Updated: Apr 16, 2022
As part of my Master's research, I was fortunate to be a part of an archaeological excavation at Petra. They say that memories are the best souvenirs and I found myself taking home an unexpected one. Artifacts aren't the only thing that lives in soil. At some point during the field season I had unknowingly picked up some parasitic intruders. Spending a day in the field house having all fluids forcefully evacuate my body followed by nearly two months of diarrhea which spanned a 13-hour international flight and a significantly prolonged lay-over in the O’Hare airport is definitely a memory I won’t soon forget.
I really was okay with the scarf…
A lot of my research involves putting a bit of bone on some kind of platform, and then taking photos of it.
The particular types of photos, the equipment used, and the purpose of these photos varies. Sometimes, they really are just photos, taken with a regular point-and-shoot-camera, or even a cellphone. In some cases, there needs to be incredible consistency and as minimal movement as possible between shots. Other times, I’ve used a digital microscope, which involves carefully placing and trying to stabilize the sample while zooming in as close as possible to the interesting segment. I’ve also used a micro-CT scanner, which is a little more complex, but still essentially gives you a way to take photos of an object (those “photos” involve x-rays, and can be used to make 3D models, but still).
Whether you’re using your phone, or $100 000 equipment, mounting and securing samples so that you get the view you want can be challenging. Spending an hour perfectly placing a skull and lining up the exact view you want, only to have it wobble (thus distorting your images) at the slightest rotation of the platform is pretty frustrating. And so, to help out anyone else who might be struggling with similar issues, here is a list of everything I’ve ever used to mount, secure, or prepare bone samples for any kind of photography/image analysis.
Masking tape
Duct tape
Double-sided tape
Toilet paper tubes
Bean bags
Floral foam
Styrofoam coffee cups
A homemade turntable made out of poster board, a cereal box, and cardboard
A rotating plastic cake stand that worked much better than the homemade turntable
A paper cutting mat
Fish gravel
A camera lens cap to hold the fish gravel
A takeout container to also hold the fish gravel
Foam stickers in the shape of flowers
White bed sheets/pillow cases
A 4x8 foot black velvet backdrop
Play-doh