Amateur Photography: Ant Colony

“Am I as admirable as that ant?”
― Nobuyuki Fukumoto, Saikyō Densetsu Kurosawa 11: Source

-Ant with her jaws open-

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I am an amateur photographer

I have many hobbies. And my newest one is using my partner's Nikon D800 camera for photography. I am nowhere remotely good, but I can sometimes get a clear shot. I'm trying to figure out the aperture and increase the depth of field of my macro-shots. But learning takes time.

Some people love landscapes, others skies and birds, but I like looking at the ground. One of the first subjects I focused on was this ant colony near my house.

-Trying to get a close shot but it's a tad blurry-

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Failure

I fail a lot, at everything. But I don't really let it get me down because it's normal to be bad at something in the beginning. Learning and practicing properly takes time, and when you are a beginner, you've barely put any time into it yet. So, I will share some of my poor shots as well.

(Maybe not the really horrible ones, those are embarrassing)

I practice and try again.
And again.
And again.

Eventually, I will get good at photography and gather some great shots in my portfolio. I aim to photograph plants and various animals I can find in nature.

-Interior of the ant colony entrance. They were cleaning up debris-

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If I take a million shots: Will one be good?

Due to my skill level, I have to take a lot of shots so that about one of the photographs of my subjects turns out decent. I'm trying to study the settings on my camera to figure out how to get good clear shots more often.

I do love immortalizing my views of the world through photography. My interests in insects, arachnids, and plants can be shared through my perspective. And I hope my love for these living beings is being shared through my lens.

-I love seeing the compound eyes for ants. I think she can see me in this shot. Though, I may be blurry-

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Ant Vision!

Ants have compound eyes and simple eyes. The compound eyes, like most insects, give them a wide field of vision but low quality. They often see the world very blurry. The larger the ant often leads to better eyes. Smaller ants take more time to travel as they bump into obstacles more often, as well as their legs are shorter. The simple eyes are likely just used for detecting light levels. Those eyes aren't very useful compared to their compound eyes.

I love getting a photo where their eyes are very clear. I like to look at them although they are definitely wary of me!

-A busy entrance with a lot of moving parts!-

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Superorganisms!

Colony-style creatures interest me greatly. How they work together for a singular goal is fascinating. The social interactions and the depth of information that is obtainable from just observing them are insane to me!

Bees, coral, termites, and Ants are all the ones I can think of off the top of my head, but there are so many out there. All so similar, yet vastly different.

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“One bee cannot build a hive; one ant cannot build a colony.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo: Source

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As always, thanks for listening to my story and me rambling about stuff. I always appreciate every interaction, no matter how small it may be. Just like the bee, or in this case the ant, I am but one. Together we are a community. I love the Hive community and all of you who put effort into making it a good place to be in. Have a good one, thanks so much!

If you've read this far, I would enjoy any follows and will follow back. I want to build a community of love and kindness. We all deserve that.

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With lots of love,
♥️ @timmy-turnip ♥️

All photos in this post are taken by me using any of the following:

Nikon D800 and a 90mm Macro Lense