FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[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

[Montanpark]

... and another one: Aurichalcite, specimen 8.5 x 6.5 x 6.5 cm

cheers
Roger

[Les Presmyk]

I believe Roger's aurichalcite is on smithsonite and if so, is from the 79 mine is Arizona. Peter, your thoughts?

[Peter Megaw]

I agree with Les, that looks like 79 Mine to me too...especially the green smithsonite.

[Jordi Fabre]

[Montanpark]

So here the first for 2010 - last weekend i attended the first mineral show for this year and got a nice selcetion of minerals for my collection. One of those is this vanadinite on black coated Baryte (manganese oxides) from a quite recent find at Mibladen, Morocco. A fellow collector brought a very nice lot from the Munich show 2009 and i couldn´t resist to pick some specimens. Image width approx 4 cm, just a quick shot. I will try to get the new stuff photographed these weeks.

Cheers
Roger

[Carles Millan]

Nice crystals with excellent color, and good photo. Please, try to post other shots of the same specimen.

[Montanpark]

Carles,
ty! Here the overall view ... as said a quick shot which unfortunately overemphasizes the small bruises at the margin of the specimen due to intense lighting.
Overall size is 8 x 3 x 1.8 cm.

cheers
Roger

[Montanpark]

Another quick´n´dirty: Grossular from Jeffreys mine, Asbestos, Canada. Bourbon Whisky coloured highly lustrous and complex crystals form a nice merely pefect mini. Hard to photograph by nature i hope to get this one nailed if i find more time to get the setup and lighting right.

Size 3.3 x 1.8 x 2.2 cm.

[vic rzonca]

hi Montanpark,
Your specimens are beautiful. And the photography is impeccable! Could I trouble you for info on camera, lens used, and lighting setup?
Vic

[vic rzonca]

Roger,
I just saw your photography info on camera, etc in an earlier post. Sorry to trouble you with a question you already answered!
Vic