FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Montanpark]

Jon,
nice to "see" you here, small world :-) but not unexpected.
Another one: Tourmaline var. Elbaite from the Malkhan pegmatite field (Malchany), Transbaikalia (Zabaykalye), Eastern-Siberian Region, Russia, size 2.8 x 2.2 x 1.8 cm.

Got this one in the 1990s from J. Badanina, St. Petersburg, who worked on those deposits as PhD thesis - still one of my favourite gem beauties.

Cheers
Roger
(BTW your parcel grows ;-) )

[Montanpark]

last for today ...
Beryl var. Emerald crystals (partly with terminations) in/on mica schist (probably biotite), Malyshevo, Ekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk), Ekaterinburgskaya (Sverdlovskaya) Oblast', Middle Urals, Urals Region, Russia. Size 3.8 x 4 x 2.2 cm.

P.S. .. still struggling with Carles database .. it requires administrator rights ... so i got it working now (and well working) but it would be nice if it worked in restricted accounts ... Carles, do you read ;-) ?

[jlbravo]

Hi Roger!

I have the calcite!
This is an old pict of your quartz perimorph after calcite.
Looks like your quartz, but this one is smaller.

Jose

[Montanpark]

Jose,
hehe .. yes the calcite is the grandpa of my perimorph. Very nice specimen BTW.

Ok, and another one from my collection:
approx 10 cm width, Elbaite (var. Verdelite) with termination on Quartz, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Cheers
Roger

[str4hler]

Please send me the wolframite floater for my birthday ;-)
It should be on www . thefloaters . org :-)

[Montanpark]

Hi again all,
after some time some new pictures. Yesterday i was very lucky to acquire a lot of selected Wulfenite/Mimetite specimens from Ojuela Mine, Level 7, La Campana. The specimens are from a recent find. I already picked 2 of the specimens for my collection and still not sure if to keep the third .. so here they are ;-)

Cheers
Roger

[Jon Mommers]

Roger

beautiful Wulfenites, congratulations, I esp. like the 2nd photo. Thanks for sharing

Cheers
Jon

[Ed Huskinson]

Yeah Roger, what he said. (Jon)

Your wulfenites are beautiful, and they stand out so well in contrast against the bright green mimetite.

Me, I'd keep the 3rd piece, regardless, because unless the market becomes flooded with these things, they are sure to appreciate in desirability. I've wanted one since they first came out.

Congratulations.

Ed

[Montanpark]

John & Ed,
thanks...
I trimmed the 3rd one and now i am sure to keep it .. there was a broken larger crystals at one margin ... (not shown in the picture) .. now except the small marginally broken wulfie at top right this one is pristine.
I was sweating bolod when trimming ;-)

cheers
Roger

[Gail]

Roger, absolutely beautiful! I would keep both number two AND number three!
Then again, I am a quantity collector when it comes to beautiful things! Great photos, thanks so much for sharing.

[Montanpark]

Gail,
thanks a lot .. decided to keep all three as they are all unique and i love Wulfies!
Want to share another one with you all .. it´s already posted at mindat but it is an absolute favourite of mine (although i have to confess that the specimen resided in a box under my bed for about a year now). Amethyst from Piedra Parada, Veracruz, Mexico. Size is 27 x 17.5 x 6 cm.

Cheers
Roger

[Matt_Zukowski]

Excellent photography. How do you do it? Camera? Lens? Lighting? Software?

[Montanpark]

Hi Matt,
ty! Not really a sophisticated setup:
Canon Powershot S5 IS, mostly ISO 80 or 100 (from ISO 200 this camera tends to produce a lot of colour noise), small tripod (3.99 Euro), 4 lamps with 5400 K (9 W daylight bulbs).
SuperMacro Mode or Macro mode, no special lens etc. Aperture priority mode, aperture 7.1 to 8, 2 seconds self timer.
Processing with Photoshop (old 7er version where i got a license a few years ago from our local museum). I mostly only use saturation reduction and a light and shadow filter (free plugin). Bit of sharpening via unsharp masking if needed.
Digital backgrounds (the black ones with colour spot) are generated via cutting the object, inserting in new layer and then creating the background in the background layer via black flooding and then colour highlighting with a large soft pencil tool.

Some minerals need selective colour correction (dioptase, rhodochrosite) as the Canon CCD is 'blind' for the dioptase green and tends to reproduce the colours too intensive.

BTW the wulfenite/mimetite pictures were taken on our balcony under cloudy daylight conditions on a white sheet of paper :-)

Cheers
Roger

[Matt_Zukowski]

Thanks.

I have never used photoshop and so never fiddled with backgrounds in software. I will be photographing a batch soon and I'll try to see if your settings help.

[Montanpark]

Hi again all,
just before going to bed (late here in GER) a few more from my collection,
hope you´ll enjoy.

Cheers
Roger