A feisty redhead, Odontomachus erythrocephalus
Following our workshop in Colombia last week I scheduled a quick 24 hours to do a bit of my own photography. That’s not much. For an ant photographer in a region with the world’s highest ant diversity, it was like allowing a sports fan a scant 5 minutes to watch the summer Olympics.
Hunting Crematogaster in a gallery forest (photo by Jorge Garcia)
For this photography blitz, conservation photographer Jorge García graciously invited me to his family’s small farm in nearby Icononzo. Jorge is a gifted photographer and a splendid host. Despite the abbreviated visit, by working late into the night we managed to shoot a fair amount. I’ve processed 50 keepers from 510 exposures; a 10% success rate.
What was I able to accomplish in 24 hours? Have a look:
Colombia Photographs, July 2012
50 acceptably sharp, properly exposed, interesting natural history photographs per day feels close to my maximum output for field photography. I was exhausted by the end.
Nesomyrmex sp.
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
What interesting work! Congratulations and thank you for sharing! 50 great pictures! I see the ratio of successful pictures in a series is the same for everyone ^ ^ Macro photography is really an exercise in patience! Congratulations for your work!
Love me some O. erythrocephalus, and old favorite of mine.
Must have been intense! High quality as ever!
I spotted quite a few duplicated shots in the gallery though, might want to fix that
(or is it just my browser [Chrome] that is bugged out?)
I can’t do much about the duplicated shots in an auto-generated gallery. If I put a photo in more than one place (say, pharaoh ants in both Monomorium AND in invasive ants, it’ll show up as 2 photos).
Aha, I see
Really beautiful work, as always. The bamboo in the background (Guadua angustifolia, I’d imagine) is also very striking!
Loved seeing the 50 photos from Columbia! Great job! And thanks for sharing your success rate also. That way I don’t feel quite as bad!
All that diversity in 24 hours. And those are just the ones that turned out to be good shots.
It’s really astonishing how many wonders of life there are in the arthropod world.
Thanks for sharing your images.
Just how big is Pachycondyla impressa?
Impressively big, I’d say. About an inch long.
Hola Alex, muchas gracias por tus palabras (y por el link de mi web), sabes que aquí tienes tu casa para cuando desees volver a Colombia, y poder fotografiar más tiempo. Todo tu trabajo fotográfico una maravilla, a pesar del corto tiempo los resultados son excepcionales… un abrazo.