Seashell Series

In January or February of 2008 the BAPC assignment was "Still life". I had never attempted to shoot a still life before and tried several different subjects, including pears and flowers but finally found some seashells and decided I really wanted to explore their shape and texture. I tried various backgrounds like sand and a bamboo placemat and when I found a piece of very dark driftwood I knew I had something I would like. I used my macro lens and ambient light from a window and no reflector to fill the left side because I wanted shadows to show the form and texture of the shells. Whenever possible, I tried to place each seashell on the part of the driftwood that echoed the shape or lines in the shell. I could not decide between several of the images and then thought a triptych would help convey what I was exploring and since all of the shells were not the exact same color I first converted each image to black and white and then added a sepia tone.

Nikon D200, 60mm macro lens at f9 and 1/15th, -.67 exposure compensation, ISO 100, cloudy whitebalance