a second look

i photographed this sea urchin a number of different ways, and all of the other ways made it look just like a sea urchin. for some reason this angle made me think to myself, “pile of wild rice!” “cookie with crunchies on top!” “debris caught in a water filter!” “bacteria under a microscope!” before my eyes adjusted back to what i knew it was from the start: a very dead sea urchin. the fact that the image made me look twice softened my heart, and i fell in love with this strange photo, over all the other competent and familiar ones.

sea urchin remains found on icelandic beach