Night time in the garden

GardenersHelper

GardenersHelper

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Nick
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I've been getting interested in photographing smaller subjects like springtails and barkflies in the last week or so, but haven't been finding many subjects to practice on in our garden or at three local woods. I read several posts recently about photographing springtails at night, when there can be more around, so I thought I would give it a go in our garden.

I nipped in to Homebase and got a head-mounted LCD lamp which I fitted over my hat when I went out between about 10 and 11:30pm. The lamp pointed directly forwards. This was fine when searching for subjects, but when actually taking photos (using the camera LCD as usual rather than the viewfinder) the flash diffuser blocked the light from the lamp, so I had to lean sideways a lot which risked a stiff neck. I've now done a simple bit of DIY involving a brass curtain ring and a hacksaw, and now I can wear the lamp side-mounted on my hat. It still needs some optimisation, but it is proving good enough for some experiments; the lamp is fine. It is keeping it in the right position that is the problem.

I was hoping that there would be loads of springtails wandering around. There weren't, not that I could see. Just a couple. It was mainly snails and slugs. As there was nothing much else I could find I took some pictures of some slugs and snails, but I've had bad experiences with snails in the past using flash, results that I really didn't like the look of because of the flash highlights, and slugs are even worse. So at the end of the session I came in feeling it had been rather disappointing.

When I looked through the photos the next day it turned out not to have been a complete write-off. Here are the best of the bunch. They were captured hand held with my Panasonic G3 with 45-175 lens, with Raynox 150, 250 or MSN-202 depending on the subject.


0624 1 2014-11-19 P1860739 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0624 2 2014-11-19 P1860757 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0624 3 2014-11-19 P1860761 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0624 4 2014-11-19 P1860764 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0624 5 2014-11-19 P1860783 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0624 6 2014-11-19 P1860798 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0624 7 2014-11-19 P1860828 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0624 8 2014-11-19 P1860865 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
Tintin124 said:
Trying to copy a bbcode from Flickr on my phone is a nightmare. So here is how I do what you are trying to do.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/115362543@N04/14845977795/in/set-72157644036934524

Torch is my focus light.
Click to expand...

That makes sense, given your flash arrangement. Unfortunately because of the diffuser I'm using .... hmmm .... thinks ...... I wonder ....

I'll get back to you on this. :D Thanks.

Tintin124 said:
Think you have found another new type of globby @TimmyG @Logical Fallacy maybe able to clarify.
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Would that be the globular one? The long one looks rather like some other ones I found the other day.

Tintin124 said:
Not overly interested in the slugs but highlights controlled as much as really is tangable.
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Oooh. I like slugs, and even more so snails. Snails are really agile and I like photographing their contortions. This sort of thing (and notice the second, little snail :)).

Just (7 minutes) after dawn I think. You get a strange colour light sometimes around dawn. The light level was marginal for natural light shots of this continuously moving subject (the eye stalks can move quite quickly as they wave around). All were ISO 3200. With apertures of f/4, f/7.1 and f/11 the shutter speeds were 1/25, 1/30 and 1/13 sec. This is the sort of shot for which a tripod is essential IMO. It has to be hands-on technique because you need to track the subject and keep adjusting the composition.


0549 01 2014_04_06 White-lipped Snail (Cepaea (Cepaea) hortensis) IMG_1584-Edit-Edit PS1 PSS3.86 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0549 02 2014_04_06 White-lipped Snail (Cepaea (Cepaea) hortensis) IMG_1609-Edit-Edit PS1 PSS3.75 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr



0549 03 2014_04_06 White-lipped Snail (Cepaea (Cepaea) hortensis) IMG_1614-Edit-Edit PS1 PSS3.63 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr



0549 05 2014_04_06 White-lipped Snail (Cepaea (Cepaea) hortensis) IMG_1688-Edit-Edit PS1 PSS3.75 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr



I've recently discovered that slugs can be more agile than I thought. This was in the woods where I found some springtails.


0621 57 2014-11-18 P1860434 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0621 59 2014-11-18 P1860441 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0621 61 2014-11-18 P1860446 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr



0621 65 2014-11-18 P1860472 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
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GardenersHelper said:
That makes sense, given your flash arrangement. Unfortunately because of the diffuser I'm using .... hmmm .... thinks ...... I wonder ....

I'll get back to you on this. :D Thanks.
Click to expand...

Fortunately, because of the diffuser I'm using, I was able to make a little adjustment, inspired by Bryn @Tintin124. Thanks Bryn. :)


0627 1 2014-11-21 P1000626 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

I think it will be fine at odd angles.


0627 2 2014-11-21 P1000637 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

It's removable for normal daytime use.


0627 3 2014-11-21 P1000627 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

I've un-reconfigured the head light so it now works in the normal way, centrally at the front. This will be for searching for subjects and generally letting me see what I'm doing.


0627 4 2014-11-21 P1000631 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
How's the balance on it though? Ohhh btw I like Snails for all the reasons above slugs are only useful for me for the mites/ticks they carry.

Fingers crossed it works for you to be able to see the subject which is key in high mag photography.
 
Great set Nick. i like the harvestmen particularly and feel I could almost pick them up!

Not sure what @Tintin124 has against slugs, but I love 'em and these are some fine examples ;)

WHERE DO YOU LIVE!!!?? And, perhaps more importantly, what plants have you got in your garden?? I think number 3 may be yet another exotic species, Katianna 3 (Genus nov .2 sp. nov) so I expect your garden is full of exotic plants to make them feel at home. You certainly are attracting a fantastic variety of globbies. A lovely little springtail, I think you should aim for a side view or portrait to really show it off (or maybe to be able to ID it as something else at least. Check Eddie's image here https://www.flickr.com/photos/odonataman/15775350075/ to see if you concur)...

The pudumorph is likely Ceratophysella sp. (Ceratophysella bengtssoni?)

Loving your focus light experiments :)
 
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Tintin124 said:
How's the balance on it though?
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Not as bad as it looks like it should be! And ok actually as far as I can tell by handling it briefly indoors. The diffuser shell and the new thing the torch is attached to are both aluminium, and very light. The torch is small and quite light too (it runs on AAA rather than AA batteries).

Tintin124 said:
Fingers crossed it works for you to be able to see the subject which is key in high mag photography.
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It works fine in a darkened room. We'll have to wait and see how it does out in the wild. It's beginning to get dark outside but it's pretty rainy here at the moment. Later on this evening perhaps. Hopefully.

Tintin124 said:
Ohhh btw I like Snails for all the reasons above slugs are only useful for me for the mites/ticks they carry.
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Ah, I shall have to look closer! :)
 
GardenersHelper said:
It works fine in a darkened room. We'll have to wait and see how it does out in the wild. It's beginning to get dark outside but it's pretty rainy here at the moment. Later on this evening perhaps. Hopefully.
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I got home early from my course in London so was hoping to get outside shame when I got off train it was raining and particularly cold as well.

Fingers crossed it works out in the wild for you.
 
TimmyG said:
Great set Nick. i like the harvestmen particularly and feel I could almost pick them up!
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I don't know which of us was more surprised when I came across it.

TimmyG said:
Not sure what @Tintin124 has against slugs, but I love 'em and these are some fine examples ;)
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Thanks. The Gardener (SWMBO) and I have a rather different perspective on them.

TimmyG said:
WHERE DO YOU LIVE!!!?? And, perhaps more importantly, what plants have you got in your garden??
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North Somerset, on a low hillside beside the Severn Estuary, about 300m from the water's edge. It is a maritime climate and we have a particularly mild (but breezy) micro-climate here. We are also on a rare (for this part of the country) and narrow outcrop of Old Red Sandstone with acid soil, which means we can grow azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias, and we have several (or more) species of each.

I'd have to ask the Gardener for a more complete answer as to what we have in the garden; it might be quite a long list; she is a plantswoman. But she did say yesterday that we do have a lot of exotic (or perhaps she said non-native, is that the same thing?) plant species.

TimmyG said:
I think number 3 may be yet another exotic species, Katianna 3 (Genus nov .2 sp. nov) so I expect your garden is full of exotic plants to make them feel at home. You certainly are attracting a fantastic variety of globbies. A lovely little springtail, I think you should aim for a side view or portrait to really show it off (or maybe to be able to ID it as something else at least. Check Eddie's image here https://www.flickr.com/photos/odonataman/15775350075/ to see if you concur)...
Click to expand...

I get side views when I can. At the moment I'm concentrating on trying to get a decent shot of the view I'm presented with. Also, where I was working, if I moved around to get a side view I'd get in trouble with the gardener for the things I'd be crushing. She's a bit particular about that for some reason. :D

I don't know how different markings may be within a particular species. I do think the markings are different between mine and the linked examle. The markings between the two white areas on the back are different, and in the linked example the next marking across the back to the rear from the white dots looks like a semi-circle of a homogeneous colour, which is different from my image. Here is a side-ish view of the face, (OOF and a reject photographically obviously), but the area below the eye (well, I'll call it an eye anyway) looks different too - I'm looking at the orange patch on mine.


P1860777 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

TimmyG said:
The pudumorph is likely Ceratophysella sp. (Ceratophysella bengtssoni?)
Click to expand...

Thanks.

TimmyG said:
Loving your focus light experiments :)
Click to expand...

Work in progress. This one's down to Bryn.
 
Paul Iddon said:
Some cracking photos m8 - very impressed.
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Thanks very much Paul.

Paul Iddon said:
Mind you - that set up looks nightmarish to handle!
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I haven't tried the setup shown above with the focusing light. I only put the light on it today. My guess is that it will handle ok despite appearances to the contrary. But I may turn out to be wrong about that of course! Only real-world use sorts out what works and what doesn't.

In terms of nightmares, the MPE-65 has wonderful optics, but (and I'm probably regarded as a nutter for thinking this :)) I found it nightmarish to use, even with the MT-24. The MPE-65 is heavy, and you have to turn the focus/magnification ring many times to get from 1:1 to 5:1, and as well as the amount of turning, it was quite stiff and hard work to turn, which made it hard to keep on the subject while turning. And in any case there is a lot of extension/contraction as you change magnification, which complicates matters too. In contrast I find I can work quite fluidly with achromats, especially with setups where the achromat doesn't move as magnification changes, which is the case with my G3 and (the way I've got it set up) my FZ200. I do a lot of sequences/sets of images of a scene with different magnifications/framing, and I can do that without moving the camera with my G3 and FZ200. The are very easy, quick and responsive to work with from that point of view. Also, if you lose the subject at higher magnifications you can zoom out without moving the camera, find the subject again, centre on it and zoom straight back to a suitable magnification.

I wasn't very keen on the 100L either. For example autofocus, which I use a lot, seemed slow, with a lot of hunting. I think I had some other gripes too, but to be honest I can't remember what they were now.

I sent it all back to get my money back. (I know lots of people use that kit and similar dSLR and macro primes with great results, with better IQ than I can achieve. It's just that when I tried it (real world use again) I realised that It simply wasn't right for me.)

Anyway, the top post used the setup shown with just the diffuser. It handles nicely, both with the G3 and the FZ200. The problem was getting light onto the subject for focusing - with my hat-mounted lamp it was awkward and not really satisfactory. Hence the new addition of a focusing light on the diffuser.

In the post with 4 of a snail then 4 of a slug, the first four were natural light with my 70D (which I find is, for my purposes and preferences, a super natural light camera, up to 1:1 or so - I can't get it to work nicely with flash though and I've given up trying, and I find the non-extending kit is better as magnification increases above 1:1). The second four were daytime shots with flash using the setup shown above with just the diffuser.
 
Some "Excellent" shots there Nick, with some great detail and lighting. The first set are especially good.(y)

George.
 
Thanks George. Thanks Susie.

susiejb said:
Love those snail shots hanging on the branch George....I'm totally intrigued when I see what you guys do to your set up :eek: brass curtain rings, hacksaws, and rolls of duct tape ...it's mind boggling :)
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Ha ha, it got a bit more complicated because that idea didn't work out too well. In First 30 minute test of focusing light on diffuser there is a photo of the next set up I tried, and some examples of photos captured using it. It looks silly, but it actually works quite well.
 
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