PEACOCK. (03/11/14)

Last week I got a present from my sister. It came beautifully presented in an old jam jar. I have been thinking of the best way to shoot it and decided this morning that I’d focus stack it on the front surfaced mirror.  All I can say is I got some pictures.

          Peacock Butterfly. Aglais io. She found it dead on her windowsill. So far so good.

        Head on at 3X with the MP-E 65mm macro lens. Not all insects have hairy eyes but butterflies and some flies do. 

Things start to go down hill from here. I couldn’t find the lead to connect the camera to the laptop. I have several but where they are lord knows. Then because it is dead it’s legs wouldn’t hold it up on the mirror so I looked for my Pritt Stick. I didn’t want to use Super Glue as it would damage the mirror surface but it needed it’s bum glueing down. Couldn’t find the glue stick.

         As you can see it didn’t die with it’s front legs straight and it’s back legs folded. Most inconsiderate of it. I popped my tweezers on it and then tried a bit of card. Neither are satisfactory. It needs sticking down. The 100mm macro is fine but even at f14 has limited depth of field.

I did have the patience to mask off the bottom of the ring flash with insulating tape. I use blue masking tape as black insulating tape melts as it absorbs too much heat from the strobes and is a devil to clean off…….I remembered that bit. I must be well on the way to recovery.

It’s awkward shooting things on a mirror as it reflects everything it can see. I now use a long piece of black cloth which I hang from the ceiling, run it under the mirror and drape it as best I can in a curve. I’m lucky as I have an adjustable roof blind three feet away to peg it to. The cloth isn’t really black enough but I use the eyedropper in levels to make it black then spend ten minutes spot removing dust and bits of butterfly from the mirror. I’ll have to try some different butterflies. It would be good to get a Common Blue as they are better looking underneath, better even than they are on top. Anyone who posts something wonderful can have some toffee. Try not to pick them up with your fingers. Use a pair of tweezers and grab a leg.

I then got the USB microscope out and the wee pot that controls light intensity broke. It broke full on and not full off. I took it to bits. It is a wee scrolling wheel in the middle of the USB cable and what a cheap and horrible bit of kit. Lot of wires in a USB2 cable. Some tiny lass in China must be half blind sorting them. I have jury rigged it now through a bread board with a proper variable resistor in. I was going to send it back but I will build this into a little Maplin box and it will outlast the microscope. I made a tiny light box so will pop both controls in the same box. I may even use a couple of miniature soft light boxes as well. Make myself a macro studio.

       Peacock scales at 500X.

      Peacock eye. I suspect my naughty sister has sprayed insect killer. I do if I get a housefly infestation, flies seem to get this blistering on their eyes.

        Almost the end of it’s antenna. The last two were shot against posh black card from Windsor and Newton. It appears to be far from black. Costs enough to be black. I’ll collect some carbon black on a bit of glass from a candle and rub it in with my finger. I could always fire the truck up and collect some from the exhaust. Whatever it is not an insurmountable problem.

I like macro and micro. There is a whole new world to see. Have fun.