is where tomorrow’s equine Eventing stars are to be seen. That said, the highlight of the day was undoubtedly the British Open.
Show Jumping
There were plenty of eye catching performances here, with 7 clear rounds. Crucially Oliver Townend, Ruth Edge and Brook Staples all went clear, whilst Lucy Wiegersma had 4 faults. This kept the competition close going into the cross country phase where time was going to be tight on the undulating Gatcombe course. Here are 3 photos from the show jumping (open & intermediate) – click on a picture to see it larger …
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Cross Country – Intermediate
The Gatcombe course was looking wonderful and the ground in good order. As you might expect there were plenty of thrills & spills, at one point I even had to abandon the camera, to catch a loose horse. Some had problems with the Gatcombe water monsters but it rode well for others …
Click image for a larger view …
Lucy Wiegersma had a sturdy clear round on French Leave with 6 time faults, she rode confidently through the water, as below …
Click image for a larger view …
This was good enough for 5th overall, with Andrew Nicholson & Brook Staples also having only time faults to go 4th & 3rd respectively. The spills kept on coming at the water, with some spectacular falls {I won’t post the identifiable one’s for now } …
Click image for a larger view …
Yes there’s a horse & rider in amongst the water, happily all were fine, just a little wet & muddy. Ruth Edge had no problems on the cross country but did incur 8.4 time penalties, which would prove decisive; leaving her in a final 2nd place. This left Oliver Townend with an opportunity or two. ODT Tivoli gave him damp feet at the water
Click image for a larger view …
whilst ODT Master Rose looked to risk a bath but recovered well to finish with only time faults. It was ODT Land Vision who put in an outstanding round, one of the quickest, with only 1.6 time faults and thus taking the win.
Click image for a larger view …
In the open competition Ruth Edge went one better with Mayhem III to take the win on an excellent final score of 27.1. Nicola Wilson & Opposition Buzz were 2nd and Oliver Townend & Flint Curtis were 3rd.
Supporting Entertainment
The main ring provided a place for many more carry ons, some are detailed below:
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The dressage to music was informative and a sublime relief from the excitement of the cross country.
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Next up was Ye Olde Red Tail Falconry display, which was simply wondrous, as well as funny! I love birds of prey and it was fantastic to see Peregrine Falcons, Harris Hawk, Black Kite, a Vulture & an Eagle Owl.
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Then we were treated to an amazing performance by The Devil’s Horseman as they carried out a Cossack style display. Click on any image for a larger view …
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Their performance had the press box full of cheers & yells, many coming from the supposedly quiet & invisible Tamsin. A really exciting display that I recommend you to go & see.
The closing finale was provided by the Shetland Grand National, which pretty much speaks for itself …
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An excellent day at a great venue, but boy was I tired by the time we arrived home.
Shameless Plug
If any editors require images of Gatcombe or need a commission fulfilling, please get in touch with either Jane or I.
Equally so event organisers & individuals should feel free to call on us for our photographic services, see more by visiting to our web hub and following the appropriate links.
Sun, clouds, lightning, rain; yes it’s a British summer! The night of the 27th clear spells gave way to a hot (27C) & humid day yesterday, with very little breeze. That’s just what I needed to demonstrate an answer to Tamsin’s question … How do you take the images of the tree canopy that I see in magazines?
So off we trundled with tripod, camera & fisheye lens, we took 4 differently exposed views of the tree canopy & returned to the computer to process the 4 exposures into one high dynamic range (HDR) image. Whilst walking the conversation turned to "How are zoom lenses made?" – hmm, this daughter keeps me on my toes Anyway the resulting image is below:
The full res image (not posted here) shows details of leaves & bark whilst retaining plenty of sky detail, all in all a good recommendation for HDR technique.
As evening came any ideas of a night’s astrophotography were blown away by rather ominous looking thunderclouds. An opportunity for an early night? Well maybe not, 2am found me sat in the bird hide watching some beautiful lightning & being lulled to sleep by the patter of rain on the canvas. Naturally I had a camera with me …
Lightning occurs when droplets of ice & rain, circulating in the thunder cloud, build up electrostatic charge. The charge created can be huge and an equal but opposite charge is induced in the ground below the cloud. The highest electrical field exists on the tip of objects such as tall trees, electrical leaders form that eventually connect cloud & tree top and it is then that a huge discharge leading back up the ionised air, into the cloud, takes place. This is the bright flash that we most often see. Most lightning strikes are a discharge of negative charge from the cloud with a typical current of 40,000 amps; potential difference may be several hundred thousand volts. However lightning strikes that emanate from the top of an anvil cloud can result in a positive discharge, these bolts carry significantly more energy and are both rarer & more dangerous.
Lightning storms in Wales are rarely viewable without a large amount of associated rain, so trying to keep equipment dry, whilst photographing the view, can be a bit tricky but well worth it I think. So Aberllefenni & Corris had a stormy night, but all seems fine today.
Trivia: Did you know that the path of a lightning bolt may only be 1 or 2 inches wide but 1 mile long.
My apologies for having failed to post in over a month, I’ve been a little busy with work. I do however have several posts in the pipe line, so watch this space.
Now down to business, Early in May I had my first proper chance to try out the modified Fuji camera in bright sunshine with fresh foliage. The session was brief & all from home but here are 3 of the resulting pictures:
click picture for larger view …
This first picture is a classic use for IR photography, bright foliage with dark skies & shadows. This type of photography can produce high contrast output, although noise control can be something of an issue.
click picture for larger view …
Next is a portrait of “Hob Nogglin” one of our youngsters, he’s a 50/50 cross between TB & Welsh Section D. Oh and he loves cameras, he just can’t wait to give the lens a big smeary lick! This picture has a light sepia toning applied to it.
click picture for larger view …
This final picture was taken as I was walking back up to our house, the sun had disappeared behind some evening cloud and the high contrast of IR imaging picked up the ‘ray’ effect beautifully. This final picture has been give a duotone effect.
We took a trip to the beach on Tuesday. I needed to work on a photographic project and the weather looked good for Jane and Tamsin to have some seaside fun.
Whilst there I decided to do some work on panoramic imaging in high dynamic range or HDR. On the expanded section of this post I’ve included a highly compressed panoramic animation of the beach. Be warned there may also be a picture of Tamsin deciding to do some extreme beach sports!
Read on for the full story…
More fun & games with alternative photography techniques.
Floating a Steam Engine! I must have gone mad, well actually that happened a long time ago but I digress! The intention is to make a model train appear as if it is floating and therefore present us with a pleasant reflection within its photograph, as below:
Click image for a larger view …
Here is a brief overview of how to carry out this technique:
Do be careful doing this, you are going to have high current electric & water in close proximity to each other, so caution is of the utmost importance. Do have fun though, this is a classic technique that has often been done on a large scale for sports car publicity. Tamsin is now asking for me to help her do it for her model horses
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On a different note; an interesting use for infrared photography is the romantic portrait.
Click image for a larger view …
This technique shows almost a glow to skin. The above picture is simply a family photo that I grabbed whilst walking past Tamsin & Snowy, with the IR camera. In a studio setup the effect can be refined with some quite stunning results. More on this, later in the year.
Despite all the inclement weather, we have recently been treated to views of some varied & beautiful phenomenon in the sky. Here’s a pictorial account of the last week’s worth:
The other day Tamsin & I were off on the hills of mid Wales when we saw a stunning, bright rainbow.
Click image for larger view …
I didn’t have an ultra wide lens with me so the image is a mosaic of 5 frames, I’m still pleased with how the rainbow colour spectrum has shown up.
Then the other night, 21st March, was the Spring Equinox. A break in the clouds gave us opportunity to watch the full moon rise.
Click image for larger view …
I love the view through the trees as the moon crests the mountain ridge behind our home.
And last night ice crystals were causing a beautiful halo around the rising moon.
Click image for larger view …
Hexagonal ice crystals in Cirrus clouds are the normal cause of this 22.5 degree halo.
Maybe I can photograph some more weather features, and bring them to you this coming year.
Well it’s always nice to have some Daffodils in flower for St David’s Day, and this year the garden has duly obliged. I do like Leeks too, but they’re best cooked in butter and served up with a joint of Welsh Black cooked in Red Wine. So my preferred 1st March celebration is to watch the daffs bobbing in the breeze.
In fact Spring is definitely trying to have sprung, with various flowers giving a welcome splash of colour. I’m not sure of it yet though, this coming week could feel rather chilly and snow in April isn’t uncommon. Still, here’s hoping Spring has arrived; let’s enjoy the flowers. I wasn’t the only one to be doing so, as you can see below:
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Oh and by the way, I’ve just added a separate Bird gallery to share some bird images, so please do have a look.
I felt like imaging something a bit different last night. My full astro setup is currently dismantled whilst undergoing a PC upgrade and the skies partially cleared during the evening. So out I went with camera & static tripod.
Now Orion is usually a really nice widefield at this time of year, so I started playing around with different settings but then Tamsin’s pony, Snowy, came to offer her help in the proceedings!
So I settled for my full spectrum modified Fuji on the tripod and attempted to produce a portrait of sky & pony. The thing is, pony models don’t keep still for long and stars don’t really show up on fast exposures. So… I had to use a bit of HDR technique to apply duplicate exposures, one for pony & one for sky. Foreground lighting was supplied by the 60Watt tungsten outdoor light on our house, everything else supplied by nature.
Click picture for a larger view …
I thought of calling it “Pegasus meet Orion” but I’m not sure that Tamsin or Snowy would have been in favour. Oh well, that was a bit of fun, back to work now (which is fun too {grin} ).
I decided to make a final montage, showing the moon in it’s various eclipse states.
Hope you enjoy it, I’m going to put the picture as a big poster on my wall
We took a quick trip to our local RSPB reserve this week. Just a quick afternoon trip but very enjoyable none the less, if you’re in the area please do consider visiting this fantastic resource. You can find out more by clicking here.
Whilst there are many different species to spot, from squirrels & songbirds to a variety of birds of prey, it was the geese that caught my attention on this beautiful February afternoon.
From this lovely Greylag Goose (above) who was fairly determined to stand with its back to me until it heard me rustle in the reeds, up popped its head whilst I froze for fear of scaring it off; but this picture was the result To the goose that I shared my school playing grounds with (see below):
Yes the Canada Goose and this one decided to have a lovely stretch of the wings in the evening sunshine. There really wasn’t a goose shortage today. As the sun set, we were right down on the river estuary the river waters turning a fiery orange as the sun met the horizon.
Swans, Mallard, Pochard and more, came flighting in as dusk fell; but true to the day it was geese who dominated the evening too, with hundreds coming in from the neighbouring area.
Ynys Hir, definitely somewhere to spend some more time.
The last few days I’ve been testing some new photography equipment. The weather has been fairly damp & murky, until today, which was beautiful. Anyway I decided that one of my test subjects should be some of the birds in and around the garden / hedgerows. Amongst others that includes:
| - Chaffinch- Brambling
- Blue Tit - Greater Spotted Woodpecker |
- Siskin- Robin
- Dunnock - Buzzard (soaring high above) |
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Here are a few images, be sure to click the link at the bottom to view the interactive image of a Dunnock:
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As I said today was a distinct improvement and I could do some winter hedgerow shots:
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Have you ever looked really closely at a small bird? Their fine feathers and exquisite colours are so beautiful. Click here for high resolution image of a Dunnock. The image is scrollable & zoomable and having been taken at a focal length of 1000mm, there’s quite a bit of detail (more detail downloaded each time you zoom, so give it a little while).
I’m really looking forward to spring now! Lots of photography opportunities.
BTW: Shameless plug here – if you’d like to purchase prints of my images, many are available for direct purchase from my business site: Celestial Galleries
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Technorati tags: Birds, Ornithology, Twitching, Photography
For sometime I’ve been intending to build myself a sturdy dual mount and all the recent cloudy weather has left me with the opportunity. I wanted to be able to put 2 cameras onto my CG5 equatorial mount, both with similar alignment. The system needs to be rigid yet very quick to change over between configurations. Typical immediate combinations might be:
In the future it might also be asked to carry an astro CCD camera attached to a Canon Lens. Having been pleased with Manfrotto equipment for my daytime photography, I decided to base the plan on their accessories; here’s the starting point:
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The Manfrotto quick fit plates are really very secure devices with safety clips too. If any slippage does occur there are also compatible Manfrotto anti-twist spotting scope plates available. At this point can I also recommend Stagonset fasteners to anyone in the UK who is looking for good quality fixings like the UNC cap screws.
Now to put it all together. I drilled an extra hole in the dovetail at one end to take the slide plate fixings. Originally I had intended this to be 3/8 but I decided that might weaken the dovetail too much, so the slideplate thread was reduced to 1/4 with a bronze insert and then a 1/4 fixing was used. Spring washers were used to ensure a substantial hold. I also replaced the smaller screws that were supplied with the dovetail, these give extra purchase to remove any risk of movement. Here’s a picture:
Next the procedure was repeated at the other end of the dovetail, to mount the quick change plate but on the underside this time. The whole setup was now checked for alignment and then the fixings tightened right up. Here’s a picture of the complete assembly:
I was then really lucky, in that the next night I had just a one hour break in the clouds so I could briefly try the thing out. Everything seems very secure, the slide plate allows me extra adjustment to find good balance with a large lens & DSLR whilst the bottom quick change plate works well giving plenty of clearance for the smaller camera. Below are two images of the setup that I tested it with, Canon 20D 100-400L plus Mintron & C lens:
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A quick word about the Mintron starlight camera, this is a fabulous piece of kit. If you have children who want to see the view or maybe a group of friends around for a party, this really beats everyone queuing up & squinting through the eyepiece. It is highly sensitive & can internally stack up to 128 frames realtime whilst outputting this video to a TV screen. Below is an image of the plough (big dipper) on TV from the other night (apologies for poor quality but TV screens don’t photograph too well)
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The Mintron’s C lenses are interchangeable & it can also be attached to the back of a scope too. Perhaps I’ll do a separate write up on it, after I’ve captured some video with a capture card. I have seen a perfectly respectable M27 with it on the back of the C6SCT and Tamsin certainly loves viewing with it.
So that’s that for now, I’m currently waiting for the arrival of my adapter to mount the Lodestar & 300mm mirror lens together. Once that’s made it here from Australia, I should be able to start guiding. If only the skies would clear …
Technorati tags: Starlight Camera, DIY, AstroPhotography
As readers of my blog will be aware, I enjoy imaging natural things. For me ” Natural World” includes the very big (like galaxies) and the really rather small (like cells). I’ve decided to include some Microscopy (or Photomicrography) in my blog, so by way of a start I thought I’d include some images of chromosomes, the data bookshelves of life on our planet.
Chromosomes require fairly substantial magnification and the simplest way to achieve acceptable resolution at x1000 with a standard optical microscope is to use oil immersion microscopy; this is how the following images were taken …
Chromosomes during Mitosis
Mitosis is the process of duplicating & splitting the nucleus / genetic material of a eukaryotic cell. It is normally followed by cytokinesis which completes cell division, resulting in 2 identical daughter cells. Mitosis is used for growth & asexual reproduction, it is distinct from meiosis (used for sexual reproduction) and binary fission of prokaryotic cells. Other than the ‘normal’ interphase state of cells, Mitosis has 4 main phases & these allows us to view & photograph chromosomes:
To complete cell division the cells cytoplasm will now cleave and two new sister cells will form; this is cytokinesis.
So what of it? Well the chromosomes are particularly distinct during Metaphase & Anaphase and that gives us a great opportunity to photograph them. The process doesn’t take very long, Metaphase can be over in 15 minutes; so we need to look at a whole bunch of cells & pick out the few that have been ‘caught in the act’ as it were. The micrograph below is of onion cells dividing mitotically near the root tip …
Click image for a larger view …
The image was taken at 1000 times magnification (x10 ocular, x100 objective) and used oil immersion to improve the image (see below). The cell in the centre of the picture displays distinct blue stained chromosomes and just possible to make out is the occasional spindle fibre. Two other cells can be seen at different stages.
Giant Chromosomes in Fruit Flies
Drosophilia, the favourite of geneticists across the ages are one of a few insects that have an unusual characteristic. They develop ‘giant’ or polytene chromosomes in their salivary glands. DNA is replicated many times, without cell division taking place. This can lead to large banded chromosomes with perhaps 1000 times the normal compliment of DNA, 85% of which may be concentrated in to the dark bands. These give us another excellent opportunity to photograph chromosomes.
Click image for a larger view …
Image details: Magnification x1000, Light Microscopy with Oil Immersion, Canon 300D ISO 100 TV 1.3s, 4 image stack using CombineZM
Technique & Equipment
How were these images taken? The basic equipment is pictured below:
Click image for a larger view …
Referring to the image above, from bottom to top: Light Source, Slide, Oil, Objective Lens, Ocular lens, photo adapter, DSLR
ie. Immersion Oil is carefully placed here (picture below), between objective lens & slide coverslip.
Click image for a larger view …
The microscope is carefully focused away from the slide until best focus is found. One draw back of this method is that the focal plane is absolutely tiny. The advantages are simple, at high magnifications light microscopes loose resolution due to refraction at the glass air boundaries; by using immersion oil with the same refractive index as the glass, 2 such boundaries are removed & resolution is restored.
I shall add more microscopy images in time to come.
Those of you who follow my blog will remember that I enjoy infra-red photography, cf Seeing Red. I have recently acquired a digital camera that has been converted to image in a broader spectrum than our visible one. It is sensitive from 300nm UV to 1100nm IR; by using front filters the range can be limited for a particular bandwidth. The camera was supplied by IRDIGI, who I can recommend for a polite & efficient service. It is a Fuji FinePix S9600, you can find reviews of it (in normal guise) here. Here’s an example image from my first few days with the camera:
The conventional way of displaying IR images is as a B&W image, in the image above I have lightly toned the monochrome output. Notice how the vegetation is very light coloured, this is because it reflects large amounts of Infra-red. Another item of note is how contrasty skies can be made. The sky in the image above appeared very icy blue with only a feint sign of high level clouds, yet they show up clearly in the image. Of course you don’t have to stick with the subtle; in the image below I have used heavy toning to create a particular mood for the image:
And you don’t have to stick with toned images, false colour IR photography is another technique again. In the image below digital manipulation returns a blue sky whilst maintaining the bright IR reflectivity of the plant life.
This camera / technique is capable of much more and I shall be exploring this in the months to come, I shall also be adding some different bandwidth filters to experiment with.
General Points:
The image below is of our 820nm IR medical Laser. My Canon 20D doesn’t record any of the intense IR light from it and my eyes don’t see the Laser as ‘on’ but the IR camera records the diverging light hitting the prism and being redirected:
Note: If you have access to such a device, do wear the correct safety goggles & don’t look directly at the beam.
Oh well that’s enough for now, watch this space for more info & images in the coming months.
