The Exquisite Elegance of Nature

Question: What prompts nature to create such a perfect design of shape, symmetry, curves and texture merely to house and protect a sea mollusk? With all the intelligence that human architects, engineers and designers supposedly have and all the tools available to realize their dreams of beauty and perfection, they cannot improve or even emulate what is native to the world in which we live. One of the challenges of the artist photographer is to capture this remarkable world in a setting that offers a new opportunity to display and share this perfection. In this simple still life of a sea shell placed on a red, reflective background with natural sunlight streaming through a window, Priscilla has done exactly that.
Her camera was a Nikon D80 fitted with a 60mm macro lens. For maximum depth of field, the aperture was closed all the way to f/32 resulting in the necessity for a slow shutter speed of 2.5 seconds and the use of a tripod. She didn’t compromise on the quality or risk adding noise by staying with a low ISO of 100. The image above reflects all this careful planning.