Saturday, August 4, 2012

White Gazania rigens flower: Baader-U filter for reflected UV ultraviolet photography

More about a white Gazania flower, most likely Gazania rigens. Shot in visible and ultraviolet light, using the Baader-U filter and a high power Xenon flash as well as an UV sensitive camera.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Visible light image:


Ultraviolet (UV) light image:


Diptych VIS - UV:


The petals of this white Gazania are quite special, since they show in UV an otherwise invisible bright rim (reflecting around 370nm) against a UV darker, but still reflective (around 385nm) inside. The stigmas are also very UV bright, whereas the stamen are quite dark so overall create quite distinct UV nectar guides for their pollinators.

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