New life

Jan l'Amie · Post by **Jan l'Amie** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:25 am

Today I was the happy witness of the birth of some new watherfleas.
The difference in background colours is the result of experimenting with colour temperature.

This makes my day !!!

Wes · Post by **Wes** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:45 am

Wow that looks amazing. Tell me what experiments you did with regard to the colour temperature. I'm really interested in that because I have a lamp for a Zeiss KF stand but the colour temperature is horrid

Jan l'Amie · Post by **Jan l'Amie** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:59 am

Thanks, I use a Canon EOS 50D camera with Canon software at the PC.
The microscope has a halogen lamp.
In the software (or at the camera) I can change the white balance and that gives different background colours. I can also change the colour temperature with the same result. 2400 Kelvin gives a deep blue colour,
3600 Kelvin gives red/brown and other colours I get between that.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:28 pm

A wonderful catch Jan. They look like our little hummingbirds. Very nice image.

abpho · Post by **abpho** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 1:59 pm

Amazing.

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:29 pm

Hi Jan,

Your images are slowly getting better and better. The first image has a nice neutral grey background.

And about the birth. I hope I don't spoil the party by pointing out that the pressure of the coverslip made it a bit of a premature birth. I doubt that they lived happily ever after.

Wim

Jan l'Amie · Post by **Jan l'Amie** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:56 am

Thanks for the comments and Wim, I'm afraid your right.

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:43 am

Very nice subjects and pics
best
arturo

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:12 pm

Jan, of course I was teasing a bit. Your images are very nice. There is a good method to ensure the safety of the organisms. When you use dots vaseline under the corners of the cover slip. (you can add the vaseline in a plastic syringe without the needle) you can make a deep slide.

By removing the water with a piece of bloting paper you can make the slide flatter until the waterflea is slightly pressed. I always use this method and after I have photographed the organisms I can add some water with a pipette, remove the coverslip and this way I can actually put the organisms back in the petri dish.

Wim

Donw · Post by **Donw** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:39 pm

Cool shots.

Hummingbirds?

They look like penguines to me!

Jan l'Amie · Post by **Jan l'Amie** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:38 pm

Coloured Penquines ?

Wim, thanks for the tip. I will use it the next time.
At the NGVM I've seen something like that with Typex tape.

Ecki · Post by **Ecki** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 1:10 pm

I have stopped using vaseline.

I use Wax Base Plates. Every dentist has those and they are cheaply available at Ebay, too. I scratch the wax plate with each corner of the coverslip and voila, I have 4 little feet!

Jan l'Amie · Post by **Jan l'Amie** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 12:04 am

My son works at a Dental lab. I will ask him. Thanks.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 2:29 am

I wonder if 100% lanolin would work? It's stiffer than petroleum jelly and softer than wax.

Jan l'Amie · Post by **Jan l'Amie** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 2:53 am

I just ordered some at my son. They have wax plates in pink about 30x15 cm. They heat it up a little to reform it. Maybe tonight I have some.

New life

New life

......Hummmmmmm......