dinsdag 10 mei 2011

Photographing ants and other small creatures who are stingy

As you can see I have some uploads in my stream containing ants. This species is pretty common in the Dutch forests, and they are known for their irritating bites. So how can you take photographs of these kind of creatures without getting attacked?

  • Look where you lay down, a lot of animals use the same route over and over again, so if you can avoid laying on their route you will have less animals on / in your clothes
  • Take a blanket: this is your first barrier of defense, ants which might be beneath you can’t directly crawl into your clothes. And if they try you can spot them easier than when they would sneak in your clothes via the forest floor.
  • Were plain clothes: it doesn’t have a real function except that it makes it easier to spot ants on your clothes
  • Move them: if there are a lot of ants on a specific route, and there were a lot of ants on a route when I took the photos of them killing larva, move them. Use a stick / piece of paper and move them out of the route. This way you get less animals around you, resulting in less stress. And you can move them to a spot where the lighting conditions are better.
  • Where long sleeves and pants: just as a second barrier of defense
  • Use an envelope to lighten up shadows
  • Sacrifice depth of field for a short shutter: I’ve been shooting at 160th of a second because these ants move incredibly quick, and better to have a sharp photo than a unsharp photo with perfect DoF.