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An insect trapped in Baltic amber - fossilized tree resin from ancient forests

An insect trapped in Baltic amber – fossilized tree resin from ancient forests

The Baltic region is a rich source of amber, dating back 44 million years to the Eocene epoch. Amber is a fossilised resin and more than 100,000 tons of Baltic amber arose from umbrella pine resin. After stormy weather, amber gets washed up on Baltic Sea beaches – including Poland – and is also found along shingle beaches in England between Felixstowe and Southwold.

An insect in amber presents a challenge for photography. Any with the body parts folded over one another rarely make good subjects and are best rejected. Multiple insects are also tricky if they become trapped at different angles or overlap. The amber surface should ideally be as flat as possible without any scratches that would distort the trapped insects.

Occasionally larger specimens can be found with their legs and wings clearly separated. This unidentified insect, purchased in Poland, shows one of  many extinct animal genera that have become trapped within Baltic amber.

Translucent amber looks most dramatic when it is backlit. My own preference is to use a daylight-balanced lightbox, when I manually spot meter the light passing through the amber. The result is a chunk of amber that appears to glow like an outsized brown sugar crystal.

200 words

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Starry pattern of pores in sea urchin (Echinus esculentus) shell lit internally with fibre optics, with rows of bosses that connect base of spines

Sea urchin (Echinus esculentus) pores shell lit internally with fibre optics form a starry pattern and alternate with bosses that connect to spines

When I worked as a marine biologist and went scuba diving, I saw many live sea urchins moving underwater using their suckered tube feet to grip the rocks. Urchins have a hard shell or test that persists after they die, when the five-rayed starry pattern is evident in urchins sold in coastal souvenir shops.

The structure of any macro subject should convey how to light it to the best advantage. Years after I bought a few sea urchin shells, I held one in my hand beside a reading lamp. As I rotated it, the light lit the inside via the basal hole and suddenly beamed out through the tiny rows of holes where the suckered feet emerge through the shell.

Within moments, I was in my studio, manipulating a fibre optics unit. The shot was taken by inserting one fibre-optic inside the basal opening to reveal the twin rows of brightly backlit holes in a 5-rayed pattern that is typical of many urchins and related starfish. Also visible, between the backlit holes, are rows of protuberances that form the bases of the spines’ ball and socket joints.

Today, small LED lights can be used as cheap substitutes for fibre optics.

200 words

African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) casts a Concorde like shadow late in day on Boulders Beach, the Cape, South Africa

African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) casts a novel Concorde shadow late in day on Boulders Beach, the Cape, South Africa

Early and late in the day when the sun is low, opportunities arise for lengthy shadows to create a dynamic element to many landscape compositions. This image depicts a bird in its habitat. Unlike a landscape when long shadows can linger – if clouds don’t cover the sun – the opportunity was a fleeting one.

African penguins were coming ashore on Boulders Beach near Cape Town, late in the day. I was shooting verticals of a penguin walking towards me with an 80–200mm lens. Suddenly the penguin turned casting an ephemeral shadow on the flat sandy beach. Fortunately the camera was on a tripod with the lens mounted using a lens collar, so I could speedily change the format from vertical to horizontal and zoom out slightly. Even so, I only managed to take two shots before the penguin turned to resume its walk up the home stretch and the novel Concorde shadow was lost.

I watched several other penguins returning to the beach from the sea, but none paused and turned, and the shot would never have arisen if the beach has not been a flat sandy one. A case of being in the right place at the right time.

200 words

Watch out for this continuing series of images – A Seeing Eye –  in which I descibe in 200 words , or less, how I saw, composed and took the picture.

200 words

Deciding how to frame any picture makes all the difference between taking a photo and creating an image. For some people, this comes instinctively; for others it is a more chancy affair. Hopefully, these eight images taken in five different countries will inspire you to seek your own diagonals.

A skyward view into a moso bamboo canopy in South Sichuan Bamboo Sea, China

A skyward view into a moso bamboo canopy in South Sichuan Bamboo Sea, China

Diagonal lines always convey a sense of direction to any composition and here are some examples. Taking a plantation of trees with simple, straight trunks by standing and holding the camera at eye level will never make a dynamic shot. Instead, stand close to a trunk and point the camera skywards. To convey the rapid growth of moso bamboos, I used a wide-angle lens and mounted the camera on a tripod looking up to the sky. Slackening the rotation locking screw on the ball and socket head, allows the camera to be spun around 360° to seek the best composition.

The image above shows multiple diagonals converging towards the centre of the frame, which draws the eye inwards.

Early and late in the day, when shadows are long, opportunities arise for seeking diagonal shadows to provide impact to any composition.

Shadows cast by a low sun define diagonal snow-covered ridges, Bryce Canyon, Utah, USA

Shadows cast by a low sun define diagonal snow-covered ridges, Bryce Canyon, Utah, USA

A river or canal that cuts through a landscape will appear more dynamic if it is composed in the frame so it runs diagonally instead of horizontally cutting the image into two equal halves. Look also for paths with an interesting colour contrast or texture that weave their way through woodlands or gardens.

Icicles against a blue sky on a freeform ice sculpture by Lyle Braund by day, Colorado, USA

Icicles against a blue sky on a freeform ice sculpture by Lyle Braund by day, Colorado, USA

Look skywards at a bird in flight with outstretched wings to frame it with one wing tip pointing towards a corner of the frame and the other towards the diagonally opposite one. Try to vary the composition by not opting always for a single bird in flight.

Three brown headed gulls in flight Qinghai Lake, China

Three brown headed gulls in flight Qinghai Lake, China

It took me two visits to Poland to get the shot I had envisaged from seeing mute swans swimming amongst flowering marsh marigolds in a travel magazine.   I was after a panned shot of swans flying above the marsh. The first time, my guide met me at Warsaw airport and told me they had had a freak hot period when all the flowers bloomed followed by strong winds that blew off the petals! I clinched the shot on the last day of my second trip. Quite fortuitously, I gained an extended diagonal from the wing tip of one bird up the neck and wing of the bird.

Using a jeep as a hide to take mute swans flying over flowering marsh marigolds, Briebrza Marsh , Poland.

Using a jeep as a hide to take mute swans flying over flowering marsh marigolds, Briebrza Marsh , Poland

Animals such as turtles, crocodiles and some fish often make a diagonal line in their underwater trajectory as they dive down from the surface if they are not in any great hurry to descend.

A juvenile saltwater crocodile swims underwater with limbs pressed alongside the body, Cairns, Australia

A juvenile saltwater crocodile swims underwater with limbs pressed alongside the body, Cairns, Australia

The only way to get dawn shots of reptiles racing over red sand dunes, was to race alongside them. Australia’s largest lizard – the perentie – turned out to be a lot more agile than me carrying my gear.

A perentie lizard makes a diagonal track as it races up a sand dune, Alice Springs, Australia

A perentie lizard makes a diagonal track as it races up a red sand dune, Alice Springs, Australia

One of my favourite diagonal compositions was a chance find whilst walking over limestone pavement area in Yorkshire before the sun rose. My objective was to find ferns and other plants that survive grazing sheep by growing within the cracks or grykes. The moment I saw the image below, with the curvaceous diagonal from lower left to upper right, I knew this was the shot. However, I had to work fast, because the sun was about to appear. The exposure contrast between the sunlit pavement and the ferns in the depressed cracks would then have been too great for film to expose both correctly.

Harts tongue ferns in limestone pavement gryke, Ewe Moor, Yorkshire

Harts tongue ferns emerge from a curvaceous diagonal in a limestone pavement gryke, Ewe Moor, Yorkshire, England

Wherever you travel outdoors, keep a lookout for dynamic diagonals that can make any image spring to life by leading the eye across the frame from a lower corner to a higher one or vice versa. Even better than a straight diagonal is a curvaceous one that can be found in streams and meandering rivers.

Thanks for reading!

HA signature low Res

My images fall into two distinct categories. They are either grabbed unplanned shots of a fleeting moment or ephemeral light. Alternatively, since the seasons govern life and death in the natural world, some can be planned weeks, or even months, in advance when I know the subject is most likely to be seen and then I can visualise the shot.

The aim of this irregular series is to explain – in 200 or less words – how I saw the image, how I lit and cropped it.

Transparent elvers or glass eels reveal gills, backbone, heart and gut

Transparent elvers or glass eels reveal gills, backbone, heart and gut

Our freshwater eels migrate down rivers to spawn in the sea. The first stage larva – the leptocephalus – is flattened and leaf-like. These change into the elvers or glass eels that migrate up rivers. They are most active at night, when fishermen on the River Severn catch them in large boat-shaped nets.

I realised the only way to capture the writhing glass eels and reveal the gills, heart and backbone within their transparent bodies, was in my studio. Using a small vertical tank – one of many I had designed to photograph aquatic life – two flash units were angled in obliquely behind the tank with a black velvet background. The composition was inevitably a fluid one since the bodies writhe incessantly. Using film, I shot on both 35mm and 6 x 6cm formats with no option to ‘chimp’ the shoot. Some frames failed because the elvers overlapped each other, but you only need a few.

This image has been used in textbooks, in articles about migrating animals and for ID in an aquarium display. The vertical format has negative space at the top for a masthead.  Now that 45 years have elapsed, I doubt I could improve on the shot today.

200 words

This is a revised and shortened version of a much longer one that originally appeared in Nikon Owner Magazine http://www.nikonownermagazine.com/

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