First try at collecting footage of the ‘Glasgow Sleeps’ cinematography project. This is footage of Glasgow at night filmed in April 2012. Key landmarks such as Mitchell Library, Clyde Arc Bridge and the SECC are included in this video. Buchannan St, Sauchiehall St, Barrowlands and George Square are due to be filmed by the end of May.
I bet few people have stopped in their busy lives and asked themselves, “How do spiders drink?”. Today, I asked myself that question. – luckily I have a blue tarantula handy.
Now, most animals have similar mouths. Jaw, teeth, tongue, and most insects have similar features. Spiders however, are rather more alien.
They have a V shaped opening which they can move about. It’s covered in special narrow hairs which attract water – like how water soaks into the micro holes in tissue paper.
We know that spiders have 2 fangs, but what you probably don’t know is that on the back of these fangs are rigid bumps, which the spider uses as teeth, to grind down food.
Spiders never eat any solids, everything must be broken down and dissolved into liquid. After this the spider sucks up the moisture through the micro hairs towards a tiny opening at the bottom of the V-shape mouth.
This is only my basic understanding of what goes on, it’s actually rather complicated. If I’ve made any mistakes please leave a comment.
I’ve been working on a new project. The main goal is to create a showreel of Glasgow at night – I’ve dubbed the project “Glasgow Sleeps”. So far I’ve been collecting stock footage from landmarks around the city. I’ve also done a couple of early morning sessions including filming Glasgow ‘waking up’ from 4am to 6am. As always, photos from the project are ready first. I’m doing some advanced post-processing on the videos, which takes some time. For now I will post a couple of teasers.
Here is some early footage from an on-going project to film miniature life in my garden. Snails, Worms, Beetles, Woodlouse and more…
I also filmed some experimental slow-motion footage of a hoverfly.
Dustmites are incredibly tiny. You can fit more than a few through the hole of a needle!
You’ll be glad to hear you won’t find this spider in your garden in Britain. This is an Avicularia Versicolour, or commonly called the Pinktoe tarantula. Previously I have taken photos of the Pinktoe’s feet and discovered how the micro-hairs caused diffraction of light (a rainbow). I have since focused on filming which is still on-going.
These dustmites were trapped when they fell into a bottle cap filled with water.
The object just off-centre is a dustmite struggling to get back on it’s feet.
I don’t currently have an ID on this beetle yet, but the details were hypnotic.
How long can you stare at a spider’s foot without getting bored? Apparently I can do that for a some time, as I found out today.
The Spider’s toes aren’t actually green. Micro hairs used for grip on the spider’s toes are so finely arranged that they refract light hitting them into a spectrum – think rainbow feet.
The slit in the middle of this toe is for the Tarantula’s claw.
Depending on the lighting, I can get the rainbow effect (below), or the natural color (above).
Among the micro hairs on the spider’s foot it is likely there are tiny silk producing structures as found recently in this report;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/13382903.
The Tarantula has 3 ways it sticks to surfaces; Micro-hairs, The Claw, and silk glands for emergencies. Despite all these measures, if a Tarantula takes a fall there is serious risk of injury or death. Unlike small spiders, the bulk of a Tarantula makes it more vulnerable to fall.
Finally, an image stack of the toe taken from a 640×480 Movie Crop. This is the current limit of my tech, I can’t get much closer than this for now. The scale of the image is 1mm from side to side. Considering that, you can imagine how small the micro-hairs, claw and all the details are.
And my Tarantula (Avicularia versicolor) earned it’s new nickname “Rainbow Feet”
Thousands of Public Sector workers including teachers demonstrate over Pension changes in Glasgow city centre.
For more information on Ken’s campaign visit http://www.kenmacintosh.com/ Pictured below, Ken Macintosh attends the ‘Hardest Hit’ rally in Edinburgh October 22nd where he listened to voices against benefit cuts that effect disabled people. Ken Macintosh is MSP for East Renfrewshire and elected as a member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999 when the Scottish Parliament opened.
This is the Thai Zebra Tarantula. It’s an ‘Old World’ Tarantula, which means it’s not very hairy. ‘New World’ Tarantulas such as in South America have “Urticating Hairs” on their back which they can rub off, if they touch you, it stings like fiber glass cuts. So, for an Old World Tarantula like this, who don’t have any hairs to throw at you, their only other option is to strike and bite, which you can see from the posturing below with raised legs.
