Nature Science

A BEAUTIFUL SLOW SMALL WORLD NOW

Snail and Bubble by Vyacheslav Mishchenko.

by Vyacheslav Mishchenko. Snail and Bubble.

February feels like a slow month. Winter seems to be taking its time, move at glacial pace towards spring. We seem to slow down too, as we navigate our frozen world. “Slow” is not often celebrated. In fact, it is often the down side of things. So we thought it would be a great time to celebrate the Beautiful Slow.

Snails are some of the slowest creatures on Earth. It can take them an entire hour to travel 50 yards. That’s about 1.3 cm. per second!

Ukrainian photographer Vyacheslav Mishchenko creates magnificent portraits of snails, -- they are portraits of slow.

Mishchenko’s photos have a kind of romance about them -- not an easy accomplishment, given that we are talking about snails!

Mishchenko’s father was a freelance photographer and he has been obsessed by photography since he was a little boy.

His family and he loved to camp out in the woods and he began to photograph the beautiful plants and animals he encountered there. He took his first macro shot when he was just 10 years old.

Insects and snails captured Mishchenko’s attention in particular, both because of their physical beauty, especially in close-up view, and for their idiosyncratic behaviors.

He shoots his subjects in their natural habitats. We see artistry in the miniature landscapes. It turns out that a snail’s world is quite magnificent.

We wonder if the snails know, somehow, just how beautiful they are, as they glide, ever so slowly, and stretch their heads slowly outward, timidly touching their antennae, and shrinking back into their spiral shells.

Mishchenko captures the languid whimsy of these creatures as they slide along green stems and leaves, tentatively kiss crimson berries, reach for a sip of dew, and perch atop magical fairy toadstools. He shows off each little detail with crisp execution.

Check out more of his work on his Facebook page. And enjoy the Beautiful Slow.

Read more about Beautiful Slow, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Slow in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 02.22.15. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!