It's a big beautiful world out there. Please enjoy it responsibly. I don't have a ton of experience setting up staged photos that involve things like backdrops and special lighting kits and disguised props holding things up. But what the hell. I am willing to learn. I originally set this photo up just to get the reflection of the shell, took the (millions of) photo(s), broke everything down...and then a few weeks later set everything back up because, in part, I realized I had made some rookie mistakes. I didn't have a fabric steamer so my backdrop was clearly creased, not artfully draped. I hadn't done enough work with things like shutter speed, so the detail on the shell wasn't quite as clear as I wanted. My earlier photos were even overexposed, because I'll give you one guess who never really played with light kits before? And insult to injury, I'd shot the photo without the pearl. What's a shell without a pearl? It was a much less pithy photo without it.For the record, the hidden support holding up the shell? Is a vial of my cat's deworming medicine. So... Glamour = destroyed. And yet...Still life art shot = achieved!If you can't find something beautiful, make it yourself.