But the coast operates at every scale, and the small scale is where most of the actual biology lives. This patch of California mussels and gooseneck barnacles was tucked into the lee side of a rock at low tide. The mussels showed an orange band I'd never seen on the central coast before — not the standard blue-black, but a warm rust running through the shells in patterns that almost looked deliberate.
I came around the corner looking for shelter from the wind and found a subject that asked for the camera. Sometimes that's enough.
The texture in this print is what carries it. The crystalline structures of the barnacle shells, the wet-sheen on the mussels, the variety in their orientation — every square inch of this frame has something to look at.
"Sometimes the print you didn't plan is more interesting than the one you did."
Every square inch has something to look at.
