Was obsessed with Pebble Beach and the abstracts there for about a year.. any time there was a low tide at dawn, I was there.
At the beginning of that time, a whale had beached itself on the beach. There's no way of hauling it out, so there it stayed.. slowly being absorbed by the water, pebbles and fauna. The waves had washed the pebbles from the beach throughout the surface of the whale.
About 5 months or so into it, I decided to take a closer look at the whale. I set up the 4x5, Betterlight and computer and took a few shots. This one is from the topside.. skin curling off of the underlying tissue. The camera was probably 2 feet from the whale. (took a week before i was no longer smelling it everywhere).
What's interesting about this shot.. I had a show in San Jose.. had this , and a few others from the shoot printed at 40x50". They were titled 'Untitled'
People would be fascinated by the textures and detail in the image.. they'd be standing at the print.. almost nose to surface.
It was usually then that I'd mention what it was. Almost universally, people would jump back to almost 6 - 10 feet away, and look at it.. I should have had a video camera recording reactions