Damselfly nymph

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Wed Nov 13, 2013 10:44 pm

Here are a couple of shots of a fairly small damselfly nymph.

The first shot is a ventral view showing the multiple-hinged, extendable lower jaw (similar to that seen in dragonfly nymphs). Here it is in the "closed" position but it is thrust out quickly to grasp prey that might otherwise seem out of reach.

The second, lower magnification shot, is a view from above showing the trachea tubes branching through the body.

Nikon MM-11 microscope. Olympus MPlanFL N 10/0.30 objective. Olympus U-SWTR-3. Canon T3i camera.

Nikon MM-11 microscope. Olympus MPlanFL N 5/0.15 objective. Olympus U-SWTR-3. Canon T3i camera.

Post by **Saul** » Wed Nov 13, 2013 11:32 pm

Excellent photos, especially second one ! What technique and setup was used ?
Thanks!

Jacek · Post by **Jacek** » Thu Nov 14, 2013 12:50 am

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Thu Nov 14, 2013 12:52 am

Beautiful. Your dark field came out very nice - mine suffered from halos.

leonardturner · Post by **leonardturner** » Thu Nov 14, 2013 4:10 am

Beautiful work, as always. pwnell's question is interesting; how do you avoid halos, is it equipment or technique?

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Thu Nov 14, 2013 4:29 am

Beautiful as always!

Rogelio

Olympusman · Post by **Olympusman** » Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:47 am

Depending on the size of the disks in my home made darkfield stops, I find I can stop down the condenser iris to some degree before the image blacks out. This reduces the amount of flare in the image.

Sumguy01 · Post by **Sumguy01** » Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:13 pm

These are amazing .
Thanks for sharing .

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:21 pm

What technique and setup was used ?

Simple darkfield. The microscope and stage I used are like the second picture here:
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=17656
(But the "tubes" between the microscope and camera body have been replaced with a super-widefield trinocular head).

The condenser is an inexpensive Chinese made stereo darkfield condenser that I mounted on top of an eBay "Right Angle Spy Scope". This was positioned under the stage. A fiber optic light guide is positioned to shine into the angled mirror for the light.

The subject was in a home-made "well" slide, which is nothing more than a plumbing washer glued to a 2x3 inch microscope slide.

I have no magical way of avoiding halos in darkfield stacks, they are a problem for me as well. They are far less of a problem with lower magnifications (such as 5X and 10X here) and also in cases where the subject is rather flat. The legs here are actually not that 3-dimensional and positioned parallel to the camera back so they were not too much of a problem. (Not to say there was not some PS clean-up... there was.

)

Post by **Saul** » Thu Nov 14, 2013 10:48 pm

Thanks Charles, it was very useful !

Did you try to use a flash instead fiber ?

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 2:30 am

Fantastic job , as usual

Arturo

carlos.uruguay · Post by **carlos.uruguay** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 5:07 am

Without words!

leonardturner · Post by **leonardturner** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 5:30 am

Very much appreciate your sharing your experience and techniques; it has been a great help!

Olympusman · Post by **Olympusman** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 8:58 am

Dang, Charlie -- that's a crazy setup. Do you have a post for the rht angle gizmo? It looks pretty small.

Damselfly nymph

Damselfly nymph

Darkfield

darkfield