More pond (well ditch) dipping photos.

[Ukwildlifeo]

Me and Dave had another pond dipping and photography day at Wat Tyler CP today. We tried filtering the water, though I think the mesh was a bit to coarse, so I believe dave is going to get some finer stuff. Think I got some nice shots anayway though. Here are the first 5 nice ones, which I havent had a go at the background with:

Found another brackish water prawn






And a nice Diving beetle larva

[pressld2]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

I believe dave is going to get some finer stuff.

Yep, certainly am. This filter is rated at 25 microns but they are available all the way doen to 1 micron so I might try that. There was still quite a lot of debris in the water and it was quite cloudy.

Here's a couple of mine of the brackish water prawn on which, like Neil, I haven't cleaned the backgrounds...



And here's a couple of backswimmer shots where I have spent ages cloning out specks...



On the second of those I've also applied a gaussian blur to the background.

Dave P.

[tom00_uk]

Originally Posted by pressld2

Yep, certainly am. This filter is rated at 25 microns but they are available all the way doen to 1 micron so I might try that. There was still quite a lot of debris in the water and it was quite cloudy.

Here's a couple of mine of the brackish water prawn on which, like Neil, I haven't cleaned the backgrounds...





And here's a couple of backswimmer shots where I have spent ages cloning out specks...



On the second of those I've also applied a gaussian blur to the background.

Dave P.

are you using a buchner filter to speed the process up if going down as fine as 1μ is going to take a long time to get through the filter

nice pics as usual

[pressld2]

Thanks Tom!

Originally Posted by tom00_uk

are you using a buchner filter to speed the process up if going down as fine as 1μ is going to take a long time to get through the filter

I'm just using a 7 inch diameter bag filter and letting gravity do the work. I was concerned that it might take ages for the water to drain through which is why I started with a 25μ filter but the water flooded straight through it in no time, almost as fast as I pour the water in. I freely admit that this is pure guesswork for me at the moment. I don't know how accurate the ratings are on the filter: 25μ is 1/40th of a millimeter and I'm pretty sure we still had particles larger than that.

I bought the filter from a company called Oilybits (seriously) and one of the uses they give on the web site is cleaning used cooking oil prior to conversion to bio-diesel. If anyone has any better ideas or experience with filtration please share!

Dave P.

[nightshade]

I think you may be at the limit with 25microns or you will start reading War and Peace waiting for finer bags to filter. I do remember using a drinking water filter tube but cannot locate it on the interweb

[pressld2]

The filter bags are pretty cheap - under £4 each so I think I'll order up a 1μ and a 5μ and see how long it takes.

For anyone who hasn't tried this type of photography, here's why we're so keen to filter out even the most minute particles from the water...



It is possible to clean an image like that and produce this...



...but it's taken me about three hours to do that. On just one image! Getting the water spotless to start with, even if it takes an hour or two to filter it, has got to be preferable.

Dave P.

[Red Robin]

I've said it before and I know I'll have to say it again, but the photography in this thread is stunning. What I love about the pics so far is that they appear natural and also very informative.

[Ukwildlifeo]

A mayfly from a different pond this week

Mayfly larva - Wildlife Photography

[Ukwildlifeo]

Couple more from the day with Dave

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

And a nice Diving beetle larva

Me reading my new book "water bugs and water beetle s of surrey and I reckon this larva could be that of Agabus sp.