Macro ants – no circus tricks though!

[Dennis]

Hello,

Motivated by Mike’s post on the Russian guy who has some amazing ant compositions, I thought I’d go out and try to photograph some ants myself. It was hard!:help:

These guys move quickly and their glossy, black bodies don’t handle flash illumination very well. I tried the manual focus MP-E65 and gave up after a couple of hours with only one keeper.:(

I then tried the trusty old 100mm F2.8 on auto focus and managed to at least have the ant in focus, although getting one centred in the frame was still horrendously difficult compared to the slow moving beetles and spiders I have been shooting of late.:)

So, here are the fruits of my labour; not all pretty and with a few technical/technique problems but I guess practice will (eventually!) make perfect!;)

Cheers

Dennis

[asimov]

Well, you won't catch me in this part of the forum unless something special catches my eye - Consider both eyes glued to the screen:eyepop: Superb Dennis!!:thumbsup:

[troypiggo]

Great stuff, mate. Always cracks me up when they're in that pose with abdomen scrunched underneath pointing forwards. For some reason it makes me think of a dog in heat. What they're doing, I understand, is spreading pheromones when they do that.

[iceman]

Absolutely incredible Dennis! Those ants are 10 ft tall!

[Osirisra]

Nice shots!
Ants sure are not the easiest bug to shoot but are very rewarding when you do get a good shot of them, so many different species of different sizes and types to choose. You never have to search real hard to find them either, everyone's got some ants! :)

[sheeny]

Great work Dennis!

Al.

[DavidU]

#8 is a corker !

[Dennis]

Thanks for looking guys – I appreciate your comments.

Cheers

Dennis

[Deeno]

Whoa!
Scary yet......... strangely beautiful

Can only admire your patience

[mplanet62]

Fantastic work! Slightly more on the technique, please... Camera, tripod, etc?
Thanks!

[acropolite]

Agree with all of the above, just as I prefer candid shots to posed, I prefer these to the Circus images. Exceptional work, as usual Dennis.

[Dennis]

Thank you Deeno, Michael & Phil, I appreciate your comments.

@Michael: The EXIF data is embedded in the file and is shown in the attached screen print. The camera was tripod mounted as the branch was swaying in the (non-existent!) breeze so I held it with my left hand and then took shots when an ant raced into frame.

I have dozens of frames with the ant head entering, or the ant rear end departing the frame, with a few lucky ones of the ant towards centre frame reasonably well exposed.:)

Set up as shown here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=61723)in msg#9.

Cheers

Dennis

[mplanet62]

Thanks! :thumbsup:

[gary]

Hi Dennis,

Absolutely superb! Fabulous work!

As a side note, a few years ago at the local Borders Bookstore (alas, now closed,
a victim of online book stores), I had the pleasure of encountering a 732 tome
entitled "The Ants" by Bert Holldobler and Edward O. Wilson.

Written for the serious academic, this exhaustively detailed and richly illustrated work
represented the distillation of just about everything that is known about ants.
It included thousands of anatomical drawings, photographs, a 50 page key to ant
classification, detailed studies of their social organization and so on.

The pleasure in turning the pages of this book, despite it being a book
one would never likely would buy unless one was a myrmecologist, was
that it was not only a celebration of these amazing creatures but at once
a celebration of the human intellect in compiling such a work.

Little wonder that in 1991 it won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non Fiction.
The only professional science work to ever win the prize.

Amazon page here -
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ants-Bert-Holldobler/dp/0674040759/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332569308&sr=1-1#_

Interview of Wilson and Holldobler here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkqNqBZmnVk

[Dennis]

Thanks Gary, I appreciate your detailed and informative post on the topic of these fascinating little creatures. I did a search for books (by the same authors) on The Book Depository (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/) website, related to ants and came up with the attached, which I may well purchase in order to enrich my experience when photographing these very busy insects.

Cheers

Dennis

[SkyViking]

Wow those are fabulous Dennis! Your macro shots keep getting better every time, it's very impressive. I don't have any macro experience at all but your images sure are a joy to look at.

[Miaplacidus]

Stunning images. Absolutely fascinating subject.