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Tracy
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 551
Location: Toronto
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Posted: Nov 30, 2009 19:13 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Hi Alfredo -
I defer to the experts to suggest possible explanations as to where the grey/black color comes from. Now my curiosity is piqued too. :-) All I can say is I think it's really really cool, and I'm glad you like it! If you move it around (tilt, turn, etc) in the light it sort of shimmers. I will ask the seller too if he knows more about it because from his item description I'm guessing he's seen others.
- Tracy
_________________ "Wisdom begins in wonder" - Socrates |
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Tracy
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 551
Location: Toronto
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Posted: Dec 26, 2009 16:41 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Happy Boxing Day to all! Hope those who celebrate Christmas had a great day yesterday.
oh WOW am I having fun learning this camera! I've spent the past 2 days testing it out taking photos for my catalogue. Here are a few pics of some recently acquired treasures, brought to me from the Munich Show by John White. I have another set, hopefully to follow tonight or tomorrow.
Things I have to work on next: 1) lighting (I took all photos with a full-spectrum lamp and a flashlight for backlighting/highlighting, can try other light sources), 2) Photoshop for better backgrounds (to come) 3) getting better at taking white or colorless photos (I think the fluorapophyllite isn't properly captured, though I'm happy with the close-up shots) and 4) making sure that my specimens are clean of cotton fibers before I photograph them (oops!)...
Carles, I took about 25 images of each specimen, like you suggested. It takes a lot of time to pick the right ones out of these! Do you then save all images, or just the ones you like best?
And - Alfredo, I have no answer for you on why the monochromatic apophyllite ended up grey-black. It will remain a mystery.
Enjoy...
- Tracy
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Quartz with Chlorite inclusions from Ganesh Himal, Central Nepal, Nepal. Aprrox. 32 x 27 x 22 mm. |
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Karibibite on Lollingite matrix from Oumlil Est Quarry, Bou Azzer area, Morocco. Approx 50 x 42 x 30 mm, colected in 2006 |
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Close up of karibibite crystals |
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Two large, opaque fluorapophyllite crystals (and a third, smaller one) stuck together at a strange angle with smalller crystals attached and covered by scattered stilbite bowties about 2 mm long. From Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India. Approx. 92 x 36 x 30 mm. |
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View from a different angle, with the two main crystals "switching places" and the whole piece rotated to the other side |
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Smaller, sharp and water-clear crystal fluorapophyllites where the smaller crystal meets one of the two main ones. A little stilbite bowtie is hiding among the points (just above the center of the photo and fuzzy-looking). |
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27197 Time(s) |
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Cluster of stilbites near the point where the two large fluorapophyllite crystals intersect |
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27274 Time(s) |
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_________________ "Wisdom begins in wonder" - Socrates |
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Carles Millan
Site Admin
Joined: 05 May 2007
Posts: 1474
Location: Catalonia
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Posted: Dec 26, 2009 17:15 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Tracy wrote: | Carles, I took about 25 images of each specimen, like you suggested. It takes a lot of time to pick the right ones out of these! Do you then save all images, or just the ones you like best? |
Hi Tracy!
Yes, you see, it takes much longer to choose the best photos than shooting them. And when you decide to process the images with a graphics editor, still longer. It's easy to take 25 shots in just a couple of minutes, but between one and two hours might be needed to have the whole task done. Don't get disappointed.
I think your last photos are good but with a little more time and experience (and especially a lot of patience) I'm sure you're going to improve your technique a lot.
Tracy, don't keep all the images! It is no sense. Just the ones you select, usually 3 or 4, not more. Forget and delete the others.
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Jordi Fabre
Overall coordinator of the Forum
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 4905
Location: Barcelona
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Posted: Dec 26, 2009 17:16 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Tracy wrote: | Alfredo, I have no answer for you on why the monochromatic apophyllite ended up grey-black... |
In India the black Apophyllites-(KF) owe their color to inclusions of Julgoldite-(Fe). Of course I can't be sure that an Apophyllite-(KF) from Murdockville, Quebec, Canada should have the same related especies than one from India, it is just one more possibility....
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Apophyllite-(KF) with Julgoldite-(Fe) Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India Mined about 2000 Specimen size: 20 × 13 × 5 cm Main crystal size: 1.4 × 0.5 cm Former Jan Buma collection Photo: Reference Specimens -> http://www.fabreminerals.com/specimens/RSBUM-buma-notable-specimens.php#JV58F2 |
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27382 Time(s) |
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_________________ Audaces fortuna iuvat |
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Tracy
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 551
Location: Toronto
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Posted: Dec 26, 2009 17:31 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Carles, thanks for your comments. I'm not disappointed at all - I just have to "relearn" basics like depth of field (and how to apply them to a digital camera I used to use an SLR regularly as a teenager), test the limits of the camera (and identify its strengths), etc. I'm glad you think my photos are good though I fully acknowledge I can still do better.
The only disappointment, so to speak, is that given it is so time-consuming I don't know whether I'll have many opportunities to my collection thread, even though I would like to. This weekend and next will be the first time in months that I have stopped doing work and instead am able to play. I will keep trying,...
Thanks for the suggestion Jordi. Nobody else has suggested any explanations, so who knows? :-)
Off to update my catalogue now, so that I can put the specimens in their rightful places in my collection.
- Tracy
_________________ "Wisdom begins in wonder" - Socrates |
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alfredo
Site Admin
Joined: 30 Jan 2008
Posts: 981
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Posted: Dec 27, 2009 00:08 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Thanks for that explanation, Jordi. Julgoldite would certainly be compatible with the colour and environment. That was a nice piece, Tracy, and I've still not seen another one.
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Tracy
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 551
Location: Toronto
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Posted: Jan 02, 2010 20:42 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Thanks Alfredo. I like it a lot.
Another set of photos...more experimenting with the camera. Hope you all had a good New Year celebration.
- Tracy
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Erythrite crystals on matrix from Bou Azzer area, near Ouarzazate, Morocco. 5.7 x 4.7 x 4.4 cm. From the 2009 Munich show. |
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Close-up of erythrite crystals. |
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Roselite on pink calcite from Bou Azzer area, near Ouarzazate, Morrocco. 6.1 x 4.3 x 3.6 specimen. From the 2009 Munich show. |
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Quartz "half-scepter" with smoky and amethyst phantoms, from Goboboseb, Namibia, 6.2 x 2.3 x 1.9 cm. Ex. C. Key Collection. I'm following John's "scepters" thread trying to figure out what conditions would exist to create a crystal like this... |
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Same "half-scepter" from the other side. |
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Quartz with red hematite inclusions, Goboboseb, Namibia. 2.5 x 1.3 x 1.0 cm. Ex. C. Key Collection. |
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27396 Time(s) |
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Cinnabar on dolomite matrix with scattered small quartz crystals, from Fenghuang, Hunan Province, China. 4.7 x 3.3 x 1.0 cm |
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27303 Time(s) |
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A close-up of the large crystal at the end of the specimen, 0.9 cm across. |
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27666 Time(s) |
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Back side of crystal. Not sure about the mineral attached to its edge, quartz maybe? |
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27034 Time(s) |
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_________________ "Wisdom begins in wonder" - Socrates |
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John S. White
Site Admin
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Posts: 1295
Location: Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, USA
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Posted: Jan 03, 2010 06:51 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Wow, Tracy, I am really impressed with the quality of your photos, especially the close-ups of individual crystals like the cinnabars. I suspect that the crystal on the one cinnabar is a carbonate, probably calcite.
_________________ John S. White
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Tracy
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 551
Location: Toronto
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Posted: Jan 03, 2010 12:35 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Thanks John for the compliment! Believe it or not my first thought was calcite, but then I reasoned that since there were quartzes on the specimen it might have been a quartz even if it didn't look like one. Glad you like the pics (I think I'm getting better) and thanks for clarifying - now off to order Photoshop! :)
- Tracy
_________________ "Wisdom begins in wonder" - Socrates |
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Carles Millan
Site Admin
Joined: 05 May 2007
Posts: 1474
Location: Catalonia
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Posted: Jan 03, 2010 13:33 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Tracy wrote: | I think I'm getting better |
Yes, Tracy, you are getting better. The cinnabar close-ups are rather good although it seems to me you enabled the flash when taking the picture cinxlJ2.jpg, since the white matrix at the bottom looks burned. And the full cinnabar photo would have been much better with a little more light.
The erythrite... This is a hard to photograph mineral. But perhaps with a better light source and a bit of software processing you might get somewhat better photos. If your new camera has this function, try also to set the clarity (or exposure compensation) up.
Good luck!
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Tracy
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 551
Location: Toronto
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Posted: Jan 03, 2010 14:07 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Thanks Carles. I'm not sure whether or not I used the flash in XJ2 because I tried all different combinations of lighting, and color-adjusting with Canon software. I used that photo because it seemed the closest to "natural." My camera does come with light compensation functions but I have to read the section of the manual, and experiment more, before I can claim to understand it (I tested on the cinnabar just now but the pics looked worse than the one I posted). I also need a proper staging area! - all the improvisation I'm trying to do gets annoying. :-/
...If each group of photos is the same or better than the one before, then I am mastering my camera, and I am content. Thanks again for the feedback, it is most helpful (and perhaps to other readers too).
- Tracy
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zanthal
Joined: 03 Jan 2010
Posts: 43
Location: Northern California
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Posted: Jan 03, 2010 21:22 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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I didn't bother to get this involved with the photography with my collection ... namely because it isn't all that remarkable yet.
But if you're looking to take close up high quality photos that bring out all the detail you're looking to show, I would make a "light box" big enough to house the largest of the samples you're looking to photograph.
A shoe box with one side cut out, and lined with bright white printer paper, along with a good bright soft light shining directly from above will reflect the light around the exterior of the whole sample and eliminate shadow. I'd still recommend using the flash, but with this much extra light you can experiment with leaving the flash off and making brightness adjustments with Photoshop (under the pretty safe assumption you're taking digital photos).
Any good camera shop will sell collapsible light boxes also, if that all sounds like too much work.
Back on topic, that is a nice collection. That Quartz point with the red hematite inclusions have an interesting pattern.
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Gail
Joined: 21 Feb 2008
Posts: 5839
Location: Texas, Lone Star State.
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Posted: May 28, 2011 14:53 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Tracy, how are you??? Anything new to add?
_________________ Minerals you say? Why yes, I'll take a dozen or so... |
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Tracy
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 551
Location: Toronto
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Posted: Jun 04, 2011 14:01 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Hi Gail - sorry, didn't mean to be rude by not answering sooner. Have been struggling to stay above water in my job for about a year now, and free time has been quite limited. The only reason I can answer you today is because I forced myself to have a day of rest and fun! It'll be right back to the grind tomorrow.
Indeed I have other specimens to share, just short on time to photograph them. Maybe things will ease up over the summer - if so I will post some new images.
Hope all is well with you.
- Tracy
_________________ "Wisdom begins in wonder" - Socrates |
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Jordi Fabre
Overall coordinator of the Forum
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 4905
Location: Barcelona
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Posted: Dec 21, 2017 10:32 Post subject: Re: Tracy's favorite specimens |
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Second thread of this section of Women's Private Collections arriving to the 100.000 readings. Congratulations Tracy!
👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌
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