For my part, after a dive, I always photograph my favorite shell onblack, fine, non-reflectivematerial, e.g. the inside of my wetsuit or a black T-shirt with an manual camera (SLR(Canon)), with a very shortexposure time of around 1\160 to 1\220 and the highestf-values ​​possible F15 to F25, in bright sunlight with sometimes up to three additionallightsources like underwater flashlights.
Then on my iPad I cut out the subject inside the photo using the AdobePhotoshopCSApp, for e.g. periostracum this can take some time, and save the PSD file on my device, not in the cloud!, to then move the file to my AdobeFrescoApp. Here I position the shell on DinA4 and add a black background layer with sometimes a description text. I use Adobe Fesco just because the AdobePhotoshopCS Ipad App had noadjustablegridpatterns*lines* at the beginning, e.g. to find the best position. To finish everything I export the image as a high resolution jpg to my gallery and upload it toiNaturalist and my reseach-study-protocol. voilà the seashellobservation is complete…
The most important thing is that the shell is shown as large as possible in the picture and no space is wasted around it!
Are more elaborately produced shellimages even accepted by iNaturalist? Since similar collection observations are actually intended for InverteBase\Gbif and not for iNaturalist.
yes
no
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Private
Hmm…Even though I create many research-shell-templates like this and dive regularly for 10 years, I can say that I have never sold a life from the ocean in my life.
I really like the way this shell is presented. It looks like a jewel. What does the 24 mm mean? Is that the lens or a shell measurement?
That said, I did not see it at first because of the formatting of this post. It was not obvious to me that I needed to click “My Way” to show more of your post, and that there was a poll in your post. (My vote is for yes.)
Then I realized I could click the word “Private” and there was another note though since it says Private I am not sure if I was meant to click it and if not, I am sorry. (But it is not very private so I am letting you know.)
To the question in the title: when I was small, I collected a clutch of small, bright canary-yellow seashells with a tiny whorl from a rocky beach on one side of the Atlantic. I was then amazed to find the same shells on a similar beach but on the other side of the Atlantic. I do not know what these types of shells are called, but they have been dear to me ever since. (I kept them for many years in a larger, clam type shell on my desk, to remind me that the world is simultaneously small and large.) I could not have told you which one shell specifically was the most beautiful, only that they all were.
I’m always happy to see great images like this, and imo they are perfect for iNat.
I’ve been following Leslie Harris’ account (@leslieh) for a while now. She takes photos with a similar method you described for some of her observations and the results are stunning!
As for the question in the title of your post, my favourite mollusc I have found is Tergipes tergipes. As it is a nudibranch, it doesn’t have a shell. Sadly I don’t have that many marine molluscs in my life list, as the nearest beach/coast is quite a bit away…:
Preferably, I like to photograph shells with the snail still inside (or a hermit crab), but I’m not very picky. Usually, when I find an empty shell I just prop it up on a rock and snap a couple of photos of the top and bottom and go on with my tidepooling.
I think I’ll go with a more humble species - Vitta luteofasciata. No two are the same, but they all are boldly marked, sometimes in brilliant, contrasting colors, sometimes in more subdued colors. They remind me of the beautiful fabrics made by West African women - stylish and original.
This thread inspired me to upload the most beautiful shell that I have ever found. I hadn’t done that before. I had to go back through my field notes to find the date and location, but here it is:
It isn’t the most brighly colored shell I have ever found, nor the largest, nor the one in the best condition. What makes it the most beautiful to me is that I had been desirous to find a “triton’s trumpet” for many years before I found this one. I thought the mythological reference was so awesome, and I could see in my mind the image of a triton blowing a trumpet made of this kind of shell.
Shells like this show how beautiful a brown-and-white pattern can be (it is faded and partly obsured by the red foram colonies, but you can make it out on the body whorl. The porcelain-like texturing of the mouth and interior also catch the eye, especially since the colors of the aperture exactly match the sculpturing.
An added treat is that I ever since seeing iNat observations of the red foram, I have been wanting to observe that taxon. Turns out that I had them all along, just waiting for me to go back for another look.
When I havent photographed a shell on the beach at the time of finding, I like to put it on a white background with grid squares, as you see here. If you look at my mollusca observations, you will find a lot of them presented this way because the white emphasizes the shell’s colors and the grid squares provide scale.
I love that you were able to get two desired observations with the one find.
It’s also a reminder that it’s good to go back over old photos and look at them with new eyes. As you learn more about nature, more things will stand out in the photos which your uneducated eyes didn’t notice before.
I found some seashells in my cupboard the other day. These were lacquered. From 1970s. These were not collected by me. Could have been bought from overseas or could be collected by my family members.
Spider conch. I’m mindful that spider conch are vulnerable from over collection. Saw Giant clams being farmed for seafood online. Aquaculture has enabled some species to be farmed these days.
I donno the name of the topshell. Maybe from the mangroves.
Shells found on the beach often have cracks or holes.
There are several species of local molluscs which are dangerous. Said to have a harpoon which it use for catching its prey by injecting toxins. No incidents heard in recent years. The blue ring octopus is the more well known venomous creature in local waters.
I found this empty black-lipped abalone shell at Burnurong Marine National Park, Vic, Aus. I love the rusty red and the inside is so iridescent and beautiful in the sun!! The black-lipped abalone is listed as Vulnerable, and since it was from a Marine Park I couldn’t take it home, even though my mum wanted to .
I have other shells at home, but i keep them in boxes because I read somewhere they can be bleached by sunlight and fade. Not sure if this is true though.
Sea shells are so amazingggg. The fact that a tiny larvae survived til adulthood and its shell washed up to be found is so special.
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