Texas leaf cutter ants (atta texana)

[Arlon Motsch]

We spent a few days at Garner State Park (Tx) and found a leaf cutter ant colony almost under our camper. It was a lot of fun watching them storing/cleaning up for the coming winter. Out with the old and in with the new. It was a very busy colony and they let me lay down right next to their nest with no complaint. Very passive ants.

http://www.pbase.com/arlon/image/119886259/large.jpg

LARGER VERSION (http://www.pbase.com/arlon/image/119886259/original.jpg)

Shot with the D90, vintage Vivitar 90mm f2.5 macro lens.
F11, 1/200sec, onboard flash

[Julie Kenward]

I like the colors and all the textures in this image but there is a LOT going on! I think the image would be stronger if you had raised the camera up just a bit more so the OOF leaf in the FG wasn't quite so prominent at the bottom of the image. You did get very nice DOF on the ants that are running all around! I also wonder if a reflector would have helped to bring up some of the very dark areas in the BG - you might try a shadow/highlight adjustment to bring some of the details out in those areas in pp.

[Christopher Miller]

Hi Arlon, I like the capture. Good details and DOF on the ants, though as Jules pointed out the image is quite busy. Agree with Jules' suggestions.