Atelier Bonryu(E)
ultraviolet photography
Laboratory: Ultraviolet Photography
Features of Ultraviolet Photography
- Nectar Guides of Flowers
As an infrared (IR) landscape photograph looks extraordinary because green leaves of trees reflect the IR light strongly and now the IR digital IR photography is opening up a new field of the photographic art. On the other hand, though the chances of the UV photography are high, at present application fields of the UV photographs are limited only to the academic researches, the investigation of cultural resources, and the forensic investigations. Among them the UV photographs of flowers give us a chance to see the flowers through eyes of insects, because the wavelength range which some insects extend to the UV region. Therefore, it is an interesting application even apart from the academic researches. Though, as described previously, a photograph taken by using a filter for the UV photography should be confirmed that it is really a UV photograph and not an IR photograph, a UV photograph of a flower may confirm it as a unique pattern of flower assures that the photograph is really taken by the UV light.
Bull's eye and nectar guide: An entomophilous flower makes an "advertising campaign" so that the flower can be caught out from long distance by pollinating insects and the insects are guided to the nectar of the flower. These are special pattern of petals of flowers, and the former is called a bull's eye and the latter is called a nectar guide.
Though usually a bull's eye means a target of archery, shooting, or bombing, in the case of the UV photography it means a circular pattern of the center of a flower which can be easily recognized from a long distance by insects. The nectar guide is a signpost by which an insect arriving at the petal can got of a honeyed place. There are bull's eyes and nectar guides which can be seen by the visible light too. For example, the upper one of five petals of an azalea has a nectar guide of a pattern of spots which can be seen by a visible light. Actually a honeyed place is at the butt of the petal. Here, of course, we think of the patterns which are seen by the UV light.
