Welcome to the world of slugs. These photos by photographer Barry Webb show such single-celled organisms up close.
A sight that cannot be seen with the naked eye.
These are not fungi, but a special form of life: slimy organisms without a brain or nervous system that crawl, react to their environment and assemble into complex shapes.
Using powerful macro subject matter and photo composition, Barry shows tiny structures that can grow anywhere, from forests to deserts.
Barry has won awards for his work, including the Audience Award in the macro section of British Photo. Awards.
Barry says he “didn’t know they existed” when he was introduced to the world of slugs in 2019.
He is a gardener by profession and an amateur photographer by hobby. Because of the quarantine, Barry spent more time outdoors hunting for these organisms.
“It’s not a fungus, it’s not a plant or an animal. It’s closer to an amoeba,” Barry explains.
His photographs focus on the fruiting bodies of the slugs, where the colour and drama are most intense and where the spores are released.
Barry explains how slugs feed on bacteria, algae and various types of fungi.
The Royal National Health Society (RHS) notes that slugs have found “incredible practical applications”, such as modelling urban transport maps and searching for dark matter.
Photographing slugs is not an easy process, although technology has made it much easier in recent years. Barry explains that because of the size of the object, “one frame won’t be enough, almost nothing will come into focus.”
When taking dozens of photos, he uses a technique called briquette focusing.
“You take a lot of frames, sometimes over 100, and you get a tiny mosaic of focuses, and then you input all those shots into a programme and get the final image.”
Barry used to have to adjust the focus for each of those 100 photos, but now he does it all himself.
“It’s all clever stuff,” he tells me.