Busy termites

[Vincent Grafhorst]

Northern harvester termites (hodotermes mossambicus) pulling grass and leaves into their hole in the ground. I deliberately made this image with a slow shutterspeed and small aperture to blur the movements, whilst using the flash to freeze them as well. Thus I tried to emphasise the industrious nature of these amazing creatures. This was a try out, please let me know what you think. Thanks.

Khutse Game Reserve, Central Kalahari, Botswana


Camera Model Canon EOS 40D
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1.6
Av( Aperture Value ) 32.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation +1/3
ISO Speed 400
Lens EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
Focal Length 100.0 mm
Image Size 3888x2592
Image Quality RAW
Flash On
Flash Exposure Compensation 0
White Balance Mode Color Temperature(5200K)
AF Mode Manual focusing
Tripod, remote, live view (=MLU)

Vincent Grafhorst
www.khwaiphotography.com (http://www.khwaiphotography.com)
vincent@khwaiphotography.com (vincent@khwaiphotography.com)

[Robert O'Toole]

It works for me I like the effect, they do look like they are scurrying about. I also like the cut stalks near the enterance. the framing and position of the subjects is just about prefect.

Good work and good use of flash/blur techniques!

Robert

[John Cooper]

A hive of activity Vincent - I just wish for more contrast between termites and BG but then, thats nature!!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Vincent, nice idea and I agree with John that the critters blend to well with the BG so you have to look care fully to spot them all, but hey thats mother natures work.