When the Ants Win 🐜

While our ship called Hive feels like it’s taking on water, I decided not to stare at the waves but to distract myself with macro photography.

This was only my second attempt — and yes, I’d call it another failure.

On paper, I did everything “right.” I closed the aperture. I played with shutter speed. I adjusted ISO. I twisted every dial on the camera like a man trying to crack a safe. Technically, I wasn’t guessing.

But the flower refused to cooperate. Focus landed anywhere except where I wanted it. A petal sharp, the center soft. The stem perfect, the texture gone. At this scale, even breathing feels like moving the earth.

And the ants… they moved like they were powered by caffeine and bad intentions. By the time I thought I had focus, they were already somewhere else. Macro doesn’t forgive hesitation.

What surprised me most is how different macro feels compared to shooting at 70–200mm. With a telephoto, you compress the world and extract moments from chaos. With macro, the chaos is already inside the frame. Millimeters decide everything. Depth of field becomes microscopic. Light behaves differently. Stability becomes critical.

One mistake I know for sure: I didn’t bring a tripod. That was arrogance. At macro distance, handheld is a gamble unless everything else is controlled perfectly. The second mistake is clearly somewhere in my focusing technique — probably a mix of relying too much on autofocus and not being disciplined enough with manual control and positioning.

Macro photography isn’t about pressing the shutter. It’s about patience, distance, breathing, and precision. It’s almost mechanical. Almost meditative. And definitely humbling.

I’ll spend the evening reviewing guides, rethinking my approach, and figuring out what I missed. Failure in macro is honest — it shows you exactly how much you don’t control yet.

I know we have real macro experts in this community. If you see obvious mistakes in my approach, I’d genuinely appreciate your advice. I’m not giving up — I just need to understand where the science begins and the ego ends.

I write my texts myself, correct mistakes and translate via ChatGPT (which is not a violation on Hive)!
All photos were taken by me personally - I am a beginner photographer, so I ask professionals not to judge strictly.

Thank you for sharing these moments with me! Until new stories and new holidays! ✌️.

Camera 📷: Sony Alpha 7 IV full-frame
Lens 🔭: Sony FE 70-200mm F: 2.8 GM OSS II
Lens 🔭: Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS
Lens 🔭: Sony FE 24–70mm f/2.8 GM II
Processed 🛠: Lightroom

photo by openai