On the Beach

The honeycomb looking thing is a polychaete worm colony. They built the tubes with grains of sand on a rocky surface. If this was shot on the Pacific coast of north america I can figure out the species. Next time you see this carefully cut into some of those tubes and you'll see 1/2 inch worms. You can see their operculums in this picture. 

This could also look good in b&w perhaps.

Wow, Balan.  This is a lovely "honeycomb" of sand with that bit of mussel shell for a change of pace.  I'm thinking that this was created by drips of water, but having a hard time imagining how the pattern got to be so regular.  Definitely a neat find.  Thanks to Igor for the explanation.

Very nice pattern here Balan. Thanks to Igor for the ID, I was thinking a colony of some kind of very small anemones. I would bet with a thin layer of water over them that they would be even more impressive.

Ed, these are Sabellid worms, that is filter feeders. They are also referred to as feather duster worms because the worm has a crown on its head that captures food as it floats by. They don't pursue food. When submerged this colony would indeed look like sea anemones with each opening having the crown exposed for passing plankton and anything else floating by. Biologists call it convergent evolution when 2 totally unrelated phyla develop a similar type of feeding: corals and worm colonies. Actually, even the mussel is a filter feeder. 

Very nice pattern.
Thank for the explanation.
D&L

Hi Balan,

This one is pretty cool--details are impressive and your plane of focus is spot on. Well done.......................Jim

Nice image Balan.  I like the composition.  You might accentuate the highlights on the barnacle rims if possible to add some more tone and contrast. Keep up the good work