Micro Teevee

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Fri May 13, 2011 12:10 pm

This is perhaps a bit of a strange item for a posting. A couple of weeks ago (when I was on a holiday and could not see it) there was a dutch children's teevee program with an item called the Microphotographer (tiny photographer; that's me!) Unfortunately it is in dutch but for those who are interested, it can be seen here (I hope):

http://beta.uitzendinggemist.nl/aflever ... -fotograaf

The set up is not my actual working situation. I made a set up that could be filmed easier, from all sides. And I borrowed a Canon camera to make the movies. Filming is great so I hope to buy a camera with a good film function soon. This item was filmed in one day so not every shot is that great but I think it is pretty informative, with a lot of information in a short time. And of course some bad jokes, like my tip for children to use their mother's credit card to scrape of algae. This program always has 'funny' sketches that are perhaps weird when you can't understand the language.

Next time I'll post an image, I promise.

Wim

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Fri May 13, 2011 1:10 pm

Great video!

Any chance of getting a transcript? Native language would be fine, judging from how well Google Translate handles other text on the web page.

--Rik

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Fri May 13, 2011 1:29 pm

Thanks Rik, and I am glad the link works. A transcript may be a lot of work but I can perhaps write a summary. And there are probably some things that are interesting to write a bit more about. But it is late now. Bed time!

Wim

canonian · Post by **canonian** » Fri May 13, 2011 1:53 pm

Great video , Wim
Nice studio too!

Now you got me all exited on pondlife again.
There's hardly enough time to discover the beauty that surrounds us.

sleep tight, don't let the bugs bite ...

micrasterias will be there tomorrow as well.

Tom Jones · Post by **Tom Jones** » Fri May 13, 2011 8:39 pm

Wim,

Very nice video!

It seems to be very informative, and showed the kids a lot in a short time.

I'm curious about a couple of things. Is you plankton net homemade, and where did you find that compressorium?

Thanks for sharing!

Tom

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Sat May 14, 2011 12:36 am

excellent movie Wim:shock:

you walk around a paradise of microoganisms..
best
arturo

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Sat May 14, 2011 5:09 am

Thanks friends,

First some reactions on the questions. I bought the plankton net in a shop called 'outdoor education' here in the Netherlands. Not very expensive and quite a good design. 35 Mu mesh.

I build the compressorium with my father who is very good in making things. The device works well for the bigger subjects like water fleas. But I must say that most of the time I work with vaseline under the corners of the cover slip. (a good way to add tiny dots of vaseline is to use a plastic syringe)

The advantage of the compressorium is that you can release the organisms. In the show I refer to the instrument as a torturing device but it is in fact the opposite.

Did I ever tell hat I use a cat's whisker to manipulate the microbes? It can be seen too in another teevee program but I am a bit hesitative to post all this self promotion.

Anyway, The story in the teeveeshow is that we are looking for micro models, preferably desmids. We go to my favourite hunting spot, a marshy grassland with sphagnum. There I show where to look and give suggestions how to catch microbes. When the sphagnum moss feels a bit slimy there is a good change that there are many desmids. Then I show several techniques to collect microorganisms. Like using a plankton net for the free-living critters. Or to squeeze pond scum. Or use a credit card to scrape of algae from submerged surfaces.

The next part is in my studio and I show the 'casting' of the models. I use a stereomicroscope to look for the most interesting specimen and use a pipet to capture it (or a nice flock of algae). Than the coverslip is added and the slide is transfered to the compound. I show how I make the images using a camera o a trincocular. It is the basic story of how all of us work.

In the third part I show the compressorium and how you can use it to prevent teh organisms to be squashed. I show how different magnifications work. It is all a bit crude because it had to be done in a hurry (camera is not parfocalhere ) but I found some interesting organisms in the sample like Polyphemus the predatory water flea (here I rotate the camera until the composition is nice.) and a colonial rotifer, Conochilus.

The presenter asks where the fascination for microbes come from and I explain that they have such strange shapes, different from what you know. I am a curious person so like to see new things. Using the microscope is a bit like space travel. You can do this for the rest of your life and there will something new every day.

That is the general idea of the story.

Wim

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sat May 14, 2011 8:41 am

Thanks for the summary, Wim.

I am a bit hesitative to post all this self promotion.

I appreciate the hesitation, but I'd like to know the link!

--Rik

Marek Mis · Post by **Marek Mis** » Sun May 15, 2011 12:11 pm

Hello Vim,
very nice video. I'm very jealous if about your equipment

If about using the credit card you are slightly reckles

best regards

Marek

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Sun May 15, 2011 5:32 pm

Wim,

Very nice viceo!

Rogelio

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Mon May 16, 2011 5:09 pm

Nice. You make it look so easy!

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Thu May 19, 2011 2:36 am

Thank you,

Charlie, of course microscopy becomes easy when you are used to your instrument. But who am I telling this to. :-) You are the most skilled microscopist I know! But I still think taking good pictures is mainly hard work.

Marek, Actually this was an old card that was out of date. Luckily because it slipped between my fingers at the end of the shoot.

Rik, I will put the link to an earlier teevee show in a next mail, with some images. It was the experience of a life time and afterwards it was hard to turn back to my normal life.

Wim

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Thu May 19, 2011 2:55 am

Don't know whether this has timed out now, but I keep getting a 'failed to connect to video server' error. I'll be disappointed if I missed it.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Thu May 19, 2011 9:44 am

Cactusdave wrote:Don't know whether this has timed out now, but I keep getting a 'failed to connect to video server' error. I'll be disappointed if I missed it.

The link worked for me in test just now. Try again periodically. If it consistently does not work, check the settings on your firewalls.

--Rik

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Thu May 19, 2011 12:47 pm

I'm still not having any luck with it. There seems to be two versions, a Silverlight version which refuses to recognise that I have Silverlight 2.0 installed and a Flash version which loads as far as looking for the video server about every tenth attempt and then reports 'unable to connect to video server'. I have tried disabling my firewall temporarily and no effect. It's strange because I can see U-tube and BBC i-Player stuff OK.