Opuntia humifusa in reflected ultraviolet photography and simulated bee and butterfly vision

Today shots of a decorative plant, a Prickly pear - Opuntia humifusa in reflected ultraviolet photography using my "work horse" UV filter, the Baader-U filter as well as my XBV filters for simulating bee and butterfly vision. Lens was a UV-Nikkor 105mm quartz fluorite lens. Light source was sunlight.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Human vision:
 

Reflected UV:
 

Simulated butterfly vision:
 

Simulated bee vision:
 

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

These Opuntia flowers have a unique UV reflection, In UV the petals have inside a metallic like shine that reflects UV strongly, maybe to attract pollinators. otherwise there is no distinctive UV pattern, and all this gets nicely visible, also in simulated bee and butterfly vision.

I have written about that flower before 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

Opuntia humifusa: human vision vs simulated bee vison; reflected UV ultraviolet photography

A walk today in the beautiful Hermanshof Park, Weinheim let me discover some flowering Opuntia humifusa, the reclining Opuntia. So here it comes in its multispectral representation. I took some shots at Hermannshof, Weinheim, Germany in normal human vision VIS, in UV using the Baader-U filter, as well as in simulated bee vision using my new XBV6 filter respectively.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Visual shot:


UV using Baader-U filter:


Simulated bee vison using XBV6 filter:


This specimen has very bright pollen even at daylight, which the XBV6 filter nicely shows. Reminds my of UV induced fluorescence photography. In UV the petals have a metallic like shine that reflects UV strongly, maybe to attract pollinators?

As you may have noticed, I'm still working on my bee vision (BV) filters; BV6 is one with very intensive colors and much shorter exposure time, due to new filter glass combinations.

More about these special new filters here later in a seperate entry.


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