Turns out you need to move fast to catch any clams at Golden Gardens these days. Perhaps it would take longer if you were hunting buried clams rather than humans wearing fiberglass clam shells.

Banner Bank was filming an ad featuring the Ivar's Dancing Clams just before sunset Sept. 30 at Golden Gardens with production by North By Northwest.

Possibly because the actors wearing their heavy shells on their backs realized they couldn't run through many takes, the shooting wrapped up quickly, leaving very heavy bags of "clams" to be carried one-by-one through an obstacle course of soccer players and back to the parking lot.

Next stop for the production crew was going to be Ivar's, but they were "keeping clam" about whether those clams were going to get shucked.

Ballard Big Picture is a column of scenes from around the neighborhood. If you would like to submit a photo for use on this site and in the Ballard News-Tribune, please send it to Michael Harthorne at michaelh@robinsonnews.com. Be sure to include your name and information about your photo.