A few days ago, I saw some snails in a corner in my compound. Then I got ideas for photos. I imagined the snails on a smooth surface and me taking close-up shots of them. I also had ideas for the kind of lighting I wanted. So I had to source for all I needed to create what I had in mind.
After some brainstorming, I decided to use tiles and an umbrella. The tiles as the smooth surface and also for the background. Under bright sunlight, the umbrella would create the shade of lighting I needed/wanted.
The sun was scorching hot, so I had a bucket of water beside me to wet the tiles and snails intermittently. In the photo above you will notice the snails are wet. I took the photo just after wetting them.
I used two snails, four tiles, and one umberella. The tiles were off-white in colour, and the umbrella had lots of green, little white, and little yellow. I arranged the tiles like a cube with no top and no front so that I could take photos from both angles. It is a known fact that snails crawl slowly, but despite this, I had to keep repositioning them. At one point I went inside to drink some water, and when I returned one had crawled off the tile.
Snails have shells, and they can retract into their shells. Their eyes are located at the tip of tentacles. Below these tentacles are two smaller tentacles. I took most of the photos when their tentacles had been extended.
In this part of the world where I live, snails are quite expensive. And I often hear that snail farming is profitable. I believe it is because of what snails feed on. Actually, I have a little snail farming experience. A few years ago my mom gathered some snails and started feeding them. She had no plans to sell them though. She likes eating snails, unlike me who doesn't. Everything went fine for a few months. Then one morning she went to where she kept them and soldier ants had invaded everywhere. That was the end of her trying snail farming. Surprisingly, none of the snails died.
I love black and white photos. I was tempted to post all these snail photos in black and white. You can check my posts, Padlock and Wood and Little Space Rocks
The weather eventually got too hot for me to continue. Kneeling under the umbrella wasn't also easy. If I raised it too high, the light from the sun was too much. But I enioyed doing it. I always enjoy taking photos of random stuff I see. In my next post, I am thinking of experimenting with bottles. Here is another black and white photo.
This is my favourite of all. It's actually the last photo I took. I think I like it because of the positions of the snails. There is some action in the photo. It was also taken from another angle because I had already removed one of the tiles (walls). There is a possibility that I like it more because it is black and white.
Which photo is your favourite? Do you have any suggestions? Kindly drop a comment.
