Shelltered

I have not posted much lately. Teaching has kept me both away and tired.

The idea for this photo was born some ten years ago. I was on the beach with my family and some friends on a camping trip. I started finding clam shells that were wide open but both halves still attached. What struck me was that both shells were symmetric. So I decided to start collecting shells in the hopes of creating a series of shell portraits called "symmetry". That never materialized.

Flash forward 8 years (flash back 2, depending on where your head is right now) and I was again on the beach with my kids, my son presents me with a truly unique stone. The idea flashes for me again, only this time I did something about it with The Gathering. The Gathering has been a runaway winner in my shows. Then last year on the beach again I find myself and kids wandering among a negative low tide and exposed on all the rocks is an army of sea stars. The collection bug hits again and Seaing Stars is born. And it is a nice counter part to the The Gathering in my shows.

Well two months ago I started feeling like something was missing, a third photo that would round out the other two and form a triptych. The idea of "Symmetry" comes back to me after all this time, but rather than just clam shells, all kinds of shells. We have been collecting shells for the last ten years and it was time to see what the cornucopia of our ten year collecting efforts were.

Pictured here is about 1/3 of the total shells we have in our collection. I am not sure if this is the best arrangement or not, but it was very fun. This is also just a small digi-pic while I wait for the 4x5's to come back.

I am interested to here your feedback on it. Any ideas on placement of the shells, or the variety, or anything else on how it could be made better is much appreciated. Unlike the other two which concentrate heavily on "one" type of subject, this one although loosely on "shells" is much more varied. I can remake this one at anytime because we still have all these shells.