Setting up the scene for a macro shot

I found this snail slithering along on some dirt in a flower bed. I tried taking a few pictures right there, but there were two problems: The background was too close in color to the snail, and it was too dark. I could not shoot with a large enough aperture to get the entire snail sharp.

The fix was easy, I put the snail on an old leaf, and moved it to a lawn where it was a bit brighter.
 When I put the leaf with the snail down on the lawn, I placed the leaf so that the grass held it up from the ground a few centimeters. This allowed me to place the camera as low as the snail, which gave me a great angle for the shot.