Rotifers are one of my favourite subjects for photomicrography. The turtle rotifer Testudinella patina is particularly interesting and I have been finding lots of them this year. I photograph them using DIC, Darkfield, Bright field, and polarizing microscopy. Below I have attached a few rotifer images.
taken with my Zeiss Axioscope, Nikon D800 camera using ISO 200 and free software - Digicam control which allows me to control the camera in Live view from my laptop. I also record movies from which I can extract high quality images. I have attached two other rotifer species.
For those that might be interested I have an article on my web site Photographing rotifers: https://www.canadiannaturephotographer. ... ifers.html
By the end of this summer I hope to add Version II of this article with many of my new photos of rotifers. All the rotifers are photographed live, to photograph them I pin them down carefully by drawing water out from below the coverslip so they can't swim away, too much pressure though and they burst. I also focus-stack the images to get as much depth of field as possible - for stacking I used Adobe photoshop, I have also found Helicon focus to be excellent.
Rotifers
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- Robert Berdan
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Re: Rotifers
Very nice.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
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Re: Rotifers
Very nice, especially the Testudinella, a very difficult subject.
Mike
Mike
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
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Re: Rotifers
These photos are simply amazing! Please don't tempt me on DIC...
- carlos.uruguay
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Re: Rotifers
Nice!
Re: Rotifers
Lovely images. I have started using ring binder hole reinforcement discs on slides to try and prevent squishing things, it works quite well but the to smaller stuff it's like an Olympic swimming pool!
David
David
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Re: Rotifers
Wow, very nice.
Re: Rotifers
Well done, nice comparison between different illumination techniques.
- Robert Berdan
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Re: Rotifers
Hi David - a very simple technique to hold rotifers in place is to put little dabs of vaseline or vacuum grease on the microscope slide to support the coverslip. I use a syringe to apply very small drops of vacuum grease, then place the coverslip on top and draw water out from under the coverslip using a small piece of paper towel or filter paper. By watching while doing this with a stereomicroscope I can often see when rotifers, stentors and other large ciliates stop swimming and then examine them. If you draw too much water you can squish the organisms with practice you can guage how much water to draw out and it works well for me most of the time. Smaller organisms like gastrotrichs can aslo be trapped this way, but not the very smallest ciliates.
Trying to attach an image to show this process - will try one more time
Trying to attach an image to show this process - will try one more time
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Re: Rotifers
Thanks Rob, I did try vaseline on the slide but had difficulty applying it consistently and would usually end up in bit of a mess. I didn’t consider using a small syringe, I’ll give it a try.
David
David