Hairs on the stem of Urtica dioica (nettle)

[Marek Mis]

10 X S Plan Apo Olympus, 2,5 X NFK, Lumipan CZJ microscope
Polarized light (combination of polarizer, quarter-wave plate and another retarder)
HF - 8 frames

[Charles Krebs]

Marek,

Wonderful shot!

You've inspired me to play around with wave plates a little more! I picked up some from Knight Optical. Did a few ascobic acid shots the other night (looks like we were both working with the same subject at the same time! )

[Marek Mis]

Charlie,
Thanks for your compliment if about my photograph.
I hope you will show your ascorbic acid images taken with wave plates soon.
I'm slightly jealous of my methods
Best regards
Marek

[discomorphella]

Wow, that is great. Now I want to get out my waveplates too...

David

[Craig Gerard]

Marek,

Excellent colours!

I'd be tempted to play with some wave plates too; but I don't know what they are and I expect a surfboard wouldn't be of much use.

Time to learn about wave plates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_plate

Great image! Thankyou for sharing

Craig

[Franz Neidl]

I like so much this picture, specialy because of its colours. Marvelous!

Franz

[Charles Krebs]

Craig,

The thin shrink-wrap plastic that is used to wraps CD's and DVD's make an excellent half wave plate. Just cut a piece and have it positioned someplace between the two polarizers. You don't want this plastic piece in the image path, so perhaps best just above the lower polarizer. Also you want to be able to rotate it to a position that gives best effect.

[Craig Gerard]

Thanks Charlie

Each time I look at this image I am fascinated by the colours Marek's technique has revealed.

Craig

[PaulFurman]

Fascinating. They can be delicious boiled like spinach when young, some populations anyways. Some people grow them as a larval host for butterflies. Here's a neat video, presumably from an SEM: http://www.arkive.org/common-nettle/urt ... o-10a.html