fluorescence effects in nature

Moderator: Jim_b

Post Reply
User avatar
Jim_b
Posts: 582
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2009 11:19 am
anti-spam detector: No
The middle number please (4): 4

fluorescence effects in nature

Post by Jim_b »

Got this e-mail and pictures


Hi Jim,

Not sure who you are but I stumbled on your site and wondered whether your readers might be interested in some photos I took recently. I'm not a flower person by any means, but I like to explore for fluorescence effects in nature. It's only recently that I've done much looking at flowers. I needed to be in San Diego on business and had a little free time so decided to make an exploratory trip to look at the desert wildflowers. Had some great advice from Larry Hendrickson who is with the State Park and spent some time alone in the dark exploring with my special lights and taking some pictures. I have attached here a pair of photos that I took at Little Surprise Canyon, not far off the parking area, on the evening of March 29. One is a conventional white light photo (actually taken the morning of March 30) and the other is a fluorescence photo. The subject is the common Desert Pincushion. This is not a photoshop trick - this is what I see with my eyes and is the photo on the camera.

Charlie

I asked Charlie if he used a black light to do the photo His reply

Same idea, but I actually use blue light to stimulate fluorescence. I started out in underwater fluorescence, started out there with UV, discovered along the way that blue is better in that environment. I really don't know how different things would be if stimulated with black light (UV) rather than blue, but probably fairly similar. So photos are taken in the dark with blue light illumination and a yellow barrier filter on the camera to block the reflected blue and transmit the fluorescence.

And now the picture

Image

Same flower during the day

Image
Post Reply