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UltravioletPhotography

Kalmia angustifolia [Sheep Laurel]


Andrea B.

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Blum, A.G. (2017) Kalmia angustifolia L. (Ericaceae) Sheep Laurel. Flowers photographed in ultraviolet and visible light. http://www.ultraviol...a-sheep-laurel/

 

Synonyms:

na

 

Comment:

The flower of the Sheep Laurel shrub is quite intricate. The corolla edge has 10 little pouches and the anthers initially are fitted into them and later pop out. Both views are shown below. The corolla is moderately UV-absorbing with a lot of iridescence. The dark ring around the anthers and stamen remains dark in UV. The leaves are very UV-dark.

 

I used several different UV-pass filters and filter stacks. White balance was made by a dropper drag over the background Spectralon. There are slight tonality differences between the outcomes for various filters, but all do produce the same false-blue with this method. (The UV+Blue+Green filter stack is not included in that comment.)

 

Reference:

1. Haines, A. (2011) Flora Novae Angliae. Kalmia key, page 556. Kalmia angustifolia, page 556. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.

 

Equipment [Nikon D600-broadband + Carl Zeiss 60mm f/4.0 UV-Planar]

 

 

SET 1

Shore Cottage, Southwest Harbor, Maine, USA

04 July 2016

Wildflower

 

This set shows the Sheep Laurel anthers tucked into the corolla sacs.

Photos will click up to 1200 pixels width in an expanded browser.

 

Visible Light [f/11 for 1/200" @ ISO-200 with Onboard Flash and Baader UVIR-Block Filter]

kalmiaAngustifolia_visFlash_20170704shoreCottageSwhMaine_2600pn01.jpg

 

Ultraviolet Light [f/11 for 1/20" @ ISO-400 with SB-14 UV-modified Flash and BaaderU UV-Pass Filter]

kalmiaAngustifolia_uvBaad_Sb14_20170704shoreCottageSwhMaine_2613pn01.jpg

 

Ultraviolet Light [f/11 for 1/20" @ ISO-400 with SB-14 UV-modified Flash and StraightEdgeU UV-Pass Filter]

There were the usual little pesky sea breezes and the branches moved out from under my focus without my notice. But note how sharp things are on the left. :D

kalmiaAngustifolia_uvStraightEdge_Sb14_20170704shoreCottageSwhMaine_2628pn01.jpg

 

Ultraviolet Light [f/11 for 1/8" @ ISO-800 with SB-14 UV-modified Flash and U-340 (2mm) + S8612 (2mm) UV-Pass Filter Stack]

This is a fairly thick filter stack (my choice to fully suppress IR leakage) so a boost to ISO-800 was needed to stay at f/11 outdoors in the breezes. There is a tiny bit of motion.

kalmiaAngustifolia_u340-2_s8612-2_Sb14_20170704shoreCottageSwhMaine_2653pn01.jpg

 

UV+Blue+Green Light [f/5.6 for 1/60" @ ISO-800 with SB-14 UV-modified Flash and U-330 (1.5mm) + S8612 (2mm) UV/B/G-Pass Filter Stack]

Either visible or UV-flash ruins the color ratios, so were not used. Under an overcast sky I had to open up to f/5.6 and boost again to ISO-800 to make best use of the low light.

Red was removed during conversion in Photo Ninja via a Color Enhancement slider.

This is a UV/B/G insect vision emulation. However, from the literature it seems that perhaps bees do not percieve green leaves in quite the way they appear here. It's still a nice model though.

kalmiaAngustifolia_u330-15_s8612-2_visFlash_20170704shoreCottageSwhMaine_2669pn01pn.jpg

 

 

SET 2

Shore Cottage, Southwest Harbor, Maine, USA

04 July 2016

Wildflower

 

This set shows the Sheep Laurel anthers released from the corolla sacs but for one. Because the flower is positioned to face upwards for photograph, you cannot see how the anthers now hang around the stigma to enable transfer of the pollen.

Photos will click up to 1200 pixels width in an expanded browser.

 

Ultraviolet Light [f/11 for 1/30" @ ISO-400 with SB-14 UV-modified Flash and BaaderU UV-Pass Filter]

kalmiaAngustifolia_uvBaad_sb14_20170704shoreCottageSwhMaine_2705pn02.jpg

 

Ultraviolet Light [f/11 for 1/4" @ ISO-400 with SB-14 UV-modified Flash and KolariU UV-Pass Filter]j

The KolariU suppresses IR well, but with a lower transmission rate it requires a longer exposure relative to the BaaderU. Probably best to go to ISO-800 here.

kalmiaAngustifolia_uvKolari_sb14_20170704shoreCottageSwhMaine_2722pn01.jpg

 

Ultraviolet Light [f/11 for 1/4" @ ISO-400 with SB-14 UV-modified Flash and U-360 (2mm) + S8612 (2mm)

UV-Pass Filter Stack]

Yes, I know I could probably use a thinner S8612 for this U-360, but I'm always wanting to suppress that IR. With a 2mm S8612 in the stack, we match the KolariU in exposure.

kalmiaAngustifolia_u360-2_s8612-2_sb14_20170704shoreCottageSwhMaine_2725pn01.jpg

 

Unresized crop to show surface details of corolla.

kalmiaAngustifolia_uvBaad_sb14_20170704shoreCottageSwhMaine_2705pn01.jpg

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The blooms look quite similar to those of K. latifolia, which is a very popular landscape plant in these parts.

 

Your UV photo has some curious annular foreground bokeh. I cannot tell for certain if the background bokeh also has this property.

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Well, Clark, you have a good eye. I'm not sure I am seeing what you are seeing! :)

 

The Zeiss UV-Planar is an industrial enlarger lens having only 5 blades and must be used on a focusing helicoid. So, sometimes some pentagonal shapes can occur in the lights/shadows of background oof areas. It is always possible that there was some flareback into the lens from the UV-flash which caused some rings.

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Bill De Jager
Beautiful work, Andrea. I've often seen K. polifolia in the high montane regions of California but never bothered to get down on my knees and look at the flower carefully, let alone photograph them up close. A quick image search shows similar stamens.
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Thank you, Bill.

 

That K. polifolia will make a nice addition here when you photograph it during its next bloom season.

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Bill De Jager

Andrea, you keep pushing me to actually do UV photography! :D

 

Seriously, at the moment I'm busy preparing for the solar eclipse in August, which is the 800-lb.* gorilla in my photography this year. That will include one effort in UV. Then it's off to Maine sometime later for a family visit, so I won't make it up to the mountains for the Kalmia until it's too late for flowers. For this year I'm at least hoping to catch some montane autumn color in visible light.

 

Next year I'd really like to reacquaint myself on a leisurely basis with our montane flora.

 

*362.874 kg.

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