Lundgren photo wins NOAA honor

Kathryn Markey Lundgren, an aquatic diagnostic technician at Roger Williams University’s Center for Economic and Environmental Development, has just accepted a new position at the USDA Agriculture Research Service at the University of Rhode Island in South Kingstown. But she didn’t leave her former position earlier this month without first making a big splash with a photo of a clam – the size of a grain of sand – nestled in a drop of water. Her photo, which used macrophotography technology, went on to win the inaugural Aquaculture Photo Contest sponsored by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. The 2.5-millimeter Northern quahog, Mercenaria mercenaria, which was moving at the time the photo was shot, is magnified 16 times. Lundgren’s secret weapon was an Olympus Stereo microscope with a built-in camera. “Macrophotography allows people to see these smaller creatures from another perspective,” Lundgren said. “I hope that those who see this photo will appreciate that these clams also help our ecosystem.”

You’d tried repeatedly to get this shot just right – with the quahog moving, others moving around it and water drops involved. How long did it take?

It took 1.5 hours give or take to get the perfect shot. I had to work fast, so that the animals could be returned to their tank alive and happy.

Setting a droplet of water as the backdrop for this tiny creature certainly puts its minuscule size into context. How did you come up with the idea?

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Since the animals need to be photographed underwater anyway, the photo just fell into place when I wanted to pull one animal away from the group. Originally it was inside an oblong-shaped droplet and then I thought that it would be neat to see if I could form a perfect droplet around it. Then I tried it and it was a success!

How do these tiny clams benefit our ecosystem?

These clams benefit our ecosystems because they are filter feeders – they filter the water in which they live. Not only do they filter out the phytoplankton (the food they eat) but everything in the water and help clean the water in which they live. •

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