It’s said that purple holds both the energy and intensity of red, as well as the calm and authority of blue.  In fact, purple has the shortest wavelength of all colors making it more powerful and intense than any other color, even red.  In the natural world purple is a very striking color, occurring infrequently.  And with regards to landscape photography, purple is often a distrusted color.  Purple in sky tones is often an indicator of heavy computer manipulation of colors after-the-fact.

Quahogs–pronounced co-hogs–are native clams that live in shallow waters off the east coast.  Their shells are unremarkable when found whole on the beach:  plain white with very little color or pattern.  Remove the shell’s outer coating, however, and you’ll find a beautiful purple color unlike any other shell!  The ocean often does the heavy lifting for us by breaking the large clamshells into small pieces in the surf, polishing and tumbling and depositing them over time onto the nearshore beach in all of their purple glory.  These shell fragments will often be mixed into larger piles of shell hash at low tide along Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

The native americans used Quahog shells to make wampum.  Wampum are the purple and white beads that were used to signify important events; a living history if you will.  The white beads were made from channeled whelks while the purple beads were from the Quahog shell.  It’s said that the white beads represented purity, peace and light; the purple beads war, grieving, and death.  Together, the two colors represented the duality of the world.

Camera:  Nikon D810
Lens:  Nikkor 60mm micro f2.8 @ 60mm
Tripod:  Really Right Stuff TVC-33

Date taken:  February 25, 2021
Settings:  f14, 1/13 second, iso-64