Pollen - Pine

Rudix · Post by **Rudix** » Sun Mar 26, 2017 6:52 am

I found some pine pollen and tried to stain it to enhance contrast. I need to find a source of stains that will export to South Africa, might have to ship it via surface mail as most courier companies refuse to transport little containers full of strange liquids

Pine Pollen, 40x objective, 28 image stack.

Pine pollen, 100x objective, oil, 73 image stack.

Thanks for looking,
Rudi

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Sun Mar 26, 2017 7:32 am

Wow, you've managed to photograph the internal structure!

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Sun Mar 26, 2017 7:43 am

Interesting. How are you preparing these?

Rudix · Post by **Rudix** » Sun Mar 26, 2017 7:49 am

Lou Jost wrote:Wow, you've managed to photograph the internal structure!

Yes, would have loved the image to be a bit sharper but it was just a cheap Chinese objective, hoping to receive a better one soon from the mail-man!

Thanks for looking!
Rudi

Rudix · Post by **Rudix** » Sun Mar 26, 2017 7:53 am

ChrisR wrote:Interesting. How are you preparing these?

I captured the pollen on a slide with a bit of water. Then I added a bit of purple food coloring. After about 5 minutes I drained as much water as possible from the side using absorbent paper, then added more water to rinse and drained again.

I then added a tiny drop of alcohol/glycerin mix (50/50), waited for the alcohol to evaporate before mounting in glycerin jelly with a cover glass on top.

Rudi