A snail's space

We were out in yesterday's drizzle trying for art shots of red and green Ailanthus leaves bursting full-blown from above last year's leaf scars (photo below) -- like Athena from the forehead of Zeus -- when suddenly, there she was, the sweetest little land snail you ever saw (x 2.5). Yes. Right here in Chelsea-by-the-Sea, transcendent beauty to make your heart stop. And cute. Check out those eye stalks.

We came back inside to view what we had shot, went out again, came back in and went out again time after time trying to get the perfect picture.

They're so cute when they're little.  Ailanthus leaves pop out above last year's leaf scars.

Fortunately, the little gastropod moved at a snail's pace, and we were able to get a pretty good picture of the real-life version of SpongeBob's Gary, the snail that meows and purrs like a pussycat:

Gary is  SpongeBob's loyal pet snail, who "may actually be much more intelligent than your ordinary garden variety snail."

We don't subscribe to the SpongeBob line that your "ordinary" garden variety snail is not intelligent, of course.  Each species is as intelligent as it needed to be to get through the great winnowing process (Witold Rybczynski's phrase re history) of evolution. Some might say the horseshoe crab, which unlike the rest of us poor fools hasn't had to change for hundreds of millions of years, is the smartest of all.

Comments

[Donna B.]

Beautiful photos! "Snail Blogging" is just my speed :-)

[goomp]

Really a prize winning photo. Should have had a lanche.

[Mr.Kurtz]

Remarkable photos! Have the images values been manipulated? They appear to be very heavily color-saturated and quite contrasty and sharpened. No criticism; just trying to pick a mind.

[Sissy Willis]

Manipulated but not color saturated. I did some auto level and filter sharpening to crisp it up. I'm hoping that once the digital cameras are up to snuff I'll be able to catch the sharpness without manipulation.

[Mr.Kurtz]

Again, simply lovely. As are the cats.

I'm not quite vainly trying to teach my D100 to emulate big brother, the F4s, but film v digital is still one sided in my experience, except for the enchanting odors from the darkroom.