You can read more info here:

This a page of interesting information that I found on cataloguing biological specimens

Interesting URLs:

http://www.ala.org.au/faq/species-identification/identification-keys  identification key systems

http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/Occurrence   info on cataloguing data on biological specimens

Here is a quick snapshot of a work in progress.  So far I have taken over 2000 photographs of the 32 odd beetles displayed below.  Using my Macro Rig, I try and take three sets of 21 odd photographs of each beetle, one on it's side, top and bottom.  I then use the wonderful CombineZP software to combine a stack of photos into one photograph.  See my Macro Rig project for some examples of this. 

I have had an interest in Australia's diverse range of insects since the mid 1980's.  This really blossomed in 1993 when we moved back from living oversea to live in Western Australia.  Suddenly I became a lot more aware of Austrlaian flora and fauna.  In the Entomological world, my main interests have been in spiders and lately, beetles.

As mentioned in the Macro Rig project pages, In 2012, I have been helping a friend photograph and identify some beetles from the Capel and Busselton regions of Western Australia.

Unknown beetle from around Capel.  Some sections are still out of focus. 

unknown beetle from around Capel 2012.  Note the haloing effect from movement in one or more of the beetle photographs, compared with the others.

unknown beetle from around Capel - 2012

Part 1 of this project talks about the initial project concept and testing.  Part 2 goes into building the Macro Prototype Rig.  This blog post describes some of the electronics that operate the rig.