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Exciting Digitization Project: “Insects and Plants – A Living Theater”

Dr. Edward S. Ross traveled the world collecting and photographing insects for over 60 years.  These trips were supported by the National Geographic Society, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the California Academy of Sciences where he chaired the Entomology Department for 40 years. In addition to discovering many new species, he also pioneered the field of on-location 35mm macro photography.

Dr. Ross began working on this book almost ten years ago, but ran into many roadblocks along the way.  One challenge was the need for scanning 500 35mm slides with enough detail to capture the color and beauty of these insects.  Digital files were needed that were ready for the printing press, but it was also important to retain archival files.  Because many of the slides had stains and dirt embedded in the emulsion, it also meant considerable retouching to make the images look perfect.

We did high resolution scanning on our Hasselblad X5 equipment to capture all the detail in the slides. This allowed us to provide the best possible quality files to the Ross family for their archive, to do the extensive retoucing, and to produce multiple derivative files needed by the designer and publisher for printing the book.

Dr. Ed Ross at work:

 

Cover photo: "Provoked female mantis rears up"