Sunday, February 23, 2014

Lichen - 80mm Quartz Fluorite lens for reflected ultraviolet photography

Well, today a few shots of some unidentified lichen I found today growing on an old oak tree Lichen. Shots were done aside from visible photography in reflected ultraviolet using Baader-U filter, and just out of curiosity, in simulated bee vision using my XBV6 filter. Lens used was an older f3.2 / 80mm Quartz Fluorite lens. Light source was sun. All shots were done at approx. f8.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Visible light image:  

UV image using Baader-U filter (approx. 320-395nm, effective peak approx. 375nm):  

Simulated bee vision image using experimental XBV filter:  


It is quite interesting to see how these two different lichen types look so very similar to us humans, but seen in ultraviolet light, they appear very different (so they do to bees)! Before I have noticed (Link below), that this UV reflection might be an indicator for alive lichen. This older quartz fluorite lens is reproducing this quite well and all that gets nicely visible.

I have written about Lichen before HERE.

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