Creeping Zinnia - Sanvitalia procumbens with bumble bee in reflected ultraviolet photography, simulated bee and butterfly vision II

Today side-a-side staged shots of a bumble bee sitting on a spring flower, Creeping Zinnia - Sanvitalia procumbens in reflected ultraviolet photography using my "work horse" UV filter, the Baader-U filter as well as my XBV filters for simulating butterfly and bee vision. Lens was a CERCO 94mm quartz fluorite lens. Light source was a Xenon flash. All shots were done at about f8.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Diptych composite of Visual and UV image:
 

Diptych composite of Visual and simulated Bee Vision image:
 


Sanvitalia has a strong visible UV pattern, its petal tips are UV bright around 365nm and its center is quite UV dark, whereas the bumble bee is rather UV dark except its rear, which is UV bright around 375nm (as a signal to its colleagues that this flower is occupied?) and all this gets nicely visible also in this composite form.

More about that HERE

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

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