'Ancient Tones'

'Ancient Tones' is a study of the ancient human-altered (anthropogenic) landscape, initially as part of my MA Photography study at the Arts' University of Bournemouth (AUB). The hand-printed enlargements on Bergger, Foma and Ilford papers are toned in order to incorporate additional (chemical) elements to represent the epochs of the subjects. For landscapes covering several ages, I am using selective and split toning techniques. In this way, I seek to link my images to the people who dwelled  on the land in ancient times. I took most of the photographs around the Cranborne Chase National Landscape, using Hasselblad and Linhof medium format cameras with Ilford Pan F+ film. Because of the special processing and toning, each finished photograph is a unique and unusual print. 

For web display, the prints were scanned and the images here may not convey the fine nuances of the  original works.

The original prints are available for purchase and would make a fine collection for anyone with a keen interest in traditional photography, archaeology, fine art or the beautiful landscape of this part of our World.  

Commissions for individual hand prints are also welcome.

Please use the form on the Contact page. Thank you.

Bronze Age Barrows at Handley Down, toned with Copper

Field with Barrows above Pimperne

Badbury Rings from Ackling Dyke, multiple toners

Henge, Knowlton

Barrows on the skyline from Hod Hill

Great Barrow, Knowlton: Bronze Age, copper toned

Ruined Norman Church within Neolithic Henge at Knowlton

Ackling Dyke crossing Cranborne Chase near Gussage St. Michael

Terminus of the Dorset Cursus on Thickthorn Down

Hambledon Hill

Three Oaks from Ackling Dyke

From Thickthorn Down towards Gussage Down

From Oakley Barrows along the valley of the Crane

Dorset Cursus on Thickthorn Down towards Farnham

Badbury Rings

Ackling Dyke at Oakley Down, toned with gold

Drove track to the Roman Road from Badbury Rings to Bath

Ackling Dyke at Bokerley

'Aerials and Antennae'

In the following paragraphs, I describe a previous photographic project...

In 2022, I was experimenting with photomicrography, i.e. taking photographs through a microscope. 

While examining the main antenna of a crane fly (or 'Daddy Long Legs') under the microscope, I noticed that it bore a resemblance to a television aerial that I had installed a few weeks before:   

Now, from antenna theory, the length of the dipole of an antenna is about the same order of magnitude (about half) of the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation (radio waves) that the antenna is designed to detect.   So, as each side piece of the TV antenna is about 45cm long, we might estimate that it is looking to capture radio waves of about  90 cm wavelength (0.9m). 

From wave physics, the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation is related to its frequency by the speed of light, C, which is 300 million metres per second:

(Frequency) = C / (wavelength)

So, using the example of the TV antenna above, we can express the operating band in terms of an equivalent frequency

(Frequency) = 300 000 000 / 0.9 = 333 000 000 

or 333 MegaHertz (MHz).

You may already know - or if you have followed the preceding paragraph, you will be able to deduce - that the larger the antenna, the longer the wavelength, and vice versa.

Returning to the photomicrograph of the crane fly antenna:
(For those who are interested in details of techniques and equipment, the photomicrograph was taken as a series of four overlapping images through a Leitz optical microscope with a 10 x photo eyepiece and 3.5x objective lens, using a Minolta SRT101 camera with the mirror locked up, on Ilford Pan F Plus film, developed in a fine grain developer, scanned on a Flextight scanner and the overlapping  images were joined together and un-skewed in Photoshop software. The skewing occurs because as the microscope slide is moved under the microscope to take the sequential overlapping images, the perspective changes as the subject shifts in relation to the camera. This is the same effect observed in aerial photo-reconnaissance as the aircraft passes over the target area. The final image was then printed on canvas and is about 12" high x 40" long  (30cm x 102cm), so it was a similar length to the TV aerial).

If the crane fly were using electromagnetic radiation for communication, navigation or finding prey, then, using the same theory as for the TV antenna and taking measurements from the photograph and factoring in the magnification, we could estimate that the insect would be using frequencies about 100 to 1000 times higher than the TV aerial, somewhere around 0.1 to 1.5 TeraHertz. (1 Tera Hertz = one million million Hertz, 1 000 000 000 000Hz). 

This is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum between 'far' Infra Red and Microwaves, known as 'The Terahertz Gap', which is at the frontier of current study because the electronic devices to create and detect Terahertz waves are recent technology.   However, we do know that some chemicals have characteristic Terahertz absorption and reflection spectra and this technique is used in some chemical and explosive detection systems...

I was wondering, 'What if insects do indeed operate in the Terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum?' and researched this further through literature study and photography. 

In their paper 'Potential Biological Principles of Hornet’s Natural RADAR,Tracking, Positioning, and Wireless Communication Systems', Gavan and Haridim describe very interesting findings suggesting that Hornets, such as Vespa Asiana and V. Crabro, navigate using a biological radar mechanism.  Their paper includes photomicrographs taken with an electron microscope of antenna-like features on the hornet.

As I did not have any hornets, I made a photomicrographic study of a common wasp, vespula vulgaris, using an optical microscope at magnifications of about 300x to 1000x life size, and found that the wasp's body is covered with tiny spikes, which disappear into cavities on the body, probably photovoltaic generators, as with the hornets described in the paper by Gavan and Haridim.  Their hypothesis was that these structures are part of a biological radar system that wasps use for navigation. I wondered whether the role of these structures may be even more complex, extending to possibly food detection and identification using a what one might call a 'biological terahertz spectrometer'. That might explain the rather direct paths that wasps and hornets can be seen to take between their nests and food sources and the rapidity with which more insects arrive once the food source has been found. For ethical considerations, only deceased specimens were used.
 
The colour photomicrographs below are of scales taken from the yellow bands on the wasps's abdomen, mounted as a microscope slide. The photographs were taken on Kodak Portra 160 film, using a Leitz microscope with a modified LED high-intensity transmitted light source and a Minolta SRT-101 camera with the reflex mirror locked up. I enlarged the negatives to A3 size using a DeVere 504 Dichromat enlarger  with a Rodenstock Apo-Rodagon N 45mm lens and printed on Fujicolor Crystal Archive Gold (RA4) paper.

I photographed some other insects, including the image below of a group of antennae on the wings of a garden bumble bee, Bombus Hortorum.  These have a similar form to  a dipolar array radio antenna.  There is a group of these on each wing, near the root. Do bees use terahertz waves to navigate and find food?

As part of this work, I also photographed different anthropogenic antennae in my local area.  We can compare these antennae with those of insects, noting their shapes, sizes and relative complexity.  While our own antennae are relatively simple structures - a few pieces of wire and metal - the insects' antennae have complex structures only partially revealed by the ordinary optical microscope. 

The question behind all of this is: Bearing in mind our reliance on insects as pollinators and as part of the natural life balance, will human exploitation of the electromagnetic spectrum encroach on those wavelengths on which insects may depend? 

If you are a researcher interested in this topic and would like to discuss it, please contact me using the form on the CONTACT page.

Reference: 
Gavan, J. and Haridim. M., 2017. Hornet Biological Radar for Detection,Tracking, Direction Finding, and Long Distance Communication:Is this Possible?. The Radioscience Bulletin, Issue 360, pp. 50-59.

Photographs

'Ancient Tones'

'Aerials and Antennae'