American Museum of Natural History Exhibit T.Rex with simulated Tetrachromatic Vision

Today at March 11, 2019 the American Museum of Natural History in New York at Central Park officially opens up their new exhibit T.Rex: The Ultimate Predator through August 9, 2020 and it contains some of my work, as T-Rex was supposed to have tetrachromatic vision, as those were the ancestors or our today's birds, which have tetrachromatic vision.

For demonstrating this to its visitors, my Rudbeckia hirta flower shots in 3D stereo human vision as well as in simulated tetrachromatic vision were used.

I'm always amazed about the differences in our human trichromatic color perception and how that very same flower would look like, if seen through tetrachromatic eyes, being able to also see ultraviolet (UV) light, invisible to us humans!

Hence why I developed a method to simulate that, by mapping a 4-dimensional tetrachromatic color space into our trichromatic 3-dimensional one.

[click on image to see a STEREO image in large]

Human Trichromatic Vision: 


Tetrachromatic Vision (simulated, UV mapped as blue) 


I have written more about this flower HERE and about tetrachromatic vision 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

Rudbeckia hirta Stereo Butterfly Vision

This is about a Rudbeckia hirta flower shot in human vision and (simulated) butterfly vision.
I'm always amazed about the differences in our human perception and how that very same flower would look like if seen through insects eyes (butterflies in that case).
[click on image to see a STEREO image in large]

Human Vision: 


Butterfly Vision (simulated, UV mapped as blue) 



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

Creeping Zinnia multispectral

The first Creeping Zinnias appeared in 2010, so I took a chance to shoot that interesting little flower using a UV-Planar4/60mm lens and various filters and lightsources.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Visual shot 


FL (UV induced visilble fluorescence) shot 


UV+FL shot 


UV (300-400nm) shot 


BV (simulated bee vision) shot 



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

Rudbeckia missouriensis - simulated tri- and tetrachromatic vision

Today from my evolving Rudbeckia series a Rudbeckia missouriensis flower portrait in simulated trichromatic and tetrachromatic vision. Birds and butterflies are Tetrachromats, so are able to see UV, blue, green and red, wheras we and bees are trichomats; we see blue, green and red, bees however see UV, blue and green. This is what I have tried here to simulate using specilized filtering techniques.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Simulated tetrachromatic vision (i.e. UV=blue, Blue, Green, Red):



Simulated trichromatic vision (i.e. UV=blue, Blue, Green):



For comparison, this is the normal, human vision version (i.e. Blue, Green, Red):



and here also the pure UV (300-400nm) response showing that prominent UV pattern:



Also here for that flower both simulated tri- and tetrachromatic vision images include that UV pattern plus also the other channels bees (trichromatic) resp. birds/butterflies (tetrachromatic) can see.

And in situ shot example of this flower is 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

Gaillardia "Summerwind"

Well, I found a previously unknown (to me), pure yellow species of Gaillardia. Since that type of flower showed so many surprising aspects, I wanted to see what this new one hides from the human eye....

[click on image yields a larger one]

This now is the visual appearance as we humans are used to see:



The tetrachromatic image ("butterfly" shot) (UV+B+G+R) using XBV2 filter:



The trichromatic image ("bee vision" shot) (UV+B+G) using XBV2 filter:



This is the UV induced fluorescence shot using XCUT2 filter:



and this the reflected UV shot using XUVIR filter:



Well, also that flower shows some surprising properties ...

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

Gaillardia - trichromatic bee vision

This is about an interesting find, when I was wondering around in parks taking shots using my "bee vision" filter XBV2. I know that prominent "Gaillardia" flower since I was a kid, but I never thought that it would exhibit some prominent UV pattern - but it does! Have alook at my results, before we discuss that:

[click on image yields a larger one]

VIS shot:


simulated tetrachromatic vision ("butterfly vision" shot) (UV+B+G+R) using XBV2 filter:


simulated trichromatic vision ("bee vision" shot) (UV+B+G) using XBV2 filter:


I found it especially fascinating, that the red part of that prominent Gaillardia pattern has a very strong UV reflectance, accompanied by a prominent pattern the petal tips exhibits (UV+Green) so as to generate that "heliport landing spot" pattern. Is it just a coincidence that the pollen exhibits the very same color (and do I see some fluorescence there - to make the pollen look even brighter??)

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