Spider Mite on an Asiatic Day Flower anther
With the out of focus elements looking a bit like an alien bearing a gift, this is a spider mite on an Asiatic Day Flower. This was taken with a Nikon 20x measuring microscope objective mounted on a Spiratone Bello-Dupliscope slide copier bellows, Nikon SB-20 flash bounced off foil covered cards. The pop-up flash on the D40 is dead, having been knocked out of commission a few days previously by shooting a dozen shots of a bee as fast as possible for image stacking. The pop-up flash allowed a flash-sync speed of 1/500 second. Using the SB-20 external flash allows flash-sync up to the top shutter speed of the camera... 1/4000 second, very useful for getting sharp images. The comparator lens has a fixed (unknown) aperture... there being no adjustable diaphragm, so depth of field is incredibly shallow, but it's sharp enough where it needs to be. I like the way everything except the mite is wicked soft and "smooshy".
DSAC-3844
Spider Mite on an Asiatic Day Flower anther
With the out of focus elements looking a bit like an alien bearing a gift, this is a spider mite on an Asiatic Day Flower. This was taken with a Nikon 20x measuring microscope objective mounted on a Spiratone Bello-Dupliscope slide copier bellows, Nikon SB-20 flash bounced off foil covered cards. The pop-up flash on the D40 is dead, having been knocked out of commission a few days previously by shooting a dozen shots of a bee as fast as possible for image stacking. The pop-up flash allowed a flash-sync speed of 1/500 second. Using the SB-20 external flash allows flash-sync up to the top shutter speed of the camera... 1/4000 second, very useful for getting sharp images. The comparator lens has a fixed (unknown) aperture... there being no adjustable diaphragm, so depth of field is incredibly shallow, but it's sharp enough where it needs to be. I like the way everything except the mite is wicked soft and "smooshy".
DSAC-3844