Nature In The Spotlight – Photographer Snaps Insects And Plants Under UV lights

Don Komarechka/Instagram

This is nature under a completely different spotlight. Taken in a pitch black studio with ultraviolet lights, the vivid images show beautiful flowers and pollen-covered insects in a strange fluorescent light.

The altered lighting shows up stunning patterns on a dragonfly’s wings and leaves insects’ and spiders’ eyes glowing bright blue. Plants also take on a more sinister shade, radiating a deep purple against the black background. Don Komarechka (previously), from Barrie, Canada, took the photos in a specially configured studio in his back garden.

More info: Don Komarechka, Instagram, 500px, Flickr

Five Drops: A simple water droplet refraction image with very little done in post – just basic adjustments and cropping. Shot with the new @lumixcan GX9. 1:1 macro on m4/3 is interesting, as the perceived magnification increase negates the need for extension tubes. #waterdroplets #lumix #refraction #mft #droplets #macro #macrophotography #water #gerbera #floral #nature #science #lens #waterlens #petal #vibrant #GX9

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Feb 22, 2018 at 5:50pm PST

Blooming Fireworks – Ornithogalum dubium, also known as “Sun Star” or “Star of Bethlehem” flower. Shot with intense UV-only light to get it to fluoresce into the visible spectrum. Amazing how nature can glow! #UV #ultraviolet #fluorescence #science #physics #macro #flower #floral #macrophotography #trioplan #trioplan100

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Jan 31, 2018 at 6:38pm PST

Spirit of the Christmas Rose – this UV image was shot with my prototype UV lighting arm from @Adaptalux – really impressed with the results. Their Kickstarter has less than two days left! Look it up if you’re curious :) #uv #ultraviolet #fluorescent #flower #christmasrose #buttercup #trioplan #trioplan100 #plant #nature #glowing

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Dec 29, 2017 at 6:34pm PST

Glow of the Winter Blossom – my snowflake project is now every other day as I make room for other experiments, like this! These flowers were shot with a Trioplan 100 for the softness and the bokeh, and lit with a prototype of the new Adaptalux UV lighting arm currently on Kickstarter. You should check it out if you’re a fan of this kind of work! #uv #ultraviolet #fluorescence #glowing #flower #nature #bokeh #adaptalux #adaptaluxlighting #adaptaluxexperiment #macro #macrophotography

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Dec 26, 2017 at 5:16pm PST

Glow of the Cicada 2 – more than a year after I found my first cicada and photographed it in ultraviolet fluorescence, I found another one. This time posed on a cluster of stonecrop flowers, this little creature was remarkably cooperative. She's a female Dog-day Cicada, and she glows. #uv #uvivf #ultraviolet #cicada #fluorescent #macro #macrophotography #glowing #insect #neotibicen #neotibicencanicularis

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Sep 14, 2017 at 11:47am PDT

Allium Starburst – one of my new favourite UV fluorescing images: a flowering wild onion. It's amazing how the plain white flowers take on otherworldly colours when you get them to fluoresce! The world is more magical than we give it credit for. :) #macro #macrophotography #uv #ultraviolet #fluorescent #fluorescence #science #physics #glowing #allium #onion #flower #nature #glow #magic #trioplan100

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Sep 9, 2017 at 2:55pm PDT

Through the Looking Glass – a ladybug gazing through a water droplet that's refracting an image of a Gerbera Daisy. A lot of moving parts to get an image like this to work! #macro #macrophotography #ladybug #waterdrops #droplet #refraction #science #insect #nature #pink #flower #flowers #trioplan100

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Sep 5, 2017 at 12:06pm PDT

Sunflower Spectrums – how many ways can you perceive a flower? Infrared, visible light, and UV reflectance run along the bottom, and the big image is magical in UV fluorescence. Science meets art and makes me feel humble because of the narrow view of the world we see with our own eyes. #science #uv #ultraviolet #ir #infrared #flower #sunflower #fluorescing #fluorescent #uvivf #glowing #floral #nature #bloom #blooming #physics #spectrum

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Aug 25, 2017 at 7:35pm PDT

Angel Wings: this Monarch Butterfly was found dead on the sidewalk a few minutes from home. Some careful posing on a coneflower and UV fluorescing pigment to bring it back to life, and this image is made. Thoughts? #butterfly #monarchbutterfly #macro #macrophotography #uv #ultraviolet #uvivf #nature #echinacea

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Aug 18, 2017 at 6:35pm PDT

Midnight Dancer – an ultraviolet fluorescent shot of a flower and a spider, shot at night in my garden. Technically an incredibly challenging image to make, and I love such challenges. :) #color #UV #ultraviolet #fluorescent #UVIVF #macro #glowing #nature #spider #flower #vibrancy #blooming

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Jul 3, 2017 at 9:23am PDT

Gazing into Vibrancy – a green immigrant leaf weevil floating about on a flower. What is better than this? Shot in my studio this evening as I explored some leftover ideas after a private 1-on-1 workshop throughout the weekend. #macro #macrophotography #weevil #reflection #floating #flower #trioplan100 #trioplan #insects #life #vibrancy #color

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Jun 25, 2017 at 5:56pm PDT

Emerald Feast – a ladybug and a colony of aphids photographed in intense UV light with the camera recording the visible light that fluoresced back. In regular light, the leaf and the aphids are the same colour! #ladybug #uv #ultraviolet #fluorescent #glowing #nature #macrophotography #macro #beetle #science #physics #discovery

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Jun 11, 2017 at 7:34am PDT

Bold Jumping Spider like you've never seen before. Photographed in ultraviolet light and captured the visible light that fluoresce, this #UVIVF (#ultraviolet induced visible #fluorescence) image shows what parts of a spider glows under intense UV-only light. #macro #macro #spider #glowing #arachnids #mirror #reflection

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Jun 1, 2017 at 4:41pm PDT

Jumping spider on an orchid, shot in UV light fluorescing to give us these glowing colours. Magic? Maybe. It's a staged shot but not a composite in any way. Jumping spiders are VERY HARD to pose! #macro #macrophotography #ultraviolet #UV #fluorescent #orchid #spider #nature #glowing #flower #trioplan #trioplan100 #canon1dxmarkii

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on May 21, 2017 at 5:20pm PDT

Christmas Rose shot with UV light to capture its fluorescence, with the beautiful bokeh created with a powder that also fluoresces! The upper left is the UV flash, illuminating this image shot with a 15mm fisheye lens with a12mm extension tube. Hard to use this way, set to infinity focus and only getting a few millimeters away from the front element!

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Apr 25, 2017 at 9:29pm PDT

Scilla flowers fluorescing under intense UV-only light. The pollen and petals of many flowers fluoresce, these guys have a magical quality about them. :) #physics #ultraviolet #UV #opcmag #fluorescent #glowing #scilla #flowers #spring #purple #pollen

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Apr 16, 2017 at 6:29pm PDT

Want to lean how to make magical water droplet refraction images like this? I hold a number of workshops on the subject, and over three hours you'll learn everything you need to know to produce images like this! Check them out at www.donkom.ca/workshops/

A post shared by Don Komarechka (@donkomphoto) on Mar 26, 2017 at 8:42am PDT