Andrey Pavlov Tells Wonderful Stories With Real Live Ants

Andrey Pavlov is a great story teller. But unlike other story tellers that use photography as a medium, Andrey uses pretty peculiar models – red forest ants (Formica Rufa).

With love, dedication and patience, Andrey captures wonderful stories from his models everyday life.

We loved his work so much that we wanted to know more:

The first thing were wondering about is whether those ants are even real, or are they done in post production. Andrey explains that the ants are 100% real and are found about 50 yards from his front porch.

Ants, says Andrey are smarter than birds and “Grabbing the attention of an ant is easy enough, you just have to show him a fake prey or an enemy. And If you managed to persuade one to perform the trick, others will do the same.

It’s easy. Definitely not all ant-artists are good. Sometimes you have to expel fools and idlers from the set. But the main thing is not to train an ant, it is to learn myself ;)).“

We were also wondering about the effort it takes to create such complex scenarios and Andrey explains that he makes multiple shots of each scene and selects the relevant models from each frame. The setup are rigged with flashes, backgrounds and reflectors on wire pegs stuck into the ground.

Lastly we asked about gear. Andrey uses a Panasonic G3 equipped with a Rynox 250 Macro lens and a full array of Yongnuo strobes.

For more of Andrey wonderful work you can visit his Ant Tales Gallery, and there is a movie coming out in the end of the year, we’ll keep you posted :)

P.S. if you are into insect photography and story telling , you may wanna have a look at Nadav Bagim‘s Work.

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