Effort

Effort

During one of our trips we briefly stopped at the side of the road for refreshments. We noticed a colony of ants busily collecting food and nest building materials. It was fascinating to observe individuals working tirelessly to provide for their community. We chose a couple of the bigger ants to shoot as it was easier to focus on them. Smaller individuals, particularly those carrying light loads, move extremely fast for either manual or autofocussing; an added disadvantage is that such fast movement usually results in your subject partially being hidden by the low vegetation, gravel or other debris on the ground. To avoid disturbing the path the colony has chosen we selected a spot which was relatively clear and targeted ants which carried oversize or heavy objects.

Photos by Marina Parha and George J. Reclos

Shooting Data:

1. Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: AF Tamron 90 mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/800 sec - f/8, Aperture priority mode
Flash: SB900 in i-TTL mode.
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.  

2. Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: AF Tamron 90 mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/160 sec - f/10, Aperture priority mode
Flash: SB900 in i-TTL mode.
Image: NEF edited in Photoshop CS4, levels adjusted, sharpening added saved as JPEG and resized.

3. Camera: Nikon D70
Lens: Tamron SP AF 180mm f/3.5 Di Macro 1:1
Sensitivity: ISO200
Shutter speed: 1/60sec @ f/16
Flash: SB-800 on-camera TTL (non BL) mode
Image: JPEG processed in Photoshop CS, unsharp mask filter, curves to reduce the highlights and resized.