sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

This is a Black Carpenter Ant that I found while throwing out the trash this morning. I scooped it up in my hand and brought it in and prepared it for a focus stacking session. They don't like to be held and the tend to bite. I've done others in the past and they make convenient and interesting specimens.

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Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Mean lookin'!

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Very mean looking!

Jay Drew Loc: Boise, Id.

Great!
Why didn't he bite you? I think I'd bite something 80 stories tall that scooped me up & focus staked me. That must be something like a pro 'wreasslers' pile driver. And how did you induce him to stand still long enough to focus stack him? Assuming it's a him.
Seriously folks, I like to do macro photog. & I'm interested in moving into focus staking. Do you mind telling me what hardware & software you use to produce such outstanding work?
Thanks for sharing, Jay

11bravo

ALWAYS amazed by your work, entertaining and educational. Thanks

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Well, to start off...it did bite me the entire time that I had it in my hand. I keep them still for the session by dispatching them in a jar with Methyl Acetate and then I preserve them in denatured alcohol which keeps them for years.

I use a wide assortment of gear depending upon the size of the subject and the amount of magnification that I want to achieve to fill the frame with the showcased area of the specimen. I seldom if ever crop my images for I hate to throw away pixels.

The camera that I presently use is a Fujifilm X-T20 with an APS-C sensor although the camera is the least important part of the equation with today's cameras. Most of my gear is Nikon mount so I have to use various adapters to fit things together much like Dr. Frankenstein made his monster.

The magnification is achieved in this case with a bellows although I also use extension tubes and helicoid extension tube. the lenses that I most often use are reverse mounted old film enlarger lenses that I pay about $35 to $50 for. The 50mm and the 28mm are my favorites. This ant was taken with the 28mm.

I also use conventional 1X macro lenses, a 0.5X to 2X macro lens, a 1X to 5X macro lens and microscope objectives for the higher magnification sessions that go from 5X to as high as 20X (although anything over 10X is so high that it loses context of what the heck I'm looking at).

I use a motorized digital focus rail to control the distance that the camera moves for each shot and to actuate the shutter each time it moves. This ant is comprised of 323 separate images that were processed (stacked) into one final image using Zerene Stacker.

I use diffused LED lighting to illuminate the subjects for the sessions.

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sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

We are fortunate that they are very, very tiny for they would be a very, very mean beast.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks, UTMike. Perhaps there are some things that are better not seen magnified.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

Thanks for posting.

Harold Stetson Loc: Marquam 97038

A friend of mine caught something like that in Colombia. He took it home to his kids in Texas. He was watching TV and realized it was a bullet ant. Most painful bite of any insect. I guess I should say that we were working in Colombia at the time. My wife was bitten by a fire ant and was sick from it. That is a great photo. Ants can be more than the seem.

Bill Sebastian Loc: NC

Excellent!!

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks, it's nice to know that others enjoy seeing them.

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

Impressive job.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks for dropping by.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Thanks, the ants were here long before us and I suspect that they will be here long after mankind is gone.