Western thrashing ant attacking insect larva.

Western thrashing ant attacking insect larva.

We arrived at an area of southwest Washington called Long Beach yesterday.  This morning I was out for a quiet walk with my camera; it was equipped with a macro lens and macro lighting system.  It is always fun to explore new places to see what kinds of finds can be discovered.  I had quite a bit of luck as I ended up with half a dozen pictures which I am excited about.  The one above is an example.

Thrashing ants feed on a wide variety of foods.  They will take seeds, honeydew from aphids, and small prey items such as this insect larva.  Ants have very strong jaws.  They are capable of subduing smaller insects with relative ease and, when working together, can overpower significantly larger creatures.  They will bring their find back to the nest where it will be fed to larvae, the queen, and shared amongst the adults. 

When in “bug mode,” I am scanning the environment for any sign of minuscule activity.  I look underneath leaves, especially if parts of them are eaten, on flowers, stems, and even on bare ground.  I am constantly turning over stuff.  I found an amazing beetle which I will do a blog on later this way.  A wonderful spider was lying in wait on a flower, and a mass of eggs was hidden away on the underside of a leaf.  The ant, as you can tell, was on the ground.

There are a few issues with macro photography which makes it a challenge to do well.  The three main ones are depth of field, ability to focus closely, and amount of light.  I used a Nikon DSLR camera with a 105 mm macro lens equipped with dual lens mounted macro flashes.  I keep the shutter speed at the flash synch speed (1/250) and the aperture small (f/57).  The flashes provide all of the light necessary.  Getting this close to the ground is not as easy for me as it used to be, so I turned on Liveview.  This allows me to look at the LCD screen on the camera’s back from a distance instead of establishing an uncomfortable, not to mention undignified, crouching pose.

I use Liveview infrequently for a number of reasons.  It depletes the battery faster for one.  The shutter response is much slower; when the shutter release is activated it takes the camera about half a second before the picture is taken.  Things can change significantly in half a second.  Then there is the viewing experience.  I LOVE looking through the viewfinder; it is bright, sharp, clear, and I can pick a point of focus easily.  I also can see the viewfinder information display easily and know if my settings are off.  However, there are times when I find it a useful feature.

I took about six photos of the battle between predator and prey then left to find other subjects.  The one above was the best of the lot.