Making a sweep with sand?

**John Kasaian** · 18-Jun-2010, 08:40

I just obtained a specimen of a huge Lion's Paw sea shell to join my giant seahorse in a marine specimen series I'm shooting on 8x10 ortho film for contact printing. My biggest issue so far is the background.
I've narrowed it down to one of two different types of sand---decomposed granite from a beach at Camp Chawanakee at Shaver Lake and a coarse sand from a beach at Moss Landing (out back of Phil's Fish Market!)
My reason for using medium coarse sand is to provide texture without overwhealming the marine specimens, and fine sand just wasn't doing it as it looked too featurless.
Problem #2 is how to make a "sweep" of sorts as I don't want to shoot straight down into a sand box as it makes for difficult lighting due to shadows(I'm using natural light and reflectors.)
I'm thinking of using a lug box (like the kind fruit comes in) filled with the sand and a piece of stiff paper sprayed with 3m adhesive and coated with the same sand to form the sweep, burying one end of the sand "paper" in the lug box so I can prop up the specimens.
What do you think? Any other suggestions?

**Nathan Potter** · 18-Jun-2010, 13:42

John, I know you're dilemma about background. I think you need to make a connection between the shell and the background, and the coarse sand, if slightly resolvable in the final image, is the best bet IF you intend the shell itself to be the undivided center of interest. Maybe to obtain a bit more interest in the background but not too much so as to detract from the beauty of the shell, you could modify the gross morphology of the sand to simulate actual sand ripples or a feature that one sees naturally occurring in sand at the beach due to wave action. In other words the shell is clearly in a natural setting as washed up on a beach. Spraying adhesive and applying sand I think would be difficult without incurring artificiality. The box is a good idea for lighting - can you simply extend the top surface of the box and cover it with sand so you have a broader area surrounding the shell?

OR, can you do the whole setup at a beach with suitable reflectors, or even a tent where you can choose an infinite array of beach backgrounds.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

**John Kasaian** · 18-Jun-2010, 13:56

Thanks Nate!
I can configure the box anyway I want and having an "apron" is certainly do-able. Since the Lion's Paw is shorter than the seahorse I'd either need to make two different "steps" or make the sweep bigger in order to recenter the Lion's Paw---I think I'll make the sweep bigger to simplify things. I'd prefer to take my kit to the beach but that is unlikely to happen anytime soon (it's difficult to go to the beach without my family, and then it is practically impossible to do any "serious" photography.
Of course another option is to use plain white paper but the idea of coarse sand on a warmtone print sounds more interesting.