Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON 
Misty Dawn just told me about her Camera Critters challenge, where you have to post a shot of an animal each Sunday. This shot immediately came to mind. During the week I started using the brilliant new macro lens, the SMC Pentax-DA 1:2.8mm Macro Limited - and this was among the first shots I took with it.
I was out in the garden when I decided to experiment with some rosebuds. This rose is called First Love and the buds and blooms are smaller than many of the other roses in the back yard - so I figured it would be ideal for the new lens. I was bending over one of the branches when I noticed something black, deep in the interior folds of one of the buds.
I moved the camera aside and took a closer look, only to realise that there were not one but two ants wriggling around. My initial impulse was to get rid of the ants, but then my photography instincts took over. I immediately started shooting, but have you ever thought about how quickly ants wriggle? They just never stay still, so there I was contorting myself at various angles, trying to keep at least one of them in focus.
Bear in mind these are low-resolution versions, so a significant amount of clarity and detail have been lost. However, in the original high-resolution version, you can actually see the dark sheen on the little ant's body. But because I only had a split second to react and take this shot, I made a mistake. This cropped version (below) of the same frame is how I should have composed the shot.
