Odontomachus rixosus
A perk of being in Urbana is the accessibility of Andy Suarez’s University of Illinois ant lab. Yesterday, I borrowed a few of grad student Fred Larabee’s trap-jaw ants for a studio shoot. I was mostly aiming for stylized portraits like that above, but I couldn’t pass up capturing the ants with their trademark mandibles open and closed:
Odontomachus rixosus, mandibles open (top), with trigger hairs visible, and closed (bottom).
These and other new images are now posted in my galleries.
What’s the deal with trap-jaw ants? Have a look:
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Alex, the portrait shot is amazing! How did you get the reflection? Mirror? Glass? And the black? Is there such a thing as a black box?
Hi Mark. Thanks for your kind words!
I used an elevated piece of very clean glass, with nothing behind it. I describe the technique here: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/compound-eye/2013/01/02/recipe-for-a-photograph-1-reflected-ant-on-black/
Fantastic shot, Alex! Have you tried shooting portraits on an upside down cd or dvd?
That’s an interesting suggestion. I’ll have to try it!
Excellent as always!
And a third question: How do you get the ants so clean? I know ants are meticulously clean but they cant be this clean, atleast not out in the wild… or?
Do you clone-tool away small defects, hairs, dust etc?
This particular ant was extremely clean to begin with, Alex. The glass underneath it was the real trouble for this shoot. I had to clean it a few times with windex, then I used an air blower every few minutes to remove new dust that had fallen. And I still had to clone out some dust. Here is the original capture:
Wow, thats one clean ant! I guess its a nice bonus when working with lab-reared animals? Nice nice
Alex
I am waiting for you to try it with a a Bull Ant.
Bull ants would look great! Alas, that will have to wait until our next Aussie trip, as we don’t have any here.