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edward saltau
06-11-2008, 08:06 PM
Arachnocampa luminosa
Photo taken in the Leith Valley, Dunedin, New Zealand. This was taken last night. Very difficult to photograph! Especially without a flash....

Canon 40D, 100 2.8 macro, manfrotto 005 tripod.
10sec at f4. ISO 800. Lit with the light from my mobile phone!
http://edwardsaltau.smugmug.com/photos/311547486_6VE8C-L.jpg
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I plan to nail a shot of one of these guys sooner rather than later!

Stephen Stephen
06-11-2008, 09:21 PM
Edward this is probably the first image of a glow worm that I've ever seen posted on any forum. Interesting image but I'm sorry that I can't help you.

John Cooper
06-11-2008, 09:48 PM
A very good attempt Edward. I have been successful in photographing fluorescent fungi at night using very long exposures. The result is good exposure of the subject but with a jet black surround.
What makes your image so interesting is the hanging water droplets and these of course require additional light (more than the glow worm can supply). You're on the right track - experiment with additional light at different angles (side and back lighting etc).

Mike Moats
06-12-2008, 05:06 AM
Hey Edward, I'm not sure what I'm looking at, or what part is the glow worm, as I've never seen a one, or know what it is, or the condition their shot in. Sorry, I can offer any help here.

Gus Cobos
06-12-2008, 06:38 AM
Hi Ed,
I like the concept here. But I have never done this type of photography before. By looking at your image, I would tend to believe that it would be more pleasing if the background were a bit lighter and possibly have some type of very soft light to highlight the water droplets...:D

Fabs Forns
06-12-2008, 01:00 PM
How about the use of a flashlight to illuminate them?

edward saltau
06-12-2008, 04:46 PM
thanks guys.
John, I've made some exposures similar to what you mentioned. Because the worms are so small the resulting images is all black except for the glow segment, If i could get closer it might look cool but i'm already shooting at 1:1 so that would need to be about 5:1!

Mike, what you are looking at is the glow worm and its silk covered strands it uses to catch prey. The gooey thing running horizontally across the top is the worm it self. The light is coming from a segment inside the worm.

Gus, good idea. I'll try that next time.

Fabs, Flash would solve a lot of my problems. However i don't have one so there's not much i can do about that!
thanks again

Fabs Forns
06-12-2008, 04:54 PM
No flash, Edward, a common household flashlight tucked in a bush for support...

edward saltau
06-12-2008, 05:34 PM
thats basically what i was using but found that it gave me i really weird sort of light. The small torch on the end of mobile phone worked better!