Guardians

[Saravana Gurusamy]

These group of ants were guarding this precious fruit sap from rival gangs.

Canon 30D, Canon 100mm f2.8 Non-IS, Av, f5, 1/25, ISO 200, +0.67EV, handheld

http://www.gsaravana.com/images/_MG_0807.jpg

[Nick Palmieri]

Hey Sarvana, The first thing I see when I look at this is the brightest spots, including the large white part of the fruit and the many specular highlights. You didn't mention if you used flash but if not maybe a diffuser held between the subject and the bright spots would have toned things down a bit. When doing macro like this, many small distracting artifacts show up in your image, these can easily be cleaned up in post processing. I like the colors and like the placement of the ant. What kind of fruit is this anyway?

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Saravana, I agree with Nick that there are a bit too much distracting elements in this image. I would also crop off the antenna and leg of an ant that are only partly included from the bottom of the frame. Is this a Crane flower?

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Saravana,
Almost has the shape of a bird of paradise flower? Great advice above.....but if you aren't against such things toning down some of the brightest area and then going in a cleaning up some of the debris and highlights......will help take this image up a notch or 2.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Saravana. This image has a lot of potential, though it needs some cleaning up to reach that potential. You have some very good suggestions above regarding specular highlights, bits of debris, and cut off ant legs that will make the image much stronger. :S3: Keep them coming.