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Bob Reimer
01-27-2008, 11:14 PM
David Steele's lovely scorpion with tracks (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2815) inspired me to post this image I created a few years ago now. We were camping in a valley a few miles over the border into Oman. Since scorpions fluoresce under UV light, a friend of mine was looking for them using the kind of UV light used to check banknotes for counterfeits. The night was cool enough that this guy wasn't moving. I was able to get out my table top tripod and try various angles with both long exposures by UV illumination and short by flash illumination from the same position. Newer LED UV light sources would make this kind of photograph easier. Unfortunately, my friend who was holding the UV light for me passed away less than 6 months later due to a rare degenerative brain disease.

Vachoniolus globimanus Levy, Amitai & Shulov, 1973 is less poisonous than the species David posted. It uses large claws to immobilize its prey rather than venom.

Nikon D-70, 70-180 Micro at 150mm, f/16, 30 sec, ISO 200 (can post the version by flash later) 6-Jan-2005 9:02PM

Alfred Forns
01-28-2008, 08:26 AM
Very sorry about your friend Bob You sure have a memorable image to remember This is way cool !!!!

Robert O'Toole
01-28-2008, 10:11 AM
Thanks for posting Bob thats something I havent seen in a still image posted before. I actually like the greenish glow contrasting with the purplish background. Make for an eerie sort of feeling. Wish more of the Scorpions face was sharp but the tail and stinger looks great.

Also sorry to hear about your friend passing.

Robert

David Steele
01-28-2008, 01:20 PM
A very interesting and unusual image and story Bob (and to think I nearly missed it with all today's postings!) but sorry to hear about your friend. I'm off to Oman this weekend and The Empty Quarter the following so hold thumbs for me. I'll let you know of any interesting scorpions and hope to take some video as well. . . .

Bob Reimer
01-28-2008, 02:16 PM
Here's the version of the picture with the flash fired. 1/60th of a second SB-800 TTL.

Thanks for the comments!

Kaushik Balakumar
01-28-2008, 05:20 PM
Have never seen such a UV aided image before. Very creative one indeed.

Thanks for sharing...

rgds,
Kaushik

Mike Moats
01-28-2008, 07:39 PM
Hey Bob, sorry to hear about your friend. This is a very interesting image. I've never seen anything like it. Well done.