A drain on a rainy day

I was along Orchard Rd behind Takashimaya looking for a geocache when I went into a drain by the side of the road. I saw lots of interesting things... From A Drain on a Rainy DayISO: 800 Exposure: 1/200 sec Aperture: f/5.6 Focal Length: 250mm First was a small lizard on a rusty pole. I used the reach I could at 250mm and tried to get in as close as possible without scaring the bugger off. He was very wary and hid behind the post, so I could only see part of his body. That being the case, I crept to another side and concentrated on capturing its eyes. This shot is slighly cropped, and the contrast and colours was worked from the raw file. I like the colour contrast and the texture of the rust. From A Drain on a Rainy Day ISO: 800 Exposure: 1/125 sec Aperture: f/8.0 Focal Length: 55mm I then tried to play with macro, seeing how big I could get things in the frame. I found that the 55mm on my kit lens gave me the closest macro focus I could achieve. Here, I was focusing on this small flower and trying not to blow the highlights - there is a highlight priority mode on my 40D but I've not fully discovered its use - when this bee suddenly just landed on the flower. Slightly surprised, I got off just one shot before it hovered off again. From A Drain on a Rainy DayISO: 800 Exposure: 1/80 sec Aperture: f/7.1 Focal Length: 55mm Next, I tried playing with the red ants that lived around the drain, zooming in close and experimenting with the focus. I saw that there was a patch of moss nearby and waited for ants to pass by. I auto-focused on the eyes and tried to capture moments of interaction. From A Drain on a Rainy Day ISO: 800 Exposure: 1/30 sec Aperture: f/5.6 Focal Length: 55mm The day was overcast and soon it started to rain. Just as I was leaving, this caught my eye. The rough circle of red on the green railing, the intense look on the ants, and the raindrops all add to the photo. I did noise removal, colour correction, sharpening, and slight cropping on this photo. From A Drain on a Rainy Day ISO: 800 Exposure: 1/30 sec Aperture: f/5.6 Focal Length: 55mm This is a tighter vertical crop of the previous photo. Here, you see the action much more closeup. The ant at the top seems to be posing, while the rest are locked in a life-and-death struggle. Gruesome. Morbid. Life. Which orientation do you prefer between the two?