David & Goliath
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,379 Major grins
I was photographing various insects at out rhubarb patch when I noticed some uncharacteristic behaviour by what looked like a Vespula social wasp. It was showing a great deal of interest in the edge of a hole in a leaf. I then saw an ant and suspected that the wasp was a solitary, hunting species preying on ants.
A dipteran fly showed similar behaviour, so there was something edible, of a sugary nature, on the edge of the cut.
As either the wasp or the fly was feeding, but mostly with the wasp, and ant would approach, facing the wasp which would take off immediately and land at another place at the edge of the hole.
I don't know whether the ant squirted venom or the wasp took off before it could do so. In any case it took a fraction of a second and there was no chance of capturing that. I settled for capturing the feeding and the approach.
Some of these images are a little soft but they show the story. Some confirm the identity of the wasp as Vespula germanica.
The first image was the only displayof defiance by a wasp.
Olympus EM-1, Kiron 105mm f11, twin flash, hand-held.
Harold
A dipteran fly showed similar behaviour, so there was something edible, of a sugary nature, on the edge of the cut.
As either the wasp or the fly was feeding, but mostly with the wasp, and ant would approach, facing the wasp which would take off immediately and land at another place at the edge of the hole.
I don't know whether the ant squirted venom or the wasp took off before it could do so. In any case it took a fraction of a second and there was no chance of capturing that. I settled for capturing the feeding and the approach.
Some of these images are a little soft but they show the story. Some confirm the identity of the wasp as Vespula germanica.
The first image was the only displayof defiance by a wasp.
Olympus EM-1, Kiron 105mm f11, twin flash, hand-held.
Harold
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Comments
Agreed, but I had just one second. I would have had to change aperture to get the DOF.
There is still the possibility of a reshoot, if the weather improves.
Harold
Well, sometimes its just luck. DOF is not my issue though....focus is soft. If sharp focus on the fly....killer shot!
Brian v.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
Thanks, Brian.
A reworked first image, bringing out a little more detail in the ant and leaving the wasp more out of focus (no local sharpening of the mandibles, etc.).
Harold
It is an interaction. The ant and the wasp are of equal importance.
Harold
If you are happy great. From my perspective fly draws attention and it is out of focus. My suggestion was for ant to draw first attention, assuming it has better focus. But then again, focus is not there, so probably it won't matter. Goodluck.
There is no right answer.
The ant is the "hero" or "David" so you could say the point of interest is there.
On the other hand, the story was about the behaviour of the wasp "Goliath" as it was my initial object of interest.
The twist in the story is that "David" saw off "Goliath" instantly in all other encounters except this one, where "Goliath" stood his ground, at least briefly.
The bottom line is that the wasp, in this images, was always OOF and is, thus, upstaged by the ant.
Now I'm very confused!
Harold