Please Pardon the Mess

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It is not so much that my studio is a mess (it definitely is) or that my car ought to get a wash before I drive it 9,000 miles to Illinois, it is my calendar that is a mess. But I will take care of cleaning that up and will give you my very abbreviated version. This week we have Macro Talk on Tuesday at 8PM - it is going to be interesting, I hope. I am a Scotsman, by the way.It is a true fact and one of the only ones you will here in that stream…

You have to admit, my cover art can be quite creative

Should you wish to join me before I head over to my old stomping grounds, follow this link tomorrow at 8PM - https://youtube.com/live/Fi1cqD-c8V8?feature=share

Weird little wasp

Thursday we have Macro Talk Too, when I give the most complete history of Iceland that I have ever given on a livestream before. Also the only one I have ever given and I prepared for it by looking at a map, getting distracted by the size of Greenland and giving up. Don’t believe me…

Another nice piece of cover art!

You want to become an instant scholar of Iceland, then follow this link at 2PM on Thursday… https://youtube.com/live/pyprG9FACS8?feature=share

The minute I sign off, I am gone - it won’t be for long but it will feel like an eternity because I have not taken a holiday in six years. I was going to try to deliver content from the road, but the itinerary has not been set by me, so I don’t know that it would even have been possible. So I will not be doing a livestream on Tuesday 3/26, or Thursday 3/28, or Tuesday 4/2. BUT - I will be posting a video at 8PM on Tuesday and we will be doing a livestream results presentation on Thursday 4/4 for the March contest - “Book Cover”. The only other thing I will miss is the next Pzoom which would have been on the 30th, were I not traveling. I will be back for the next Pzoom and everything else that happens after April 3, 2024.

 

Things to look forward to when I get back:

1) a deep dive into the new Lighting system from Novoflex and Optolux - the amazing Solis Mono, Solis Trio, and Solis Focus that I have been working with non-stop for the last several days. I will show you the first image that I captured using this gorgeous light setup and a picture of the device (one of the devices, actually)…

The Optolux Solis makes it debut with a weevil shot!

And the system itself…

What a gorgeous piece of engineering this is!

Another thing that I have been working on is a comprehensive guide to crystal birefringence. I have not done it in years, but got hold of some chemicals and polarizing sheets and got busy. But please remember that these are only my very first efforts with the technique - I hope they will improve in time. And as you look at the next few shots, remember this, they are almost 2-dimension crystals on a flat glass slide. Mind blowing stuff…

Don’t ask me what they are crystals of, vit C in alcohol, I think

This going to be a lot of fun to explore together - some of the stuff I have been using, if you want to play along includes:

As solvents I have tried water, alcohol, xylene, toluene, acetone, and petrol. Some work great some don’t. I 3D printed a very cool adjustable polarizing sleeve for the novoflex lights and I will show that in an upcoming livestream. You will absolutely need a few sheets of this…

but shop around for the best quality and price. You will want to get some eye droppers and some glass sliders, and that is it.

One last thing - the first livestream after my return is on 4/4/24 but as I will be traveling I won’t be able to post a link, so I did it already and here it is…

And that is it - I am done and need to get back to editing your video, writing livestreams and everything else I don’t have time to get to! See you tomorrow.