“The world’s mine oyster!”

Life is full of potential. With persistence it holds the possibility of encountering something special. That’s why “the world’s mine oyster”, a quote from Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor”,  has evolved into a favourite metaphor for life: “the world’s your oyster”. If you have an oyster there is a chance that there may be a pearl in it.

Recently an edited version of that familiar idiom was ascribed to me by a friend who said “Oysters are your world!”. He was right on a number of levels, one being my willingness to drive in search of shells. I made a 262 km round trip to walk along the shore of the Pinette River looking for oyster shells.

I did indeed find some but I’ve come to learn that only a select few actually have the textured characteristics I can photograph. Only time would tell. I washed them, let them dry then did a preliminary viewing with my camera in search of something interesting to grab my attention. I found SPIRITED hiding in one of those shells. Art has a way of lifting one’s spirits during quiet reflection.

Pinette River, in Queens County, is located in the central portion of Prince Edward Island and flows west into Northumberland Strait. When I find a shore with oyster shells I collect a lot of them because I never know if any will have a hidden treasure to discover and celebrate with my photography. Do you see Spirited’s shell in the group shot above?

Spirited is the result of using specialized macro photography equipment and techniques to take 17 photographs. In my camera’s viewfinder I’m only seeing the area inside the small rectangle section shown in the shell image. Each shot has different details in focus which means I then need to merge together all the in-focus areas. After all that, the digital processing begins. It’s a time consuming process but one that I love! It’s the time when the conversation happens between the shell and me — the artwork is the result! Click here to see sizes and prices for Spirited.

I think Spirited was worth the drive! Do you? I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions where I might drive to next.