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dhracer88

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 21, 2005
113
0
Just thought I'd share this...

It was raining earlier today, so out of tradition, I went out to take some pictures. Ants were crawling along one of our trees and harassed them for 1/2 an hour with my slr. There was this great shot that I couldn't get, so I finally gave up, and took out my digicam. That super-macro mode comes in handy! I also found this neat bark pattern...

JM
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
The one on the right is awesome! Nice. Wayda turn seeing a bunch of ants in your yard into a positive experience! :D

EDIT: BTW, the pic of the army of dogs in the doorway in your website is great too. :cool:
 

ham_man

macrumors 68020
Jan 21, 2005
2,265
0
You wouldn't happen to have full res pics somewhere, would you? I wouldn't mind having the one on the right as a desktop...
 

tech4all

macrumors 68040
Jun 13, 2004
3,399
489
NorCal
How big are those ants? :eek: It's a nice photo, but creepy! Which is good, cuz that means the photograph has impact :D
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
tech4all said:
How big are those ants? :eek: It's a nice photo, but creepy! Which is good, cuz that means the photograph has impact :D

LOL, I have this serious creeping out that happens whenever I see the body of an insect all bulging with its fluids. In the case of an ant, it isn't just the blood they sucked out of a person, but man.... I love the transparency of the reds in the foreparts of the ants. :)
 

dhracer88

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 21, 2005
113
0
I used an obsolete, 4 mp, Olympus C-4000 point and shoot. I paid $500 for it in May of 2003--it's probably worth half that or less :mad: . Doesn't matter though, as I'll probably give it to my sister when I get my Canon 20 (or 30 :confused: ) D. Or use it as a backup camera. It's been a great camera, my photography improves substantially every year, not solely because of the camera, but it lets me do what I want to do most of the time. Mine's beat up from riding in a bag on a four wheeler (lens is dented but works great, just a little slower popping out :D), plus the viewfinder is scratched (worthless anyhow), and the LCD is scratched but bearable.

Here's the brief EXIF:

Ants:
ISO 100; 1/200 sec shutter speed; f/4.00, focal length: 9.10 mm, no flash, cropped size ("optimized") is 856x1144; original is 2288x1712 px.

Tree:
ISO 100; 1/60 sec shutter speed (camera has a tendency of setting too slow of a speed for handheld shots); f/3.20; 9.10mm, no flash, 2288x1712 px
The one you see has the negative filter applied in photoshop elements 3. Kinda looks like a brain to me. Here's the optimized color version, plus a few other ant shots and miscellaneous pics.
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
dhracer88 said:
when I get my Canon 20 (or 30 :confused: ) D. Or use it as a backup camera.

Nice! :) So is your photography site a placeholder for professional stuff you're getting into, or do you do professional film photography, or is it just for personal shots? What's the story behind having so many dog pics -- just cuz you like them (I love dogs), or was there something else to it? :D (Sorry I'm so curious!)

I don't think I've ever seen a bug like the one in your last pic -- that red thing -- the colors are very pretty, but I'd like to keep it that way! The frog is very nice -- good depth of field, which is never easy to do P&S. :)
 

dhracer88

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 21, 2005
113
0
Nah...I'm just an amateur. It's just kind of a personal site that has no real purpose yet. I'm trying to get my work set up at picture.com so I can make $2 bucks off calenders, mouse pads, and other stuff :D . Just have to choose a picture for it. The dogs, well, there's a long story behind it, but the short(ish) answer sounds like this: My family has been rescuing dogs for over 20 years, so they've always been a part. My close family, my grandparents, and every other family member rescues dogs. We place as many as we can, but the ones we have are the "bad" dogs--the ones that destroy GMC Yukon interiors ($2,000 in damage caused by Larson, the wolf hybrid--with his paws! And it was our car!), the ones who have been beaten to a pulp by previous owners and are too scared to go to new homes, or the plain obnoxious dogs... The ones in the pictures are an assorted bunch from my family, my dogs, grandparent's, and some friends' too.


Oh yeah, the frog was right outside my egress window (I live in the basement:) ). We've got a bunch in every window. They're awaiting the massive locust infestation that occurs in the summer. The frog was pretty calm, like the moth, allowing me to put the camera a couple inches a way. It only started to move when I went to close my window. I quickly threw my screen up again, so my dogs wouldn't murder the little guy. We also, unfortunately, have snakes in the windows during the summer. Really makes you want to open your window doesn't it? My grandparents have them too; my grandpa had to kill his first rattlesnake yesterday while he was out gardening. It's unfortunate you have to kill them, but it's best for the family and dogs, right? You can relocate them, like one of our neighbors who built on a giant snake den (she's relocated 200 so far, and there's still no end in sight), but when one pops up right behind you, and you don't have a net or anything but a shovel, you have no choice...pretty gross.

About the bug picture...It was a moth that was trapped in our house on the door. It was one of the more creepy moths I've seen, given that it's wings were sculpted and almost bat-like. It's not as bad as the dollar long mine moth I had fly into my room a couple years ago though. Later on that night another huge moth, bigger than the brown one, came to the door, smacking it for 15 minutes before it retired. I wasn't able to get a picture though, as I was inside and didn't want to use flash. Nor did I want to open the door to get the picture for fear of it flying in. Here's the somewhat out of focus and distorted picture of the brown moth's wings:

(sorry for the long post--I don't have an english class (anymore) to waste words on!)
 

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
bugs creep me out..... but the ants and the frog, and bark are all awesome (ok ants dont creep me out) keep up the good work!
 

wdlove

macrumors P6
Oct 20, 2002
16,568
0
All of your pictures are very nice, thank you for sharing. Nature makes a very interesting subject. ;)
 
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