Playing with gatekeeper ants

Images taken in a controlled environment or with a posed subject. All subject types.

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eurythyrea
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Playing with gatekeeper ants

Post by eurythyrea »

Camponotus truncatus is relatively common in Hungary, they can be found in dry twigs or in season on dry branches and tree trunks. The species is famous for the unusual headed soldiers which are keeping the small entry holes of the family with their own head. Workers are normal shaped, they are smaller than the soldiers. I've made focus stacks of both versions, they are mounted individuals. Tried different objectives such as Nikon BD Plan 10/0.25 210/0; Nikon CFI60 Plan 10x/0.25 inf./- and Nikon BD Plan 20/0.4 ELWD 210/0. I hope you will accept the high number of photos in one post :oops:

Here are the results (you could see them larger by clicking on each one):

Image
EOS 5D; EF 70-200/4L IS at 200mm; Nikon CFI60 Plan 10x inf.; 192 shots stacked in 4 groups.


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EOS 5D; Pentax auto bellows at 240mm (from sensor to thread); Nikon BD Plan 10x; 194 shots stacked in 5 groups.


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EOS 5D; Pentax auto bellows at 155mm (from sensor to thread); Nikon BD Plan 20x ELWD; 352 shots stacked in 3 groups.


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EOS 5D; Pentax auto bellows at 240mm (from sensor to thread); Nikon BD Plan 10x; 63 shots stacked.


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Synthetic cross-eye stereo:

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The worker:

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EOS 5D; Pentax auto bellows at 172mm (from sensor to thread); Nikon BD Plan 20x ELWD; 222 shots stacked in 3 groups

Comments and critiques are welcome!
Last edited by eurythyrea on Mon Feb 28, 2011 2:10 am, edited 2 times in total.

seta666
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Post by seta666 »

Wonderfull set!! I love the lighting of these shots. How do you get those colorfull and bright background? I love them
Nice set of lenses you have. The textures of the head in the 20x shot are amazing.
By groups you mean partial stacks, right?
Regards
Javier
Last edited by seta666 on Sat Feb 26, 2011 4:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

eurythyrea
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Post by eurythyrea »

seta666 wrote: By groups you mean partial stacks, right?
Yes, I did partial stacks, making easier to retouch the transparent areas.

seta666
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Post by seta666 »

eurythyrea wrote:
seta666 wrote: By groups you mean partial stacks, right?
Yes, I did partial stacks, making easier to retouch the transparent areas.
For the anthena and the legs, right? I have to do the same sometimes, specially with fly hairs and insects alike

eurythyrea
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Post by eurythyrea »

seta666 wrote: For the anthena and the legs, right? I have to do the same sometimes, specially with fly hairs and insects alike
Mostly for the antennae and legs, but for another example see the first 3 image: it was a transparency in the head where it is linked to the thorax.

Barry
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Post by Barry »

Truely amazing pictures.
Crisp, colourful, a pleasure for the eye.
Keep posting your work...

How did you light the subject?

Cheers,
Barry

Craig Gerard
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Post by Craig Gerard »

Stunning series Nikola!

Excellent!

Craig
To use a classic quote from 'Antz' - "I almost know exactly what I'm doing!"

eurythyrea
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Post by eurythyrea »

Thank you Barry and Craig :)
Barry wrote: How did you light the subject?
With a flash used manually (remote controlled), diffused with regular paper cylinder. It looks something like this:

Image

Tomatito
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Post by Tomatito »

Nikola this is absolutely amazing sharp footage... I have no words :D

just the shame that I don't want to use my 5D for this stacks :)
Tomas Rak

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

Informative, interesting, beautiful. Excellent!

eurythyrea
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Post by eurythyrea »

Thank you too, Tomas and Chris!

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

This is beautiful work in all respects -- sharpness, composition, colors, lighting. The subject is very interesting too.

Do I understand correctly that you shot these stacks manually, turning the focus knob on a microscope by hand?

--Rik

eurythyrea
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Post by eurythyrea »

rjlittlefield wrote: Do I understand correctly that you shot these stacks manually, turning the focus knob on a microscope by hand?
Yes, Rik, I did turn the knob manually. The subject was on the microscope stand, I moved it bottom up step by step. In the case of 10x objectives 0,01mm, at 20x 0,005mm.

Thank you for your words!

lauriek
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Post by lauriek »

Very nice! I really appreciate the spinning 3d as I still cannot see the stereograms...

eurythyrea
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Post by eurythyrea »

lauriek wrote:I still cannot see the stereograms...
I'm sorry Laurie, in turn they are completely different experiences. Try to see non-macro stereograms for practice! I found a lot of nice 3D's on Flickr as well.

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