You like me! You really like me!
Yesterday’s short video clip of maggots has turned out to be surprisingly popular, second only to my most recent video about Jordan Peterson. This means that I seem to have found my YouTube niche: making videos about horrible, repulsive creatures that make viewers want to vomit. I’ve also gotten requests to make more. This was not expected.
Making more Jordan Peterson videos is too much for my stomach, so now I’m thinking about ways to lower a good camera into the slime pit without risking wrecking a good lens. Maybe a cheap old kit lens with some extension tubes? I’m also going to have to puzzle out a way to adapt a tripod to look downward, because I don’t want to do it hand-held for a half hour.
You never know when someone might want some good quality B-roll of maggots, you know!
Use an “inspection camera”. These are a small camera on the end of a flexible cable with a USB connector. They are cheap, you can literally shove it right into the slop, and many of them are waterproof.
We want videos of Jordan Peterson being lowered into a maggot pit.
Might not be safe for the maggots though.
I don’t want to spend money on it!
Get one of those cameras they use in colonoscopies. If it can survive that environment, dipping it into a pile of maggots should be a walk in the park.
Emetics have a long history of health benefit. While some of the benefit is probably fanciful there are times when it’s necessary. I think we’re living in one now, so more maggots is ok. If you add Peterson, Hannity, Carlson, Murdoch, the Koch brothers, the “conservative” (nee “reactionary”) members of SCOTUS, and Chump, all the better.
If you want videos of scary disgusting critters I know plenty of links to the ongoing tory power struggle.
And we are likely to see much more of Ron deSantis and Ted Cruz.
How about a timelapse with a very well-fed spider?
The writhing is on a roll!
WTF? The maggot video has now surpassed the Jordan Peterson video.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I know which one I’d rather watch.
@3
You likely wouldn’t have to. I know I would volunteer to help.
Are you sure your tripod doesn’t flip downward?
Cheap filters are the answer. Extension tubes go between the camera body and the lens itself; as such, it will decidedly not keep the lens clean. They will also reduce the available light (most of them come in one and two stop difference lengths; some come in greater lengths than that.) They can also introduce chromatic aberrations and other lens artifacts. Cheap filters are usually less than $20 (some are less than $10, be afraid of what you might get for $10 or less).
Canon makes a true 1:1 macro 180 mm lens AND a twin head macro flash. Makes a lovely gift to oneself. Just saying.
It can also be used outside for those spider expeditions… you’d be amazed at how close you can get.
I have the Tamron version myself.
If you get good at it Trent Reznor might hire you for a side gig making Nine Inch Nails videos. Sounds like his sort of niche.
You could also check with your local gastroenterology folks. They toss quite functional fiber optical units on a regular basis and they’re fairly easily cleaned and sanitized.
@15 yes, but how good is the image quality from the fiber optics cameras? Most of the images I’ve ever seen are fairly low res, shallow depth-of-field. Not something I’d want to see, a movie shot on fiber optic. Sure, it’s fine for surgical options but it is definitely not movie quality images… not even as good as you’d get with a decent smartphone camera, which is really kind of saying something.
Maybe screw your camera to a long board, put on a kit lens, and wrap everything except the part of the lens that moves with Saran wrap. Then carefully lower it.
I am fine with spider videos but the maggots get a hard pass from me. If forced to choose, I prefer shudder inducing maggots than anything by JP. At least the maggots are rendering a valuable public service of transforming rotting organic matter into garden fertilizer.
@17 NO.
The lens, whether fixed, telephoto or zoom has sealed lens elements, some of them include noble gases for light correction purposes. Saran wrap is insufficient to keep out moisture, which will not only gather on the lens but will also encourage the growth of mold & mildew on the lens, which aside from making the lens dirty, will eventually eat away the lens coating and pit the lens itself.
As far a lowering the camera into the compost pit/crate, has anyone actually considered a boom? A small one on a light stand is fairly affordable. Hang sandbag weights on the stand & the opposite end of the boom arm for stability.
If it is grotesque biology you want, occasionally check out the “Parasite Of The Day” website. What intelligent designer designed these little horrors and why? Why these painful, nasty, evil things? Christian: “Because original sin. No parasites existed until Adam and Eve sinned and forced God to create parasites! Its all your fault!”
What parasites are known to plague spiders?
Why make more repulsive video when we already have Fox,Newsmax and OAN?
@20 tarantula wasps.
and insect pox viruses.
Sorry, forgot to add before posting.
Mites, funguses, and nemotodes. Poor spiders!
I didn’t watch the video but I had the same in my compost bin in the Arctic. Everything thawed at once so there was a surfeit of food and water — much more than bacteria could handle (normally a compost bin is not full of bugs).