The Dancing Wavelengths Eupholus Bennetti by Weston James Bell-Geddes
Honorable - Natural Category
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School: Viewpoint School
Teacher: Nancy Argano-Rush
The subject of my photo, the eupholus bennetti (blue), derives its color from the very small scales located all over the beetle. To see the many wavelengths created by the scales, the beetle must be photographed through a 10x microscope lens which has a very short depth of field. The small depth of field would cause the top and bottom of the body to not be in focus at the same time in a single photo. A stackshot program was used to stack hundreds of photos of the bug on top of each other. Each photo produced only a very small section of the bug in focus. The compiled picture you see here is approximately 6,800 pictures that have been stacked on top of each other and then layered together to only see the focused region. This creates one image of the majestic beetle that can be scaled to fit onto an entire wall, while still preserving perfect resolution. This way, a viewer can see the immense detail nature possesses.
