Flying Ant

Ryewolf

Ryewolf

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Geoff
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A Flying Ant, whilst not exactly tiny, they do move very fast and are very erratic...

flying-ant-03861.jpg
 
Thanks Paul, I saw 100's of them and every now and then one woukld take to the air and fly off... I must have just caught them as they were first coming out.
 
Thanks Nick, I didn't capture any, I literally just followed them around with my macro and flash until they were in focus...
 
:), Sorry Nick, think I must have had a brain meltdown when I read your post.

I took 10 shots, I only managed to get 2 when they were fully in frame and that one was the best in focus of the 2.
 
Ryewolf said:
:), Sorry Nick, think I must have had a brain meltdown when I read your post.
Click to expand...

:)

Ryewolf said:
I took 10 shots, I only managed to get 2 when they were fully in frame and that one was the best in focus of the 2.
Click to expand...

That sound familiar, at least in terms of the proportions. My immediate thought though was "Only 10 shots!!!!" The couple of times I have tried that, happening on the day when they were coming up out of the patio, I probably took hundreds of shots. And with situations like that with small things scuttling around It can take me quite a few shots to get a feel for the situation and how to handle it. So getting one that worked out of only 10 attempts strikes me as rather good.
 
To be honest I think I was a very lucky.

I did spend a good while just watching them to see if there was anything they did that might make it easier to capture one. A lot of the time they'd either gone out of frame before I could even get them in focus or press the shutter. But I did notice that they did attempt a few takeoffs, before they actually did. I've photographed ants before - and like you probably took 100's of shots trying to chase them around.

So in the end I just picked a spot and something to focus on and just waited till they came into frame or close.
 
Ryewolf said:
So in the end I just picked a spot and something to focus on and just waited till they came into frame or close.
Click to expand...

I remember trying that but I was too impatient! So I went back to chasing them around.

The only time I've been patient enough to do the "stay still and wait for one to come into view" approach was when we had a wasp nest in the ground in our garden. I spent hours on my knees in front of the hole over the course of several days holding the camera still while they flew either side of my head in and out of the hole. I had the focus fixed and tried to press the shutter button while one was in view. I seem to remember counting up that I had captured six or seven thousand images, the great majority of which had no wasp in them, and most of the rest with an out of focus wasp, or part of a wasp at the edge of the frame.
 
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