When I was a boy–aside from the obvious ball sports like basketball and football–I spent my time with a bunch of matchbox cars that I liked to line up and organize every day. I’m not sure what I got out of that. I also had a bunch of marbles and crayons. I’ve always been fascinated by color, size, texture…organizing shit and categorizing and all of that. Right-brain nonsense I guess. Trying to find patterns in the world.
Shells sort of trigger that part of me, I think. Especially wampum. The tiny purple pieces of Quahog Clam shells that are sprinkled along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Collecting them, observing the patterns and colors and textures, and piecing them back together in groups for portraits like this one. Certainly makes me feel like a boy again–especially when I’m forty years old sitting in the sand on a winter beach playing with a bunch of shell fragments :-). No shame in my game!
Lens: Nikkor 60mm micro f2.8 @ 60mm
Tripod: Really Right Stuff TVC-33
Date taken: February 25, 2021
Settings: f11, 1/15 second, iso-64
I do the same and I’m 50 🤷🏼 I feel we could be doing something a whole hell of a lot worst. I just came back home from visiting for the afternoon at Wrightsville Beach, NC. I found beautiful pieces of milky, purple mix. It’s beautiful and curiosity sent me researching to find its a wampum, Quahog Clam. Absolutely, beautiful!
By the way, meant to tell you your picture is great! You have a great eye!
Thank you so much, Sherry! I absolutely love photographing the broken pieces of quahog clams!