Synura and nauplius

[Charles Krebs]

One frustration working with live subjects in wet mounts is that once the cover slip is added, there generally isn't too much that can be done to modify the "arrangement" for a better photo. But occasionally it is possible to "direct" certain subjects.

The last water sample I took had a large number of Synura colonies. I placed a corner of the baking dish that contained the water near a window. After awhile I used an eyedropper to collect a few drops from that corner. The slide I made up had too much water in it, but was full of a large of Synura colonies randomly moving about. Synura very obviously move toward light, so I left the microscope light on and left the microscope untouched for about 20 minutes. When I came back, the small area under the objective where the light was coming through the slide was jam-packed with Synura that had congregated in the light. I took some pattern shots of just Synura, but moving the slide around slightly I found this nauplius looking somewhat lost amid the crowd of Synura colonies. It turned out to be the shot I liked best from this scenario.


Olympus 20X objective. Oblique brightfield. Canon 350D. Electronic flash.

[MacroLuv]

WOW!
This is beautiful, colourful and very "embossed" in appearance.

[Charles Krebs]

Thanks Nikola...
The embossed look comes from the oblique illumination. Very easy to accomplish, and IMO underutilized.

[Ken Ramos]

Pretty nice there Charlie. Sort of like a floral arrangement with a big crab spider lying in wait. Will have to give your daylight trick a try on my next collection.

[phero66]

Wow, very beautiful.

[beetleman]

Very cool looking Charles, alien looking but familier in a way, like a puppy frolicking in a bed of flowers