United we Stand (Ants)

United we Stand (Messor genus?)

Very often we overlook things that take place in front of us, simply because we think of them as unimportant. Those were my thoughts while I was observing the efforts of this ant to carry the huge – by its standards – piece of wood to its home. It was doing well, till it came in front of a piece of straw which it simply couldn’t overcome. I don’t know what kind of chemical or other signals ants emit but within some seconds a second ant came close. The second ant used its head to turn the piece of wood a little so the friction was minimized and the wood passed over the straw. It stayed close to the carrying ant for some seconds, as if to make sure the problem was over and then left it alone and went to carry out another task for their colony. We all know ants as social animals but very few take the time to observe them closely and notice the kind of interaction they have and the accomplishments they can perform because of it. Luckily I had the Tamron lens on the D300 so I was able to take some nice close ups of this event. Next time you see some ants in your path think of those pictures.
 
The D300 was set on manual mode, focusing was also done manually. The flash unit (SB800) was set to TTL / FP (synchronization at any speed), something I find extremely helpful since I can use much higher speed settings which eliminate the risk of blurry photos because of a moving subject. 

Photos by George J. Reclos

Shooting Data:

Camera: Nikon D300

Lens: Tamron SP AF 180mm f/3.5 Di Macro 1:1
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Shutter speed - aperture: 1/800 sec - f/8, Manual mode
Flash: SB-800 in i-TTL mode
Image: JPEG edited in Photoshop CS2, levels adjusted, USM added and resized.