"I am at work on the second vol. of the Cirripedia, of which creatures I am wonderfully tired : I hate a Barnacle as no man ever did before, not even a Sailor in a slow-sailing ship."
― Charles Darwin, Letter to W. D. Fox, 24 [October 1852] 
I like to research the things I photograph. Sometimes that gets me down rabbit holes. I didn't know barnacles were central in Darwin's work. He actually spent eight years studying them, a little baffled and not knowing how to classify these crustaceans, surrounded by smelly boxes full of them in his house. They turned out to be central to his theory.
After reading some science and looking at them more closely, I find barnacles really beautiful to photograph. The two calcified plates forming their opening, the operculum, are quite photogenic. And the other six overlapping shell plates creating the wall around them look like small volcanoes. But unlike Darwin, I left those to the beach where they belong, along with the other memories of that beautiful place.
Barnacles and three rabbit holes : Darwin. September 2025.
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