Spring Flowers 2014: Competing for bee attention - 80mm Quartz Fluorite lens for reflected ultraviolet photography

Well, spring finally seem to have arrived in Weinheim where I live, so here a few shots of some first spring flowers, Crocus and Winter Aconite, obviously competing for bee's attention. Shots were done aside from visible photography in reflected ultraviolet using Baader-U filter and 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 notice that Winter Aconite with UV reflection around 365nm and Crocus reflecting UV around 380nm are competing for bee's attention. I wonder which one wins, there haven't been many bees aroudn, mainly bumble bees, but I guess the Crosus does. This older quartz fluorite lens is reproducing this quite well and all that gets nicely visible.


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