Dive into the wonders of the Mexican Zinnia

Today I would like to invite you to a journey into the wonders of the Mexican Zinnia, which is one of my favorites for UV shooting, since it has so much to offer.

Equipment used was two Macro Nikkors 35+19mm, a modified Olympus variable extention tube and a 375nm UV LED light. All shots were done at ISO400 to capture the faint fluorescence, thus the higher amount of visible noise.

So this was the one from a previous session...[click on image yields a larger version].



Now let's dive in...



and deeper...



Now let's switch modes from "visible and fluorescence" to "UV and UV induced visible fluorescence":



and deeper...



and deeper...



and deeper....reaching about 14x magnification on CCD, on screen ca 160x...



So this wonderful little flower has it all, a nice visible appearance, a sharp UV pattern, fluorescent petals, pollen and stems (even in different color!)...

Lenses used were Macro Nikkor 35mm+19mm on a modified Olympus variable extention tube + RMS mount adaptor. UV LED 375nm. Camera used was the Olympus E-510.


Stay tuned, more will follow on that subject...

More info on this very interesting field may be found on my site http://www.pbase.com/kds315/uv_photos