On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 22:19:33 -0500, Mark Cassino <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I went out Friday and visited a place where like to take landscape shots. > My main goal was to test stuff out - the 67 55mm f4, Classic Pan 200 (the > 120 film back after a production hiatus), and the Ricoh TLR I recently got > off eBay. While tramping through the woods I noticed a bunch of snow fleas, > so I set up with the *ist-D and the highest magnification setup I had on > hand - a Kiron 105mm f2.8 macro and roughly 85mm of extension tubes. > > These little critters are amazing - the run around in the snow in freezing > temps. They are not fleas, but rather springtails (when they shoot off on > their tails they move in a rather flea-like manner, so their name makes > sense.) They are a little bigger than real fleas, i.e. averaging 1.5 mm in > length. The tubes and the macro lens at closest focusing gave me decent > magnification, though this image is cropped and the springtail is a bit > small within it. It would of been nice to have gotten closer, but there are > limits to what you can do in the field. > > http://www.markcassino.com/temp/peso/IMGP8697.jpg > > I was happy to see them as I had, till now, only read about them. > Interestingly, they were only around one fallen tree, though I tramped by > many a log on the way back to get them with the *ist-D. > > As for the main mission - the 67 55 f4 is fabulous, the reissued Classic Pan > is indeed faithful to the old (exact exposure / development times as used > with the older version worked great) and the Ricoh TLR is a gas. >
Cool shot! (no pun intended) I've never heard of snow fleas, or if I have, I've forgotten about them. I didn't know there were any insects or arthropods (or whatever that is) that lived in such cold environments. I learned something new today. Quite an amazing photo, too. Geez, photographing something that small seems to me quite a feat! cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
