Today about some of my works being used with my permission by the Montreal Botanical Garden. Their idea was to have an exhibition on floral seduction strategies, showing how flowers invisible to us interact with bees and butterflies using reflected ultraviolet (UV) light at the Montreal Botanical Garden, Canada.
They chose to use an attractive yellow flower, a Rudbeckia hirta, which were shot by me in reflected ultraviolet photography, simulated bee and butterfly vision. All shots were done at f8 in reflected ultraviolet photography using my "work horse" UV filter, the Baader-U filter, as well as my XBV filters for simulated bee and butterfly vision. Lens was a UV-Nikkor 105mm quartz fluorite lens. Light source was a modified Xenon studio flash, modified for high UV output.
[click on image to see a larger one]
Human vision:
Reflected UV:
Simulated butterfly vision:
Simulated bee vision:
Quadriptych of human vision, UV, simulated bee and butterfly vision (left to right, top to bottom):
Rudbeckia hirta's outer petals strongly reflect UV around 365nm, whereas its center parts are quite darker, reflecting around 365nm, hence forming invisible to us humans UV nectar guides for UV seeing insects. This is all invisible to us humans, but clearly visible to bees and butterflies, and all this will be nicely visible to the visitors at the Montreal Botanical Garden from June 27 to August 17, 2025.
I have written more about this flower 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
Stay tuned, more will follow on that fascinating subject...
