Tag Archives: beach

Shells

Posted on by under molluscs, photography, shells

Another short post with some pics I took earlier in the year at the kitchen table. I was an avid shell collector when I was young and, since I am at the beach or underwater a lot, I still pick up and take home shells (never live molluscs). I found that it is actually quite hard to take decent macro shots of shells. Ideally you take photos at an angle while the shells are underwater on a black background, but I had trouble with glare and gave up on that approach. The photos here were all taken above-water on a white background (which will be overexposed with the shells being underexposed so that is something I need to figure out). Shells tend to lose their lustre so I have used baby oil to restore their gleam. Above the Pheasant Shell Tricolia picta (previously UK specimens were considered to be T. pullus), a favourite macro topic of mine as well when alive, see here. I have pasted a few more photos below, including the five species of Topshells common in Cornwall, but I am too lazy to add all species names! (feel free to comment if you are curious about a specific species and I will do my best to answer). Something to experiment more with in winter when I cannot go out.

Moody Macro

Posted on by under crustaceans, fish, Flushing, Macro, mzuiko60mm, rock pooling
A quick post with some finds from a recent walk on the shores of Flushing, specifically above-water (‘topside’) macro shots with a diffuser. This always leads to my subjects turning out with subdued grey and brown tones, but that is OK. A velvet crab, the amphipod Cymodoce truncata (looks a bit like a trilobite!), a worm pipefish covered in a film of water with some more shots (with descriptions) at the end.

beachcombing after storm Darragh

Posted on by under beach combing, crustaceans, eggs, fish, iPhone, jellies, molluscs
Storm Darragh raged over the UK last weekend – which by itself was not great, apart from the fact that there was a chance interesting stuff had washed up on the beach! As the winds came from the North, we drove to the long beach at Perranporth on the north coast to have a look. It was nice to get sandblasted for a bit and admire the furious crashing waves and icy blue-grey sea. Find of the day was a dead Grey Triggerfish (Balistes capriscus), a generally more southern species that is increasingly observed in the UK. Some other finds in the gallery below (shot with an iPhone; which is actually a lot easier than changing a wide angle for a macro lens on a wet, sandy beach!). Among the finds, Goose Barnacles, a Small-Spotted Catshark eggcase, an unidentified blob and a cuttlefishbone of the Pink Cuttlefish (Rhombosepion orbignyanum).

Necklace Shell

Posted on by under beach combing, iPhone, molluscs

A quick post as it has been a while…..Last Sunday we went on a walk on sunny Carne Beach on the Roseland Peninsula. The primary aim was to get some fresh air, the second to find some dahlia anemones to bring home to the aquarium (we succeeded in that) and the third to do a bit of beach combing. Nothing much washed up, but we did find a number of live Necklace Shells (Euspira catena). These gastropods hunt bivalves in and on the sand; if you see shell valves with a neat little hole in them, you know they were victims of this predator. They are name after their necklace-shaped, sandy egg capsules (see here).

This one is about as big as they get. Their cousins in the North-East of the Pacific Ocean (Euspira lewisii) are something else though, take a look at this!