A bugs lifeby
MQuinnComment by DrAchoo: I did not look at the other comments. First, man we had these bugs everywhere a month ago. When I took my image grain pic, there was a large bush/tree in the graveyard that literally had thousands of them flying around. Quite weird.
Ok, I did not look at the other comments, as usual. First off, it's the lighting; it's very flat. Looking at the histogram, it looks like you could have upped your whites a little. It also looks like there is a green cast to the picture. Not quite sure where that comes from as people usually have more issues with red or blue casts. I tried upping the contrast and that helped quite a bit.
The subject is tough too. I totally get the busy aspect of it, but it doesn't translate quite as well as we would hope. These bugs look more like they are looking for work rather than ants which always seem to be doing something. The three beams and concrete add to a "snapshot" quality. It looks like you found the situation, changed very little, and snapped a picture. That can work, but often it doesn't. The nail, for example, is distracting. A closer crop of the vertical third of the picture (mainly the center beam) might have been good. You would ditch the shadows in the corners and the picture would have a more purposeful background (just wood).
Try this. When I get a picture where the color is not important to the picture, I immediately think B&W. I looked quickly in PS and the blue channel as B&W is actually not bad. You lose some of the detail of the bugs, but the textures of the wood look a lot better than they do in color.
Message edited by author 2005-11-14 23:28:15. 
Photographer found comment helpful.