I guess I should say, I have ants… plural. But it is a weird situation. It’s more like I have a couple of scouts every other day or so. Just enough to be annoying, but not enough to figure out where they are coming from.
Last night, I saw an ant hanging around and decided to grab my macro lens. The little guy was rather quick moving and with a 180mm lens it is hard to keep up, and then you add how tiny he is and it is quite a challenge.
I’ve been spending so much time in the Digital Darkroom this month it was nice to get out the camera again, even if I ended up trashing the majority of the photos I took (mostly because of blur). I managed to keep four images. For the most part, I think the images are meh. But I did enjoy the shadow on this one and thought I’d share.
Until next time…
~nic
Photography by Nic 
Ok, you have to understand how much I truly dislike insects, but I opened your post, the brave soldier that I am (😉), and got a good smile out of your comment about spending more time in the digital darkroom than behind your lens. I have too this month, probably mostly due to the winter weather. As for shooting ants? I’ll leave that up to you 😀 P.S. You’re right – great shadow on the first one!
Ahahahhaa Thanks, Stacy! 😀 I’m sorry about the insect photo, I’m not a big fan either and I have one rule, not in my house! Soooo, yeah that ant is no more (Sorry little guy, those are the rules). Winter doesn’t mean the same thing in San Diego as it does on the East Coast… right now I have my windows open and I went out without a jacket on… for the most part it is a perpetual spring/fall here, except when we have a horribly too hot summer like last year (the hottest it’s been since 1880). Anyway, my digital darkroom is mostly because I don’t have my car this month and everywhere I can walk I’ve taken every picture there is to take (it feels that way). So really the ant photos were testing my macro lens’s abilities… apparently bees are big enough, but ants are too small… good to know. 😛
I know, bees are insects too! I am actually afraid of bees and wasps… that was an exercise in working on getting over my fears. I’m better about bees… but I’m never going to get near a wasp on purpose! Haha
No worries – it wasn’t nearly as bad as opening up an email from Ben for ABFriday, only to find a macro shot of a big hairy spider!!!!! I gave him a hard time about that one (all in good fun, of course) but he hasn’t sent any insect pictures again 🙂 Bees? Yeah forget those too. I was repeatedly stung baby wasps when I inadvertently disturbed their nest. I’ll never forget that pain.
Now, about your weather, okay, rub it in while we wait for another of DC’s wintry mixes ;). Nah, I don’t know what I would do without a change of seasons 🙂
Stacy, I moved from DC to San Diego back in Summer of 2010… so I do know those winters. Having a Basset Hound (~13in tall) in 2 feet of snow is no fun at all! 😛 I do miss Autumn (so we went to Seattle/Portland this year)… but I do not miss being stuck inside for a week because my car is iced in. San Diego is weird, at first it felt like no seasons… then as the years go by I can see the subtle shifts.. for example the non-evergreen trees have lost their leaves… but the evergreens and palm trees look the same pretty much all year long. I’m really looking at Seattle/Portland as a future move one day, we like the rainy/gloomy/foggy type days which we had when we first got here (apparently that’s February weather and ‘June Gloom’)… This summer it was too hot for June Gloom so I really missed it. Whenever I think I can move back to the East Coast there will be some kind of Hot Weather Apocalypse or Snowmageddon and I think, no never mind I’ll stay right here. 😛
Unfortunately, it seems there are no weather givens anymore with all the craziness that has been playing out over the past few years! I’ve always thought Seattle would be a cool place to live, as I don’t mind the rain and gloom (what does that say about us?).
I don’t know, but sunny all the time is not really my thing. I like some clouds, and I think fog is cool. And I love to take photos of raindrops… I’m seriously living in the wrong place. 😛 Actually I don’t live in San Diego proper… I live in a suburb on a hill near the ocean so we get to see the clouds moving over the hills coming off the ocean … Marine Layer. As long as the wind is coming from the ocean it is really nice here, but when the wind comes from the central valley… ugh it is super hot and everyone has allergy problems… Santa Ana winds. I never really understood microclimate until I moved here… if you drive 20 miles in any direction the weather is probably different, especially if you travel east-west. It’s a very weird and interesting place… most of the plants look like they came from alien worlds, but apparently that is just what plants look like in the west. Who knew?
Oh I forgot to mention… I don’t think I’ll take anymore ant pictures, something about looking at ants makes me itch, even when I haven’t been bitten. So not really a thing I want to repeat. I just liked the sinister shadow. 😀
Good to know!😃👍