Ants! They are one of the most fascinating creatures on the planet, who live in colonies of millions and have the ability to work as a complex organised society despite having very little individual brain capacity. These remarkable pictures by Analiza Daran De Guzman in her garden in the Philippines show ants walking along a piece of string – they have now won an award in a photography competition run by photo app 'Agora'.
Unbelievably, Analiza didn't use a super high end camera costing thousands, nor did she have a special microscope or training in nature photography. All of these pictures were taken on her smartphone, a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 with a click-on macro lens (that only cost a few dollars).
The ants are pictured carrying water drops, which they do to provide drinking water to other ants in their nests. Ants are so small, and their skin is slightly hydrophobic, so they are able to pick up water drops just like a human can pick up a balloon.
In a few images, a map of the world can be seen reflected through the drops giving a truly surreal edge to the pictures.
She described how she managed to capture them, and how she intentionally gave them water to be able to better capture the fast moving creatures:
"Insects move fast, ants particularly. It is tricky to take pictures with a mere mobile … However, ants stop moving fast when they start to drink water… so I gave them water."
Ants really are unique and wonderful. Pound-for-pound, they are among the strongest creatures in the world and outnumber humans 1 million to 1. Meaning, for every 1 human there are around 1 million ants (but we don't quite know who counted them all). They listen through feeling vibrations in their feet and have two stomachs, one for themselves and one for storing food for others.
Check out Analiza's amazing pictures:
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