It was the last day of 2010 and we decided to spend a relaxing morning with the family at the Sungai Liang Forest Recreation Park. Somewhere on the concrete steps, uncertain of my exact direction, I came across a massive ant termite colony in their thousands busy moving food or materials for their nest. I am thankful to have brought along my Canon 5D Mark II and the 100mm Hybrid IS lens instead of the PowerShot G11 or every single attempt to capture them—in unforgiving light conditions—would have failed miserably. See also readers comments and ‘Likes’ on Facebook.
In order to at least freeze a few of the termites, I shot this hand-held at 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO6400 with the EF100mm Hybrid IS given the lack of usable available light.
Curious about my presence, a lone ant on a leaf at the entrance to the Sungai Liang Recreation Park crosses to an adjacent leaf when I await with my macro lens.
Shooting a moving target with such a shallow depth-of-field is always challenging. Compounding this are windy conditions causing the leaf to sway unpredictably.
After all these years…your blog is still going strong. Love the first 2 shots….!!!
Like the busy ants, I’m committed to the cause—legacy building :)
Hi Jan,
I think you’ll find that the first two shots are possibly not ants but termites that you’ve photographed.
You should re-evaluate.
VBR Nick
http://hubpages.com/hub/Termites-vs-Ants
A common mistake ~ this link might clarify…
VBR Nick
Zoologist
Although in winged phase ~ good visual difference illustrated :-
http://doyourownpestcontrol.com/termites/dif.JPG
VBR Nick
Hi Nick, appreciate the correction and thanks for the helpful links.
Great macro photoshoots of the insects!
Thanks Jean!
the first 2 are good but I like the 3rd the most! Great shot, Jan!
Thank you Sara! I miss the Korean BBQ in Hong Kong :)
Hi Jan,
Love the photo with the amount of light you have. Great that you’ve managed to capture some great sounds. Not easy feat if windy conditions. Bet the Hybrid IS did wonders over the non L version.
Keep the photos coming.
Pete
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Full marks for clarity for shot number # 3 !!
Great work.
cheers
Tyagi
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