Macro Photography ~ Teeny Tiny Ants Abound!

(All photos taken by @paradigm42)
It has been quite some time since I last posted or even spent time on here. (I have been distracted by the outside world the past few months..) I'm rather happy to be getting back into my photography and blog. I took these a week or so ago, before the weather turned in the northeast for a week to winter again.

I have always found ants to be fascinating. I did reports on them as a kid and have had my fair share of antfarms. These tiny ants I found swarming in a small spot in my yard. I was excited to have a chance to try and capture some macros with my new (well somewhat new at this point lol) camera, and found some success where I had not in the past.
I like how the ants seem to be forming a double helix like a DNA chain in this above photo.

Here we see the tiny ants In mass without the macro lens. There are several reasons for them to mass like this including for gathering food, mating, and even fighting with other ant colonies.
In reality these ants are maybe 2-3 millimeters long making them super itty bitty. I used a 15x macro lens made for use with a cellphone to capture them up close and personal.

Here you can see the hairs on the abdomen of the ant in the middle, a detail you could not see with the naked eye. Just another reason I find macro photography fascinating.

I never had any luck getting these types of tiny ant macro photos with my old camera (and I tried many times lol), they were just too tiny and quick. My much improved camera now has made a huge difference in my photography!

I was happy I captured these two ants seemingly communicating with each other. They were on their own island plant stem in a sea of ant activity.

I enlarged this shot so you could see the details of these amazing tiny ants. You can see here that they have teeny hairs all over their bodies.

Busy busy busy they barely ever seen to stop moving, always working towards whatever the communities current goal is.

I sat there for a good half hour watching them scurry around purposely, taking photos, fascinated by their movements.

I hope you enjoyed this brief macro look into the world of these tiny yet interesting creatures. As always remember that it is all about the little things in life, and thanks for looking in! :)