[HN Gopher] Portraits of insects reveal the intricacies of a world
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Portraits of insects reveal the intricacies of a world
Author : sohkamyung
Score : 88 points
Date : 2024-08-28 12:48 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
| dadjoker wrote:
| The intricacy of the design in these insects is absolutely
| amazing.
| desumeku wrote:
| And it's all smashed to bits as soon as one lands on me. How
| tragic!
| hermitcrab wrote:
| It is tragic that some people feel the need to destroy every
| insect or arachnid that comes anywhere near them. 99.9% of
| them are harmless to humans. I don't understand the
| compulsion to maim or kill them.
| dotancohen wrote:
| As someone who doesn't kill them, I can explain the
| compulsion.
|
| People feel threatened by insects. They tickle, they sting,
| some spread disease. They can be painful. Some species can
| do major damage to structures and crops. They look alien
| and menacing to many people.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| I wish those people would learn some empathy and
| curiosity.
| xipho wrote:
| As someone who has describe insects species we might
| alternately say "the evolutionary processes that lead to the
| anatomy of these creatures is mind-blowing".
|
| Find access to a 60x scope. Fill a yellow party bowl with water
| about 3/4 full. Put a drop or so of non-lemon dish-soap on the
| edge, it will break the surface tension. Put that bowl outside,
| literally anywhere there is plant life (and pretty much
| anywhere in general). Get an algae removing dip-net, for fish
| tanks. After a day, but no longer than that, pour the sample
| through the net. Rinse it carefully by running fresh water over
| your hand onto the specimens. Invert the result into a small,
| flat-bottomed white pan with a little ethyl (or propyl) alcohol
| you get from a pharmacy. Put that under the scope. Be amazed.
|
| I've seen a lot of minds melted by this little experiment,
| which isn't so little, it's the best way to collect many
| insects. In the field we'd run hundreds of these on collecting
| trips, servicing them every day or so.
| ddgflorida wrote:
| No doubt!
| Jun8 wrote:
| "To capture tiny parts of the creatures in perfect focus, Danke
| puts his camera on a high-precision macro rail that can move in
| the micrometer--one millionth of a meter--range."
|
| I was amazed by this and thought such a high-end rail would be
| thousands of dollars. Nope, there are models on Amazon for $200!
| hermitcrab wrote:
| You need a rail and dead insect to get the sort of super
| detailed photos in the article. But you can get decent photos
| of live insects handheld with a macro lens and flash (and some
| patience!).
| VWWHFSfQ wrote:
| I wonder how he got these perfect specimens to photgraph?
| Capture them in a buglight jar and suffocate them? He had to
| have been doing it fairly quickly so their carcass didn't
| deteriorate before he got the photos.
| galkk wrote:
| One of the approaches is putting insects into freezer
| sohkamyung wrote:
| Indeed. That's how I shoot insects: live and in the field
| with a macro lens. It's quite a challenge, especially for the
| smaller insects (2-3 mm in length).
| hermitcrab wrote:
| It is a bit easier if you photograph them in the morning,
| when they are still cold and sluggish. You can get a
| similar effect by putting them in a container in the fridge
| for a few minutes. But don't leave them in too long! And
| warn your partner...
| sohkamyung wrote:
| I'm more into shooting insects in the wild, when they are
| active and doing their thing, so I can also catch their
| behaviour. I contribute to iNaturalist, and a few of my
| observations have ended up as documentation in some
| scientific papers by local scientists.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| Cool. Can you link to some photos online?
| sohkamyung wrote:
| You can visit my iNaturalist profile and see the photos.
|
| https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/sohkamyung
|
| And here's a Singapore Biodiversity Report that included
| photos from me (Figs 10-12) [PDF]
|
| https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/wp-
| content/uploads/sites/10/2023/0...
| hermitcrab wrote:
| Nice. The Black and white Spiny Spider is quite striking
| looking. Nothing like that in the UK, as far as I know.
| Uncorrelated wrote:
| While nothing like the photos in the article, I've gotten
| neat footage of living insects (and other arthropods) by
| putting them in a little makeshift container under my
| microscope, with strong lighting from the side. This is very
| much not a good setup, but it's allowed me to capture things
| like a front view of an earwig cleaning its antenna.
|
| I typically do this when I find a little arthropod inside;
| instead of killing it, I give it a free trip outside without
| (intentional) harm, for the small price of experiencing an
| alien abduction.
| NayamAmarshe wrote:
| That's really nice!
| robwwilliams wrote:
| Danke will be stacking images to keep this extreme detail at
| all depths. Impressive.
| Loughla wrote:
| I use a cheap rail and just stack the photos to get a decent
| end result.
|
| I literally know nothing about photography and can do really
| high quality macro shots. Technology is amazing.
| melagonster wrote:
| There is a replacement method: thrusting the insect by your
| tweezers. thank you did this search, it is a useful
| information.
| fuzzythinker wrote:
| "He hopes the text will be translated into English."
|
| If you are reading this, yes, please do. I was ready to buy it.
| FinnKuhn wrote:
| For anyone else, who speaks German though, you can already buy
| it here: https://www.kosmos.de/de/von-angesicht-zu-
| angesicht_1179000_...
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