It's not an Oyster...
...it's not a pearl.
No, it's a "Marble Mollusk", a rare marble-forming freshwater mollusk. As the legend goes, Marble Mollusks formed thousands of years ago as one of the first-known protests in the animal world against "the great human pearl exploitation". But since humans also love to play, and marbles are amongst the oldest toys in human history...
Technically, not only oysters produce pearls. Several types of mollusks are capable of forming pearls such as abalones and even snails. But the majority of cultured pearls are "harvested" from oysters or freshwater mussels.
This "Marble Mollusk" is another last-minute idea. I had frozen a few marbles in ice for my Sunday MM photoshoot but the results were somewhat disappointing, and when I walked past the bowl with the seashell collection this morning I thought "Maybe I should put one of the smaller marbles into one of these shells." One of the light blue marbles worked best because it has such a nicely vibrant glow to it when illuminated from the right position (in this case, I used a flashlight slightly from behind/above).
This final image is a single shot taken with the Laowa Ultra Macro. I also did some focus stacking with my 60mm macro lens, but the shell was a little too prominent in these photos. Processed in Color Efex and Luminar Neo. The size of the marble is 1,6 cm / 0,39 inches in diameter.
HMM, Everyone!
It's not an Oyster...
...it's not a pearl.
No, it's a "Marble Mollusk", a rare marble-forming freshwater mollusk. As the legend goes, Marble Mollusks formed thousands of years ago as one of the first-known protests in the animal world against "the great human pearl exploitation". But since humans also love to play, and marbles are amongst the oldest toys in human history...
Technically, not only oysters produce pearls. Several types of mollusks are capable of forming pearls such as abalones and even snails. But the majority of cultured pearls are "harvested" from oysters or freshwater mussels.
This "Marble Mollusk" is another last-minute idea. I had frozen a few marbles in ice for my Sunday MM photoshoot but the results were somewhat disappointing, and when I walked past the bowl with the seashell collection this morning I thought "Maybe I should put one of the smaller marbles into one of these shells." One of the light blue marbles worked best because it has such a nicely vibrant glow to it when illuminated from the right position (in this case, I used a flashlight slightly from behind/above).
This final image is a single shot taken with the Laowa Ultra Macro. I also did some focus stacking with my 60mm macro lens, but the shell was a little too prominent in these photos. Processed in Color Efex and Luminar Neo. The size of the marble is 1,6 cm / 0,39 inches in diameter.
HMM, Everyone!