Water Flea II

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 2:59 pm

Here another set of water flea.

All with plan apo 10x/0.45.

Water Flea by Rogelio Moreno G., on Flickr

Water Flea by Rogelio Moreno G., on Flickr

Rogelio

Saul · Post by **Saul** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 3:28 pm

Excellent set Rogelio !

leonardturner · Post by **leonardturner** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 4:29 pm

All are beautiful images but the first one took my breath away.

Sumguy01 · Post by **Sumguy01** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 8:40 pm

Great pics.
I also think #1 is amazing.
Thanks for sharing.

Jacek · Post by **Jacek** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:54 pm

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 1:27 am

3rd is super

Marek Mis · Post by **Marek Mis** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 2:18 am

Rogelio,

Excellent images, as always !

The last one is the best for me.

Marek

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 2:45 am

I'm very impressed with your water flea pictures. they really are exquisite on a large monitor.

I have a couple of queries about your technique. How are you achieving the images of the entire animal? Are these stitches of multiple images with a X10 objective, taken with a lower power objective, or did you simply select smaller individuals for these shots? Also how are you stopping the creatures's movement? When I try to take shots of water fleas I find it necessary to anaesthetise them and be very careful not to crush them with the coverslip. I'd like to know how you managed to get the water flea to pose for the second shot in this series.

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 4:25 am

Thank you all for your comments!

Rogelio

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 4:47 am

Cactusdave wrote:I'm very impressed with your water flea pictures. they really are exquisite on a large monitor. I have a couple of queries about your technique. How are you achieving the images of the entire animal? Are these stitches of multiple images with a X10 objective, taken with a lower power objective, or did you simply select smaller individuals for these shots? Also how are you stopping the creatures's movement? When I try to take shots of water fleas I find it necessary to anaesthetise them and be very careful not to crush them with the coverslip. I'd like to know how you managed to get the water flea to pose for the second shot in this series.

Dave,

I selected smaller specimen for this shots.

I did not use coverslip (I am using an inverted) in this set to avoid crushing the specimens. The water flea stop movements for some time and I took pictures while it was calm, if it move then I did not change the focus and look for it and put it on the same orientation (on the camera) as I was before and continue taking pictures (if I see that the focus has changed then I start from cero). The water fleas keep calm if you did not disturb (enought water, no coverslip and using neutral density filter to avoid to much light). With pictures 1 and 3 I waited for the water to dry to the point the water flea stopped moving.

After you put the water flea on the coverslip (slide in case you are using an upright microscope) there is enough water and the specimen will pose as pictures 2 and 4, if you are using an inverted you start taking pictures without crushing or disturbing it if you do not cover it.

Rogelio

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 4:49 am

The following are the amount of frame on each stack:

1: 144
2: 89
3: 76
4: 82

All at 2 microns step.

Rogelio

Brian Matsumoto · Post by **Brian Matsumoto** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 11:36 am

Rogelio,

I love your entire series. The one that struck me was the last as a ventral view of these creatures is very rarely seen. In addition, the picture is actually quite ominous. It looks to be a hooded alien, staring at the viewer. This is offset by its beautiful colors. A picture well worth studying.

Brian

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Sat Feb 01, 2014 8:54 am

Brian, thank you very much for your words.

Rogelio

carlos.uruguay · Post by **carlos.uruguay** » Sat Feb 01, 2014 9:20 am

Artist's work. Thank you for sharing it

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Sat Feb 01, 2014 10:08 am

Thanks very much for the detailed information on how you took these superb pictures. So actually these are quite deep stacks on living subjects.

Knowing things like this makes them even more impressive in my opinion. Considering the depth of the stacks and the considerable amount of overlaying detail, the sharpness, clarity and lack of artifacts is truly inspiring.
One other thing, the Nikon X10 planapo you used doesn't seem to have been affected by the lack of a coverslip. Was it designed to work in this way?