Macro-Photography, A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever!

The above line was written by John Keats in his work titled Endymion. Amazingly enough, spiders turn out to be some of the most incredible critters I have ever photographed! These starry-eyed spiders come in so many different patterns mesmerising and cute. If you want to get a good snap of these amazing critters, you will have to gain their confidence because they are shy indeed. One of them kept turning away from the lens!

At times when their stomachs are full, these spiders will pin a web around themselves cocooned in a leave and go off to sleep undeterred by wind or foe! The distended stomach in the above image is the result of a healthy breakfast.

Starry-eyed spiders can be cute as long as they are not disturbed, for some of them can jump great distances!

Ants can be interesting, but then one wonders what these ants were doing stroking winged critters that had seemingly three horns on their heads. I have seen ants stroking aphids for their sweet milk, but then what caught my attention after taking the photograph was to see these ants tending to some weird-looking insects with wings and three rather distinct-looking horns on their heads. The ants in the photographs below are called Carpenter Ants and those winged insects are called Umbonia or Thorn Bugs.

There is indeed a huge world out there waiting to be discovered and it is indeed surprising how little we know about it. Macro-photography opens opportunities to learn more about the tiny insects that live all around us. These might not be of the exotic variety, but then there is something to learn from each one of them. Take the ants, for example, they live a hard life, they work in harmony with other insects, they defend their settlements against invaders, they tend Aphids, protect them and in return are rewarded with a sweet milk-like substance. This relationship between ants and other insects is also known as mutualism. In the photograph below, ants can be seen tending to a Scale Insect. Scale insects too produce Honeydew on which a wax-like substance grows.

It is interesting to see how ants and other insects like aphids, scale insects, and even Ubonia or Thorn Bugs live together in a rather harmonious relationship. Ants provide the other insects protection while the other insects provide the ants food.