This image shows a part of the hind wing of a yellow jacket.
The leading edge has tiny hooks (hamuli) that hold front and hind wings together in flight.

10X objective, 2.5X photoeyepiece. Canon 10D camera. Brightfield illumination.

http://www.photomacrography1.net/images/kera2.jpg I like blue rheinberg filters for water critters like this rotifer. For subjects like this (not completely opaque) a very dark filter seems to work best for me. Rather than having a number of various density rheinberg filters, I made one up that has...

Ken,

Really nice! The internal structures are rendered with excellent detail. I'm surprised you obtained as much depth-of-field as you did with a 40X objective.

Charlie

http://www.photomacrography1.net/images/forvort.jpg This specimen of vorticella presented a very pleasing composition. I photographed it using oblique brightfield illumination. I use oblique lighting a great deal, and like results, but sometimes wish the backgrounds had more color. Just for fun I t...

One reason I posted that web page (other than it is interesting of itself) is that when I observed the specimens pictured, something seemed peculiar about the tips of the "branches". If you look at the insets in picture #1 you may see a little of what I mean. Unfortunately I didn't have time to cran...

Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep my eye on this situation. (Guests from out of town). Even the few pictures I got were done very hastily. But the parasitic fungi is probably the first thing I'll check when I get the time. Check out this page: http://www.uoguelph.ca/~gbarron/MISC2004/guncell.htm T...

This second image shows more detail of the growth through the back of the rotifer. In this case the rounded casings appear empty.

Sort of like a science fiction movie!

OK Graham or Ken... need some help here (again!)... what is it?

http://www.photomacrography1.net/images/Untitled-1a.jpg This may be something everyone else knows but it's new to me. So if you know what it is please let me know. I was looking at a slide from a sample that contained many individuals of a couple of rotifer species, and saw something that looked ve...

Hi Graham, Timing is everything in events like this! I particularly like the one near the middle of the frame just emerging from the egg. And there appears to be another one below that just eating it's way out. Alas, my daughter just turned 20, and while she'll still bring me an interesting critter ...

http://www.photomacrography1.net/images/pc_amoe.jpg This amoeba was photographed using phase contrast and a 100X objective and 2.5X photo-eyepiece. Ken... The sample where I found this was originally taken (mud, water and some vegetation) from a very "eutrophied" pond here in Washington state. I to...

Thank you Graham. I've not come across a great many of these heliozoans, but this is the first time I was able to capture a good "sense" of the creature. As you can see I finally "bit the bullet" and invested in some phase contrast gear. (Don't tell my wife :wink: ). In many ways I'm not yet used to...

"epipodia" it is then!
So much to learn... not enough time!

I'll put up one of those phase contrast amoeba for you Ken, but I surely won't offer any ID guess. I don't know how you figure out "who's who" with them at all yet... but I'll learn!

Charlie

Thanks Ken. Definitely not green in real life. It will take me awhile to get used to the colors obtained with phase contrast, but the greens usually do seem to come through as green. I've been having fun with PC chasing some of your favorite subjects ... amoebas. They seem to move real slow until yo...

http://www.photomacrography1.net/images/testate2.jpg The upper photo shows the exterior of a testate amoeba. The subject being very 3-dimensional, I combined 3 or 4 images at slightly different focus in order to have sufficient depth-of-field. The lower photo is an "optical section" of the same sub...

http://www.photomacrography1.net/images/pan4094.jpg I think this is a colony of Pandorina (possibly Pandorina morum , again I apologize for my lack of ability to ID these creatures) One of the first images I've taken using phase contrast. Phase contrast being new to me, I've found it is not a panac...