More Planktonic Diatoms

[KurtM]

Each of the following specimens were taken from the first 12"/30 cm of water that was, on average, 6'/2 m deep, in my plankton net. I've seen Pleurosigma and Nitzschia in plenty of benthic samples, and find it interesting that they're also common in the community of drifters. The diatom Odontella, and the as yet unidentified diatom also shown here, are two that I've never seen outside of plankton samplings. All are living specimens, and all were shot through the 40/0.95 Splanapo with the exception of #2, which is through the 20/0.70 Splanapo, all on the BHS BH-2 with DIC. #2 is single frame, the rest are stacked images.

[Hobbyst46]

Superb !

[Phill Brown]

Thanks for sharing such excellent images.
Sorry I can't help put a name to the mystery diatom.

[Wes]

Very nice catch. And your photos are amazing!

[charlie g]

Beautiful images, thank you Kurt. charlie g

[imkap]

Great photos, how do you make them stand flat? The parts of ones I observed always like to go out of focus. Maybe I should press the coverslip more?

[Sabatini]

Great images

[KurtM]

Thank you all for the kind comments!

Great photos, how do you make them stand flat? The parts of ones I observed always like to go out of focus. Maybe I should press the coverslip more?

It's largely a case of choosing specimens to shoot with care; I try to seek out those that are relatively free of surrounding clutter, and are laying flat. I don't always get what I want, but that's the idea. It also helps a great deal to have as little water under the cover slip as possible without crushing the specimens. In a perfect world the specimens would be snug against the cover slip ... but again, I don't often get just what I want.

Also, most are stacks to increase the depth of field, and how many source frames depends on the depth of the specimen (in the Y axis); the Odontella took 59 shots, the Nitzschia is 4, and Pleurosigma only 2.

[imkap]

Thank you all for the kind comments!

Great photos, how do you make them stand flat? The parts of ones I observed always like to go out of focus. Maybe I should press the coverslip more?

It's largely a case of choosing specimens to shoot with care; I try to seek out those that are relatively free of surrounding clutter, and are laying flat. I don't always get what I want, but that's the idea. It also helps a great deal to have as little water under the cover slip as possible without crushing the specimens. In a perfect world the specimens would be snug against the cover slip ... but again, I don't often get just what I want.

Also, most are stacks to increase the depth of field, and how many source frames depends on the depth of the specimen (in the Y axis); the Odontella took 59 shots, the Nitzschia is 4, and Pleurosigma only 2.

I understand, I'll try. We have no diatoms at home now, need to go to the sea and take. Too busy these days... I should study focus stacking a bit. Thanks