Goose Neck Barnacles on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Canon EOS XSi 50mm f/1.4 at f5.6 1/60 −1ev

I am a pretty public person, some are probably annoyed with the fact that I sometimes push myself into the spotlight. I am often loud and assertive but I love the quiet of time to myself. I was searching for this one day when I drove out to the west coast of the island. I walked out on to Long Beach in the misty October morning and the rain stopped as I walked across the beach. I remembered a colony of barnacles on the seaward side of a large rock on the beach and I had timed my arrival to coincide with low tide. I found my spot in a gap between two large rocks that opened out towards the ocean and began to photograph the barnacles. I loved the quiet solitude of these moments as I searched for the right image. The light wasn’t great so I set up my flash and put an orange gell on my snooted flash. I wanted orange to warm up the light and give the appearance of sunlight on a very overcast day. The snoot allowed me to focus the light in a smaller area. I made my snoot out of cardboard folded into a sleeve that slides over my flash. I liked the way it brought focus to the barnacle colony.

-Russell Berg