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| Winning Photo (1 of 5) "General" Category Wiki Science 2017 Science Photo Competition |
Banana Slug (Ariolimax sp.) and the
Sword Fern of Damocles
When I first opened the email with the congratulations from Wiki Science, I thought, "Oh, that's kind of nice." But I kept hitting a few more links, looking and reading deeper into the Wiki Science photo competition page; and the more I looked and the more I read, I had to begin beaming a bit to myself. There are some fine photographs in there, and I was up against some professionals and a few extremely competent natural science hobbyist. I am honored to be chosen along with such high caliber craftsmen. I think of my self as merely a joyous explorationist (with a camera), not a photographer. But this is a cool honor.
I serendipitously happened upon the photo competition when I googled Wikipedia to look up the genus and species names for the banana slug photo I was about to include on my Suneson Scenes blog, detailing our 2017 vacation stops. This banana slug happened to be at Patrick Point State Park on California's North Coast [see A Far Piece From Home - Travelogue 2017v6: North Coast; August, 2017]. The life-long science and nature enthusiast in me feels a debt of gratitude to old Carl Linnaeus (Swedish botanist, 'Father of Taxonomy') and his binomial nomenclature classification, so I like to add genus and species names to my subjects when my subjects are interesting critters, and even sometimes to the flora. While searching for the proper nomenclature, I noticed the invitation there in Wikipedia to upload any science photos that one wanted to share in this year's photo competition. Yeah, I'll give it a shot - this banana slug looks like a winning slug if ever I saw one.
I knew I liked this photo, it had interesting and appealing symmetry and composition, mostly by luck. I thought the background was a bit messy, but - it was only the background after all. I liked the dynamic position of the banana slug, with the look and feel of an impending plummet to the forest floor captured as the slug dangles from the tip of the sword fern while feasting on its evening meal. I do not know if my pun of a title helped my entry, playing off of the moral fable of the 'Sword of Damocles'. A tale where Damocles, a court flatterer, opined to the king how wonderful to be so powerful and enjoy such an opulent and splendor-filled life. The king offered Damocles a chance to taste such an envied life style, and Damocles willing accepted the offer. While dining on rich food and being attended by servants he noticed that a razor-sharp sword had been suspended over his head by a mere single hair. Damocles understood that peril and assassination were only an instant away from those seated in such a position of power, and excused himself from the feast. Likewise, there is sword in this photo (albeit, a 'sword' fern) and the action takes place while feasting/feeding - at least in my mind the allusion worked.
There were hundreds of banana slugs out along the rim trail at Patrick Point State Park that evening as we scurried along toward Wedding Rock to catch the final rays of the sun as it slipped into the Pacific waters, but I stopped for a few fascinated moments to take a few photos of these large gastropods, and I would admit that such a moment has given me pleasure, not only for that moment of exploration and observation, but now for a little recognition of my good fortune to see and collect this photo and to be recognized for its composition. It was a [banana] slug-fest out in those woods, but I came out of those woods a winner!
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