Dear Brian and Michelle asked me about the nature of the shells that I've scanned recently, and here is a brief explanation along with some other scans... I do not know the exact name for the shells that I've scanned, but they are a species from the phylum "echinodermata" that also includes sea potatoes, sea urchins, sea biscuits (Brian says that mine might also be sea biscuits) and sand dollars as shelled creatures, and sea cucumber and starfish as shell-less species... And know, here comes a sea potatoe (heart urchin)...

...

By now, most of you probably have seen the bat in the sea potato...

'S funny I see a moth. Actualy this is really cool especially the second b/w pict. I'm gonna steal it! Sorry D but I hope you to see what I did with it within a couple of days. Thanks for sharing. Bsteph

This sea urchin is rather rare to find in the Aegean or the Mediterranean sea... These have shorter, thicker spines that are mostly dark purple in color with their tips commonly whitish, and they are far more heavier and also larger than the 'regular' urchins in the Mediterranean or the Aegean. These latter urchins (which I haven't scanned here) are black on the spines, and the spines are thinner and a little bit longer...

These sort of sea creatures are absolutely fascinating and so very beautiful....I wish I could touch and hold them.

Well, you know this one... I scanned it for it's the most perfectly preserved one that I was able to find under the sea... I scanned both front and back (upper side and lower side, perhaps) of the same shell (infact, 'test' as I've learned right now from the book "Shell" of "Eyewitness Guides" serial of "Dorling Kindersley, London", a book that was the gift of a British friend who knew my enthusiasm for sea shells)...

I was able to collect these and a lot more in "Marmaris" and other places close to it during the summer holidays that I was able to have... Marmaris is a touristical and very old town that is situated at the south-west corner of Anatolia, where the Aegean and the Mediterranean coasts of Anatolia (Turkish Republic) meet... Dear Brian, proceed as you please... :) I wonder what you will come up to... Dear Michelle, I can assure you that handling these shells is an amazing experience......yet, stressful a bit as these shells are so very delicate and brittle...

BTW, Brian, you're right that it's rather a moth...

Fascinating.

These are amazing, I can see endless images coming out of these. the crop on the left in 3 is a really beautiful image in itself.

Yep, these are amazing, havent seen anything like this before. And, I stole these pics for my textures again, sorry. :o) .n

And you simply laid these shells on your scanner and scanned them directly? They're fantastic images. I doubt any better could have been done with a camera.

Dear Artemia, even the very first image that I've posted concerning these echinodermal shells was a direct scan...
From my experiences of directly scanning nearly every object that was in my reach and that was suitable to lay on a scanner, I knew that the scanner light provides such fine diffuse lighting, and the effect is even more dramatic when you make your scans against a dark background provided by turning off the lights of the room that you're making the scan...
Rest is ideas, careful placements, and post work (if necessary)...

Well, I hope I didn't disappoint you with the simplicity of the technique that lead to an image that you liked quite much... :-)

These are wonderful images Doruk, fascinating and immensely aesthetically pleasing! Thankyou for sharing! :-D>

Amazing!