This morning a coworker asked if I would mind shooting some shells real quick for her. It just so happened that last night I was thinking of setting up a macro shot for today using the black velvet and lights I’d used to do this shot from 01-30-2004 but in my office on my drawing desk. All I needed was a subject! Well I set everything up ASAP only to find out that the shells were only around 4cm in width and also that they still have to sort through all 1000 or so specimens for the ones they want to use…darn. Thankfully, Dr. Timothy Pearce, Assistant Curator for our collection of Mollusks let me borrow one other shell for the day. During my afternoon break I had a blast trying to shoot this in an interesting way.

This is Strombidae, Lambis chiragra, or commonly known as the Chiragra Spider Conch.