Thousands of Spirochetes taken with darkfield optics on a Leitz Orthoplan with 35mm film.

Haematococcus	photography five	Close up of Micrasterias
Spirogyra	Astronomy

Fairmead pond in Epping Forest. June 2003

                                             
I am presently employed at http://www.ion.ucl.ac.uk/divisions/neuropathology.htm here in London as the photographer to the Department and my main task is to make an accurate record of any images that the pathologists may require for future reference. While this in its self can be very rewarding my main interests have always lay with the study of freshwater systems. I use the camera and microscope to make a permanent record of the most interesting plant and animal life that I observe. I have had an ideal opportunity over the past ten years to acquire a modest amount of technical expertise regarding photography and the use of the microscope. I hope to show you how easy it can be with a little patience and perseverance, to take photographs of the various microorganisms that can be found in most ponds and lakes. Most of my collecting is from the ponds in and around Epping Forest. The Corporation of the City of London grant people licences in order to collect specimens from their waters, this is done in order to keep a check on what is happening in the forest and you must always put the forest and its environment first.

Many of us have at some time in our lives gone down to the local pond and brought home a selection of amphibians and small fresh water fish. Ponds are small bodies of water that have a depth of about 1 metre and tend to freeze over during the colder spells that we sometimes get here in England. The centre of the pond is sufficiently deep to prevent the whole pond from freezing over and therefore allowing many of the plants and animals to over winter in safety. These first excursions to the pond do not reveal the hidden world that lurks right under the child's nose and can only be revealed by the microscope. Many of these fresh water habitats have disappeared over the years so it is important that people realise how many creatures depend on the local ponds for there existence and what a great introduction for children to begin there exploration of the living world. Many school's in Europe and the United States build their own ponds which the students have access to and can monitor the changes that take place over the four seasons. Hopefully these may help to offset the loss that has occurred due to changing farming methods and also that blight of modern society, road building.

Finding things to look at and take photographs should not be that difficult, even with all the road building and new housing that is going on there are still many areas that can be found with lakes, ponds and brooks to take samples from. I was fortunate in that where I lived in Hyde near Manchester we had numerous ponds near by and also living in a large mill where my father worked also meant that we had many reservoirs to play around and dip into. Sadly the ponds where we played around have now disappeared due to road building and urban sprawl, which is a great pity because there does not appear to be any new ponds nearby that have replaced them. Microscopy can be fun and can also lead onto the many sciences that branch off, from biology, physics, optics and chemistry to name but a few. Microscopy can also be a quiet pleasant hobby, where just making simple observations and learning about the unseen world all around us can bring lots of enjoyment to the individual.

Obviously the first thing you need to do is to find a good microscope and this can be a daunting task for the uninitiated. The easiest way to go about this is to join your local natural history society; here you will find someone who has some knowledge about microscopes. Failing this there are various microscopy clubs scattered around the country and the members will only be too glad to assist in any purchase of a microscope. Many of the larger clubs have a web site and there is usually a wealth of information tucked away on the pages. Many natural history magazines also carry advertisements and the names of microscope stockists who will gladly give you all the information that you will need to make the right choice. A good camera body is essential but make sure there are not too many unnecessary extras. OM-1's and OM-2's are superb if you can get hold of them. Olympus no longer manufactures these superb cameras, which were ideal for microscopists and amateur astronomers. It is possible to find them in second hand shops but the supply is now beginning to dry up. Microscopes with built in cameras are a possibility but are very expensive. The microscope will probably have a reasonable selection of objectives to start with. For freshwater biology a X10, X25, X40 and possibly X63 oil immersion brightfield objectives would be very useful to begin your studies, and if possible plan or flat field would be necessary for photography. However, studying living microscopic organisms in water means that they not only move across the field of view but also up and down and this means that what you photograph will probably be in the centre of the field of view so the periphery will not matter too much. Phase contrast will help see detail that would normally be invisible on single cell microbes and is therefore worth considering. Differential interference contrast microscopy is another useful tool but very expensive. Learning how to set up the microscope is the most important aspect of taking good photographs and should be mastered as soon as possible.

Two different species of Closterium (Desmid) taken with differential interference contrast. X250

In order to learn how to print with any skill takes quite a lot of practice and the best place to start is the local camera club. Here you will learn all the basics of darkroom techniques from the experts. It is with in these clubs that you can learn how to do basic printing in both b&w and colour. It may be possible for you to build your own darkroom at a later date. There is no easy way to learn any of these techniques that have been mentioned above, the only way is by plenty of practice and making sure that you keep notes of everything that you do. You will improve.

This is a photograph of a string of bacteria photographed with DIC. The image was cleaned up with Photoshop just to remove most of the extraneous background. X500

Digital Cameras and CCTV.

Photography through the microscope can be time consuming as well as expensive. Sometimes the biology is forgotten and the quest for the best possible image takes over so you need to be sure what you really want to get out of your photography. The images are taken with 35mm film which can be either 64 tungsten or 160 tungsten depending on what contrast enhancement I am using. The slide film is then sent off for processing and any slides that I like are mounted ready for scanning. I use a Nikon LS-4000 slide scanner, which gives very good results. Many of my images are put straight into Photoshop so I can make any changes to contrast, colour or whatever. When images are to be viewed just for pleasure and possible identification then I think it is acceptable to alter the image by deleting certain parts of the photograph or enhancing certain detail, so that it stands out readily and can be easily identified by the novice.

This photograph is of the onion cell that most of us at some time or another have seen with our first microscopes. This photograph was taken with a X40 DIC objective on a Leitz Orthoplan with a Nikon 4500 digital camera attached to the trinocular head.

I have recently bought a JVC colour camera TK-C1481which as a half-inch chip with 480 TV lines and also a 14 inch JVC monitor TM-H140PN with 750 TV lines, these are linked up to a S-VHS recorder which gives superb colour pictures. I have now made superb footage in bright field, darkfield, phase contrast and differential interference contrast. I must admit this was not a cheap option but money is for spending and you only come this way once. The beauty of this set up is that now I can video what I see and then re run the tape to make more observations and also pick up things that I may have missed. It is also very useful when trying to explain to some one exactly what you saw because you have the scenario at hand and can be viewed by other people who may be able to put some answers to your questions and queries.I use Pinnacle studio deluxe 8, which gives me professional capabilities for editing video. It also comes with its own break out box so you no longer have to keep going round the back swapping cables every two minutes. It also comes with fire wire plus s-vhs connections plus cables and also enough special effects to keep you busy for years to come. I must stress that you should have a reasonably up to date computer running fairly fast. I bought a second desktop hard drive that is only used for my video files, which can be very large and take up huge amounts of your main hard drive. Again make sure that you use USB 2 or a fire wire cable other wise you find download times are very long. I can make DVD , VHS, S-VHS ,VCD and S-VCD so there is plenty of room to manoeuvre.
I have recently gone over to digital photography but still prefer to use the 35mm format, which gives excellent results The Nikon coolpix 4500 is a 4 megapixel camera and the results are very good even when printing at A4. The advantage of this method is that the results can be seen in seconds by simply downloading the files onto the hard drive and then using Photoshop to sharpen up the image, change the colour cast or what ever. The coolpix camera screws onto the front of one of my Leitz periplan eyepieces and can be used on any microscope by just inserting the ocular into the tube and taking the photograph, it's that simple. Printing as never been easier and many photo quality printers can now be bought for between £100-£200 and with the right paper can give outstanding results. However, there is a down side to this type of printing in that a few refills of ink can almost cost has much as a new printer.

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I mainly use a Leitz Orthoplan with brightfield, phase, darkfield and differential interference contrast, it also has an Orthomat camera attached to it so taking photographs is very easy and also exposure times are greatly simplified with this set-up. My other main microscope is a Zeiss photomicroscope 111 with bright field, phase and darkfield enhancement. The camera is also built in which again makes photography that much simpler. I must admit that being in the right place at the right time does have its advantages and to buy this lot from a lab today would cost a small fortune. I have repaired and restored these microscopes to pristine condition, which again took me quite a long time but was well worth the effort. Many of these microscopes are now coming onto the market because of their age and care must be taken to actually test out what you are going to buy because not all of the microscopes will have been looked after. Be particularly vigilant when looking at the objectives, these take a severe battering in many labs especially the oil immersion lenses. Spares for these microscopes will be very scarce and will not be available from Zeiss or Leitz, so you may need to hunt around to pick something up that may be missing or broken on the microscope of your choice.

With the advent of cheap computers,printers,scanners and other peripherals the sky is the limit. With your new found skills you can design your own web pages and incorporate your own photographs for all the world to see. You can exchange ideas with all the other people who are interested in your speciality. It must be said that computer software such as photo shop will not make a good print from a poor quality negative. It is important to learn how to implement the use of filters and also how the development of film can affect the finished product.The use of Photoshop to enhance or change a photograph is quite acceptable in my view for posting up on the web; just as long as your audience is informed that you have done so. For scientific publications in journals any attempt at altering the photograph should be resisted except for contrast, sharpness and colour cast.

All the images on these pages are copyrighted to Stephen Durr (unless otherwise stated) and permission must be sought from the owner of the images if they are to be incorporated into articles or documents that will be published.