Insect Photographs

[anthony]

Here are some insect & arthropod photomicrographs, taken with a top-lighted stereo microscope at 40x. The camera used was a Canon Powershot A520. No adapters were used. I inserted a green backround for a 'natural' look


Harvestman:

Diptera
Housefly head:

Hemiptera
Green stinkbug (see the simple eyes?):

Odonata
Dragonfly head
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/u ... oe_1_1.jpg

[rjlittlefield]

Anthony,

These look promising.

I'm seeing some overall softness that looks like it might be motion blur, especially with the stinkbug. Are you hand-holding the camera? If so, it might be worth making some sort of jig. Even something as simple as a cardboard tube that fits snugly around the microscope's eyepiece and also around the camera lens can help a lot to hold the camera still.

One other administrative detail -- there's a limit of 3 images per day in the image galleries. For this time, I just edited one of your [img] tags to become a [url] tag, so your fourth image comes up as a clickable link instead of an inline image. It's no big problem -- you're not the first person to go over, and I'm sure you won't be the last -- but just so you know for next time.

--Rik

[anthony]

Thanks for the advice, Rik. I'll try stabilizing the camera next time I take a picture.

-Anthony.

[rjlittlefield]

Anthony,

I was just taking another look at these. I'm curious about image #1. There's one leg that's appears to be strongly motion-blurred, while the others aren't. And that looks like an unusual legs-over-the-back posture too. Is this perchance a live specimen, being held by its legs? I have visions of harvestman in one hand, camera in the other!

--Rik

[anthony]

Rik,
I think what you see is not motion blur, but an unfocused part of the image. I took this picture a year ago, so I am not sure if I was holding the specimen. It's likely, though!

--Anthony

[rjlittlefield]

Anthony,

I'm looking at the third leg back on the foreground side.

The reason I'm thinking motion blurred is that simple out-of-focus blurs are symmetric. On this leg detail is smeared across the leg but not along it.

--Rik

[anthony]

In that case, the specimen probably was live.