bmah's Crystal Photography

[bmah]

Several years back, I made a promise to Xiz to make a thread documenting my photography, just like he did with his own photography back in 2012. Better late than never, but here it is!

For those of you who don't know, one of my favorite hobbies is collecting rocks and minerals. As my collection grew, I eventually needed to archive my collection on a spreadsheet. More recently, I decided to photograph my collection as part of my documentation. And as I took more photos, I tried to refine my macro photography as well.

I posted some old photos in a 2014 thread here, but now that I have a lot more photos since then, I decided to make my own thread.

I concurrently post most of these images on both my DeviantArt and Instagram accounts, so I'll update this thread as well when I have something new.

Feel free to comment. Enjoy!

Mineral(s): Phenakite
Origin: Phenakite Mine, Khetchel Village, Momeik Township, Shan State, Myanmar

This is the very first picture I took that resulted from image stacking. Image stacking is the process of increasing a photo's depth of field by taking multiple photos without moving the camera but changing the focus distance. (tl;dr a sharper image for generally smaller objects)
The photos are then merged by using a focus stacking program. The first few I managed via Photoshop CS4, but the sheer amount of photos eventually proved too much for the program. I eventually used Zerene Stacker which is superior in handling all the data as well as producing a higher quality output. As you can see from the outlines of the crystal, a few areas are blurry, and so I didn't focus stack very well.
This crystal is only 1.2 cm long, so quite small.

Mineral(s): Zoisite var. Tanzanite
Origin: Karo Mine, Merelani Hills, Tanzania

Gem crystal of tanzanite. These two photos were still stacked with Photoshop, and as you can see from the side view photo, some areas look almost fused due to mediocre stacking quality. I also probably did not take enough photos for the stacking process.

Mineral(s): Azurite, Gartrellite
Origin: Tsumeb Mine (Tsumcorp Mine), Tsumeb, Otjikoto Region, Namibia

Deep blue crystals of azurite associated with a grass-green crust of rare gartrellite. The product of 33 images, this is when I realized that Photoshop would freeze my entire computer after trying to handle this many images at once. This is the first image stacked with Zerene Stacker.

Mineral(s): Fluorapophyllite-(K) and Scolecite with Stilbite
Origin: Junnar, Pune District, Maharashtra, India

Blocky pale green apophyllite crystals nestled amongst a needle-like spray of scolecite crystals.

Mineral(s): Boltwoodite with Gypsum
Origin: Goanikontes Claim, Goanikontes, Swakopmund District, Erongo Region, Namibia

Yellowish orange sprays of boltwoodite crystals frozen like ice in colorless calcite. This is a radioactive mineral.
You might also notice that there's considerable graininess (noise) in this picture, and it's most evidently seen in the black areas. For a long time, I've always had an issue with sufficient lighting for my minerals. To compensate for the lack of lighting, my ISO values tend to be high, creating the noise as a result. I didn't end up addressing this issue until very recently.

Mineral(s): Erythrite
Origin(s): Agoudal, Bou Azer District, Morocco

Purplish-burgundy bladed crystals of the cobalt mineral erythrite. Only partial image stacking to focus mainly on the bigger crystals.
Also, graininess at its worst.

Mineral(s): Azurite, minor Malachite
Origin: Tsumeb Mine (Tsumcorp Mine), Tsumeb, Otjikoto Region, Namibia

Sharp, dark blue azurite crystals with a bit of green malachite on matrix.

Mineral(s): Azurite
Origin: Milpillas Mine, Cuitaca, Mun. de Santa Cruz, Sonora, Mexico

Awesome dark blue, well-defined azurite crystals on a contrasting white clay matrix. I think I did the color balancing on these pictures pretty well, particularly the top photo.

Mineral(s): Annabergite
Origin: Km-3 Mine, Lavrion (Laurion; Laurium), Attikí Prefecture, Greece

A cavity is host to a number of green annabergite crystals. Annabergite is colored green by its nickel content.

Mineral(s): Saléeite
Origin: Ranger No. 3 Pit, Ranger Mine, Jabiru, Northern Territory, Australia

Yellow platy crystals of the radioactive mineral saléeite. Many radioactive minerals are also fluorescent - the right photo was taken under long wave UV light, and the crystals are now a bright neon green.

Mineral(s): Veszelyite
Origin: Black Pine Mine, Philipsburg District, Granite Co., Montana, USA

This is a small piece - 1.3 cm long. A cluster of teal-colored crystals of the rare copper phosphate mineral veszelyite.

Mineral(s): Adamite
Origin: Ojuela Mine, Mapimi, Durango, Mexico

Semi-lame attempt of long wave UV photo on a group of yellow adamite crystals, which fluoresce a neon yellowish green.

Expect more photos later!