A second view shows it has moved slightly - retracted into the shell and one eye stalk is pulled it. It extended it again when I was taking this series of shots to be stacked, but none was in focus. I kind of like that it shows how mobile those eye stalks are. It’s a stack of 9.
A play on Downward Dog. Another view of this Whitelip snail either holding some weird yoga pose or frozen with fright. It was alive even though at this point I thought it was dead. IRL the shell is about 2cm long. The green reflection of the surrounding leaves adds a little bit of an underwater vibe as does the coral fungus it was feeding on before this freeze frame moment. I mean, I know snails are slow and all, but this was crazy.
Specific Feedback Requested
I have another couple of stacks of this if there is any point that should be crisp in this shot, but isn’t. Like the bit of the log behind it. I like it pretty blurred out though. I think the snail stands out more clearly.
Technical Details
Tripod for camera, Gorilla pod for LED panel to the right and just in front.
15-image stack from a single bracketing session using 0/+ method and 5-step increments
Lr for initial wb adjustment as well as some tonal management, especially in the background. Clarity & texture added along with a touch of sharpening and nr. Zerene for a DMap stack and some retouching to smooth the background and pick up details from the PMax image. Lr to adjust the new TIF and add contrast to the snail using a mask. Ran it through Denoise as well.
Kris, wow, this is an “in the face” look at this snail. Such details, just amazing. For one who hasn’t yet got into stacking, please note that I am just wondering if what I am seeing that looks like an echo of the “3 finger like” fungus under the snail might have been something to do with stacking. Whatever it be, that is just a minor issue to this excellent shot. It’s probably just something in the BG that mimics the shape of the fungus, and you could just clone it out or tone that down. I love how the colors in the BG compliment the snail and the fungus. You are the champ of snails now as well as fungus!
Wonderful detail in this little guy, Kris. Seems to me you two must be on a first name basis by now! Yes, I do love how @Shirley_Freeman can see, way better than me! Nicely done.
Very cool! Maybe you could carry this guy around and pose it in different settings! But it would be hard to top this one, for setting, lighting and pose.
And eagle eyes, Shirley! It took a me a long time to find the tweak.
thanks @linda_mellor & @Diane_Miller - macro stuff like this just knocks my socks off. Not as popular as some other kinds of nature photography, but finding and revealing hidden worlds is where it’s at for me a lot of the time.
I stuck a new shot in the OP for comparison - now you can see it did actually move although I still wasn’t sure at the time. It does it so slowly and I was moving the camera to new angles and perspectives so it was hard to tell, but I like the subtle difference.
