Ultraviolet-Induced Visible Fluorescence (UVIVF)
Experimental Ultraviolet-Induced Visible Fluorescence (UVIVF) with Specimen butterflies, and home grown Orchid. Looking into multispectral Photography and how butterflies see the world different to humans, Using UV professional light Sony Full frame camera and Macro lens. With long exposures e.g. 30secs looking at the plans or specimen butterflies. Capturing natural (bulb on this occasion as bad weather outside) light as a comparison. Trying different flowers / butterflies an plants as well as feathers to see the spectrum of colours and patterns usually unsee to the human eye,
Blue Tiger Butterfly UV IVF Underneath
Blue Tiger Butterfly UV IVF light
Blue Tiger Butterfly normal light
White Orchid Large Normal Light
White Orchid Large Normal Light
White Orchid Large Normal Light
White Orchid Large UV Ivf Light
White Orchid Large UV Ivf Light Jan 26
I love the otherworldly look of these images. It was long process with very long exposures and expensive lights. my cameras mainly Sony Mirror less A6 and macro lens, seem to work fine and it was a good patient experience sometimes taking your time gives you time to think about the image you want rather than just snapping away takes it back to a more analog experience each image being fascinating if it even comes out like watching it appear in the developing tray.
Also building the area for my specimens and plants to be in when I photograph them was interesting. I very much like aesthetic working creating my image.
This was a winter project as I couldn’t photograph much in in the weather that we have here in the UK. However, I do photograph winter scenes but I decided to look into Home studio and setting up my own Stage for my ultraviolet Photography.
Crossing over into science is something I am interested in however this is a visual project however it’s very hard not to cross into scientific aspects including my research with microscopes and digital microscope Photography which is something I am planning to do in the next six months. Possibly another winter project. I like the way that using Photography we can look into another world that we can’t see on a daily basis creating an environment that may show humans how insect in the world is fascinating idea for me and looking forward to create my story which will be of how my work could help change the future in some small wave of the butterfly habitat in the UK and Help with their decline.
Ultraviolet camera trials May June 2026
Trying out my camera in fields in the sunshine and local flowers in my garden seeing the colours and the images and how they look for us has been very interesting. In the countryside and different types of day I noticed you get more ultraviolet light that hits the plants or possibly even heats up the flower so it is even brighter seeing how butterflies would see this as very attractive in their eyes which consist of 1000 cones with up to 1 megapixel worth of clarity but having thousand of them means they can use them to look at the light which would be the butterflies food flowers and plant that they lay their eggs on as well as seeing their butterfly mates, this is where the patterns are quite prevalent for them so they can see each other, and hopefully see their predators, including birds, spiders and aphids and other large insects.
