Some people think they're creepy, some people get itchy when they talk about them, and some people, like me, find them totally captivating. Ants. The little skittery creatures with six legs, big black eyes, and large rear-ends. Ugh. That sounded freakishly like spiders. But they are not. They are far from. Ants are incredible little things (not to say that spiders aren't incredible too...they just...you know...). Anyway, at first glance, they're just thin legs and red/black abdomens, flitting around in groups. But when you look a little closer, like I did today, you discover that they, and their lives, are complex and fascinating. They follow patterns, rules, guidelines. They build intricate homes from practically nothing. When one needs help moving a bug, or, say, a bread crumb, another will come a'running to assist them. As they travel through their busy day-to-day schedules, they somehow find a chance to stop along the way and have a friendly little chat with their buddies, antenna to antenna.
These creatures were the reason I left the house today, armed with my camera and a growing determination to capture them going about their business. I stayed out there on the porch for about twenty minutes, capturing thirty or forty pictures and leaving with only two or three reasonably good shots. Those ants are so FAST! It was a miracle that I managed to get a close-up of a few of them at all. What I'm really aiming for, however, is to capture an 'ant moment', as I call them. An ant moment is when two or more ants meet up along their path and talk to each other for a while, faces close together. I want a picture of an ant moment so bad! I'm going to do all I can this summer to get one. But for now, here's the shots I have so far.
 |
This photo I got last summer - this started off
with one ant who recruited three others to help
them; two at each end of the bug. Amazing! |
