Laurie Knight's Photomicrography blog

Sunset Moth (Urania riphaeus)

Published: 13th Mar 2009
Updated: 2nd Dec 2009

I have to just put a quick post up about this moth. I purchased a specimen recently after seeing some amazing shots of the wing scales by a couple of posters at www.photomacrography.net

Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on the Sunset moth

On the taxonomy I think I am using an old Latin name for this insect, I'm trying to get clarification on this, but this moth does have several synonyms, some of which are mentioned on the Wikipedia article above.

I recommend anyone into shooting bugs with an indoor macro studio should attempt to get hold of a specimen of this moth, it is quite remarkable when magnified. I've spent a good part of three evenings shooting this insect so far and I am not remotely finished with it yet! The iridescence of the scales makes it a challenging subject to light, shoot and stack, but I like a challenge!

See the the Butterfly/Moth gallery for my best shots of Urania riphaeus so far

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What to shoot in the middle of winter?

Published: 20th Feb 2009
Updated: 2nd Dec 2009

Okay, my first real blog post*, I'd better make it something worthwhile!

As primarily a bug/fungi shooter, what does one do in the depth of winter when there are virtually no fungi or bugs around?

Well recently I've started looking at lichen and moss, simply because there is nothing else out there!

Surprisingly both of these subjects can be quite interesting when viewed at high enough magnification...

Here's an example of a part of a Moss plant, the tip of the spore capsule

Due to the size, this subject required focus stacking to get detail over any depth. However while researching what the this moss was, I came across some wonderful moss galleries at the British Bryological Society website - page 1, page 2, page 3. These have inspired me to try to shoot some nice moss shots out in the field as well!

Edited to add; There are now some wild moss shots in the Mosses section of the Plants gallery

* There were a lot of test posts while I was putting the blog code together!

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