Snail's Pace
These photographs of snails were inspired by the work by Ukrainian photographer Vyacheslav Mishchenko. I think he takes his photographs in the wild, but I decided to take mine using a tabletop set up in my garage.
It took a while to set up the stage for this shoot. I knew that I would use a water-filled grow bag tray from a garden centre to create interesting reflections. But the first problem I ran into was that the lip of the tray was visible, so I placed some sandstone-coloured rocks at the end to create a more naturalistic feel.
To create a colourful, out-of-focus background I placed some sweet peas about half-way along the tray and shot at a wide aperture (f/2.8).
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-1.jpg)
The next problem was that the water reflection just looked black. I thought about adding watercolour paints or food colouring to the water but then realised that I could change the colour of the water by giving the water something to reflect. So I positioned a large blue piece of card at the end of the shot and this worked perfectly.
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-2.jpg)
The final piece of set design was to give the snails something to perch on, so I added some lichen-covered sticks from the wood and some attractive stones brought back from a visit to the beach.
For lighting, I used a Godox AD200 flash in a large umbrella softbox. Most of these images are lit by flash only, though I did include ambient light in some images by using a slower shutter speed. Because the ambient light was coming from the rear of the garage, this added a nice rim light to the snail’s shell.
Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Olympus M.60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. 1/125s, f/2.8. ISO 200.
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-3.jpg)
Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Olympus M.60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. 1/125s, f/2.8. ISO 200.
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-4.jpg)
I’d collected four small snails and one large one. (We’ve had some heavy rain recently and it’s brought out snails that I discovered on my morning dog walk.) Most of the small snails were reluctant models and wouldn’t leave their shell but I found one who seemed to enjoy being in the limelight. I placed them (most land snails are hermaphrodites so I’m using the gender-neutral term) on an attractive stone and shot at a wide aperture (f/2.8) to emphasise their small scale. I focused on their head, but on closer inspection I noticed I was losing focus on the shell so for most of the subsequent photographs I changed my aperture to f/4-f/5.6.
Placing the snail on the lichen-covered stick was easier than I thought. I needed to hold them in place for about 30 seconds but by then, they had gained sufficient purchase on the stick that I could let go.
Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Olympus M.60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. 1/125s, f/4. ISO 200.
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-5.jpg)
I liked the reflection but I also thought it worth adding some water drops to the image just to see how it looked.
Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Olympus M.60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. 1/100s, f/4.5. ISO 200.
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-6.jpg)
Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Olympus M.60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. 1/100, f/4.5. ISO 200.
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-7.jpg)
Another idea I wanted to explore was to place the snail on spiral-shaped objects, like a sea shell and a fern from the garden. I thought this would be a good way to emphasise the design of their shells. These images are OK but I wasn’t able to find any objects that were truly spiral, so I may need to come back to this idea in the future.
Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Olympus M.60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. 1/250s, f/5.6. ISO 200.
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-8.jpg)
Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Olympus M.60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. 1/100s, f/4.5. ISO 200.
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-9.jpg)
Finally, I introduced a larger snail. This added obvious parent/child storytelling possibilities but made it tricky to get everything in focus. One of these images with both snails is a composite (one image with the smaller snail in focus, the other image with the larger snail in focus). My Olympus camera has in-camera focus stacking but I couldn’t use it here because, believe it or not, snails actually move quite fast!
Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Olympus M.60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. 1/60s, f/4.5. ISO 200. Background blurred in Photoshop.
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-10.jpg)
Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Olympus M.60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. 1/250s, f/4. ISO 200.
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-11.jpg)
Olympus OM-D EM-1 Mk 2 with Olympus M.60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. 1/60s, f/4.5. ISO 200. Composite of two images.
![](../img/blog/snail/snail-12.jpg)
This was an enjoyable activity for a rainy day and I really like the colourful nature of the images. But I’m aware that the images can appear a bit twee (like my Tamed project). Maybe they would work well on a greeting card (if I can find someone who likes snails). That said, I do like the aesthetic, pictorial nature of the images.
After breaking down the set, I rewarded my subjects with green leaves and freed them in a local wood.