lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Spider Conch (lambis chiragra), Photographed 9-5-2018 Early a.m. with Pentax K-3 Camera and smc-Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7 Lens; f/22, 2.5 sec, ISO 200. Yes, on a Tripod with Mirror Locked Up.

Definitely View In Download (Blown-Up)

(Download)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Very nice! The download reveals the pedestal, a good thing IMO

Fergus Loc: Westfield,IN

Wow! Where did you find that? It’s beautiful and creepy both. Great photo too.

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

Very good shot Mike, very sharp.

NMGal Loc: NE NM

I am amazed the thing is whole.

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I take it you like images "grounded". I actually prefer say my flowers "floating"on the black. I am working on a series of dried plant parts and that does not seem to work on black since I plan to convert those to B&W, there I'll need to shoot on white. I also often do abstract photography, so not knowing where I am with floaters is fine to me. But I see your point. One of my photo instructors would have preferred I shoot "natural" objects outdoors but I get my best work in the studio. Even Edward Weston shot his Conch Shell placed on rocks in Oceano, CA.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I have been collecting Sea Shells since about age five. Therefore I have many hundreds of them. Pretty much from around the world. That is actually a rather small specimen of its species, a juvenile. The more modern scientific or Latin name is Harpago chiragra. They are found in the Indo-Pacific Ocean area.
They grow to 320 mm, most being around 170mm. The one I photographed is only 118mm. You may realize that "Sea Shells" are marine Gastropod Exoskeletons. In essence large thick snail shells. Yes it is a weird looking thing. I would imagine that the soft parts of the critter living in that and that made it is strange looking. I don't know what that particular animal looks like other than the odd looking shell. Some others I either seen living ones or photographs. I also have a much larger one but those are put away at the moment and this "young" one has more intense color and details.

Fergus Loc: Westfield,IN

Thank you so much for nice a note. I learned a bit about sea shells and a bit about you. A man who loves what he does, travels the world to gather specimens, takes care of them and shares them with people like me and other Uglyhedgehogers.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Oh, thanks so much for the complement but, no I did not travel to collect my large Sea Shell collection. The furthest I've been from home in CA is one trip in 1977 to Buffalo, NY to visit relatives and see a little of Upstate New York. Living relatively close to the huge port of Los Angeles (San Pedro and Long Beach), the shells kind of came to me. Many were gifts, others I just found on the shore (not the exotic ones, just a few common California species), a lot I purchased from a shop called The Sea in San Pedro (now gone, owners retired), and most sea-side towns have shops that sell sea shells (those tend to be over priced but often exquisite and large). A lot of my early and tropical ones came from a couple of my father's coworkers who did scuba diving back in the Sixties. And these days you can buy them on the internet (eBay, shell shops, etc.). My first few and how it got started were from my Grandmother then living in San Diego, CA. I certainly love collecting Sea Shells. I also love collecting recorded music of many sortsand styles, on LPs, CDs, etc.

Oddly I just missed what could have been the mother-load of sea shells. It turned out that a now friend of mine fellow photographer who I was taking photo classes with just a few years ago comes from a Thai family who were one of the primary importers of bulk and wholesale Pacific Sea Shells, in fact they knew and sold sea shells to the family that owned that shop, The Sea. I found all this out after the fact and too late. After both of us no longer taking classes together I learned of this and he learned of my love of shells. He can identify more of them than I can! Just a few years back my friend's father died (young) and shortly after while we were both taking photos classes, he uncle retired and sold the shell business, all the shells, and their collection of choice specimens. All gone but since I did get about three they still had laying about their home. And the exceptionally nice museum quality shells The Sea people (ironically also named Williams. I knew that many years ago), donated their collection to a (real) natural history museum. For that you really need the exact location collected and the collection date and species IDs.

A fact I find fascinating about Sea Shell Collecting and History is that (WWII era and beyond) Japanese Emperor Hirohito was an avid sea shell collector and visitors who knew that would bring him shells as gifts. From what I understand, the then very young new Emperor actually did not want to be a monarch but a Marine Biologist! Perhaps had FDR offered him a nice collection of shells the world might have been shed a lot of blood shed and death. Likely not so simple as the young Hirohito was an inexperienced and not strong leader at the time and the military samurai mentality and leaders of that day used him and ignored him for their world conquests.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Here is a different approach, on white paper. A different sea shell, yet another small spider conch. This time with a different lens as well. The best way to do it on a white background would be to put it on white translucent shooting table and light it from both underneath and from above. Perhaps I should try photographing shells on a stone with small stones around.

View In Download Please

(Download)

angler Loc: StHelens England

Nice shot

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Nice work, Mike.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

But I still prefer having the (abstract) black background so I don't have to contend with shadows so much. Short of having one of those light tables or a "natural" sandy or rocky scene. Thanks everyone for viewing.