pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

Fly in amber, via Nikon Plan Achromat 10x Objective lens http://www.seoenterprises.com/shop/product.php?productid=16268 attached to 200 mm lens, yielding 10:1 mag (10x life-size). Also of interest, light is coming from below. Diffused speedlight under panel of plastic, and amber sitting on clay on plastic. Wasn't getting a lot of light so had to up the ISO to 500. Also, shot stack of 30 at f/4. Might need additional frames, as I see some blurring.

Previous micro set-up: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-297354-1.html#5010150

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gym Loc: Athens, Georgia

It's definitely a fly.

Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Macronaut Loc: Redondo Beach,Ca.

Wow!!!! :thumbup: :thumbup:

Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

That's pretty darn good! A better polish on the amber might achieve perfection!

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

thank you very much Gym, Bill and Muddy. You will never know how much I appreciate your encouragement!!!

Muddy, the amber is around 1/4 inch diameter, so to polish it, I need to put it in a vice and use a tool. I haven't tried to do this yet, but I believe you are correct. I DID use some Bill Glycol (I can't remember if it was vegetable or not). It looked really good under the scope, but when I turned the amber for the shot, a lot of it ran off and I tried to wipe it.

For this shot I increased the light by adding to ETTL. I also upped the ISO to 1200 or so (but kind of wished that I didn't do that). I must have touched the camera, because my starting position got bumped forward a hair.

For my next attempt, I will place diffused material above and shine ambient led on it also hoping to pick it up. And perhaps I will change shutter speed from 1/180 sec lower to see what happens (since mirror is locked anyway)... So I ain't done yet!!

edit... oh yeah, went up to 60 frames.
2nd edit... note we are closer... I think the first shot I did not have lens set to 200mm, must have been 150 or so. Second shot was at 200mm. I checked!

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Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

Ah, but maybe that got you below the surface of the amber. It is nowhere near as visible now. That and the oil.
They keep getting better!!
I'm guessing these are taking you the better part of a day for each final shot. It ain't easy. Breathe wrong & have to start all over again. Do you use a microscope stage to hold & maneuver the subject? I've tried a soldering alligator clip aid, but it's just too hard to adjust. Eventually I hope to get something worth showing. You certainly have managed.

sford122 Loc: Amarillo TX

Big improvement with your second attempt and very interesting detail in eye and wing. The wing reminds me of a sunflower. Enjoyed looking at 'em.

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

thanks Susan, I'm glad you enjoyed looking at them. I know I have fun messing with this!

thanks Muddy. We will soon know how important the surface is, next stack I will start outside and see what happens. It probably takes me a good hour plus to run a stack. I use modeling clay to hold the subject in place. It stretches and compresses and I can pretty much make small adjustments easily and rapidly.

I stabilized the glass sheet better by having it rest on blocks of wood instead of on the diffuser below. I build a tunnel above the subject with diffused packing material and put led ambient light on it. Shot at ISO 100 at 1/4 sec shutter speed. Next stack I will reduce ambient by going to 1/16 perhaps. Ran into camera/flash problems near the end of the stack due to weak batteries, so flash gets batteries replaced.

And for some reason, at the beginning, the rail took a big step at the beginning with smaller steps after (weird), so I think I will change the number of frames to 80 just to see if the rail software burped. Anyway, one more stack after this current failed but hopeful attempt.

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Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

:thumbup: :thumbup:
It just keeps getting better!!!!!
I wonder what bugguide.net would have to say about an ID?

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

LOL, you are going to make me figure out how to use buggguide.net -- I JUST KNOW IT!
I don't know if this one is better or not, it certainly has more frames but also less light.
I think I will use this as the starting place for my next amber subject. After base-lining, I will remove my concave flash and just attempt straight diffused flash (attempting to increase light, there is just such a small slot that light can go into). Also I am curious if I can slow down the shutter more and use true ambient light. I would take it into the sun, but clouds change lighting and it would be a pain, but it might end up in sunlight at some point.

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Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Has to be from North America for BugGuide.net. Where did this amber originate?

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

Baltic Amber.. I was thinking about joining and just submitting to see what would happen, but my thoughts pretty much ran like yours on this. The rules were clearly stated. It looks like a pretty cool site with a great idea behind it.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

BugGuide have a Facebook presence as well: http://www.facebook.com/groups/19833784207

Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

Douglass, you are no fun at all sometimes. :-)
Maybe on April 1st?
I wonder what a polarizing filter would do?