Friday, July 22, 2022

Common Purslane - Portulaca oleracea in reflected ultraviolet photography and simulated bee and butterfly vision

Today in 2022 shots of a beautiful flower, now offered as an ornamental + edible plant, a Common Purslane - Portulaca oleracea in reflected ultraviolet photography using my "work horse" UV filter, the Baader-U filter, as well as in simulated bee and butterfly vision using my XBV filters. All shots were done at f11. Lens was a UV-Nikkor 105mm quartz fluorite lens. Light source was a modified Xenon flash.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Human vision:
 

Reflected ultraviolet (UV):
 

Simulated butterfly vision:
 

Simulated bee vision:
 

Quadriptych of human vision, ultraviolet, simulated bee and butterfly vision (left to right, top to bottom):
 

This flower shows a very prominent and strong UV reflection around 365nm, and all this gets nicely visible, also in simulated bee and butterfly vision.
 
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