Doing Diatoms - part 2

[Phill Brown]

It's worth printing and framing your best finds.
A4 is the most cost effective and is about right for wall space.
When asked what you do for fun it saves reaching for a device.
If selling it's better to use inks that don't fade.
The great thing about Canon Chromalife is the number of genuine CLi-8 pigment black that are available at low cost.
DF works great behind glass.
Happy days.

[Phill Brown]

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Fossil diatoms from Monterey.
Miocene formation.
Too many frustules in the mix, many in near perfect condition.

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Made the effort to label this time from the sample.

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Made a simple inline filter,2 sections of tube with a 30 micron mesh screen.
Set in Canada balsam.
Image in DF with 40x .65 f.o.v 0.03mm.
Camera is a Lumix G3.
Scope is Watson Hilux.
It's just a hobby so I don't need it to be perfect.
I have several kilos of diatomite from Miocene formations, need to make a selection of screen sizes to isolate the larger diatoms.

[Sure Squintsalot]

A few darkfield images of some Puget Sound planktons. Nearly all of these images are extensively photoshopped: stacking, contrast enhancement, edge "sharpening", fringe removal, spot removal, etc., etc., etc. Note that despite the considerable photo manipulation, no details are ever added to the subject itself.

Asteromphalus heptactis ... I think.

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Same A. heptactis in context of the strew it lives in. Note the extensive background removal (in PS) in the first image.

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Pleurosigma gang....but looks like a standoff. The right side 'diatom' could be a "ribbon" of many individual diatoms. That's my guess.

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Never seen one before, in books or online. Have no idea what it is.

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DIC (above) vs. DF (below)

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