Taking a closer look…

Her passion for the fine detail that allows her to appreciate nature up close, gives Amanda Taljaard of Emalahleni a great love for macro photography. With her Canon EOS 550D she takes fantastic close-up shots.

Alien ant farm

“I shot these ants at a holiday spot near the Kruger National Park. They made for a great pic with the little dabs of pink. I also cropped the frame a little tighter.”

This photo has you feeling as though you’re looking into a packet of sweets. There is no single focal point to catch your attention, but rather a number of them – those yellow bits of the plants. It’s unusual and you can’t help staring at these little mouthlike pieces of the plant.

Only then do you see the ants, and all of them are also busy around the ‘mouths’, which give the photo life.

Apart from the yellow, the contrasting colours of pink and green ensure balance. If you look closely, you can see that the detail accounts for barely 40% of the photo. The rest is all negative space that balances neatly with the busy parts.

The two less conspicuous aspects that make the photo stand out are the shallow focus depth and the soft lighting. Just about only the ‘mouths’ with the ants are in focus, and this is because of the minimal depth of focus when shooting something up close.

Should the sun have been directly on this, everything would have changed. Dark shadows would be disturbing. The even light helps you easily see all the details – exactly what you need for a winning photo like this.