Mineral Monday - 03/14/2022

[Douglas Sherman]

For this edition of Mineral Monday, I am doing some common crystal shapes.

Amethyst Crystals. Amethyst is a purple variety of quartz. It used to be very rare until large quantities were found in geodes in Brazil.

Cubic crystals of Galena (lead ore) on pink Dolomite crystals

Pyrite (often referred to as "fool's gold because of its color) and quartz crystals.

 

[JimFox]

Wow! Really cool Doug! Such great captures. Do you have a black velvet background?

I thought the Amethyst purple color was from dye’s? The cubed crystals are just so unique.

 

[Joe Colozzo]

awesome, the purple in the first on is gorgeous.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Wow! Really cool Doug! Such great captures. Do you have a black velvet background?

I thought the Amethyst purple color was from dye’s? The cubed crystals are just so unique.

I just use black construction paper and darken it until I like the color. That way I get the right contrast.
Amethyst gets its color from inclusions of iron and sometimes radiation.
All minerals have specific crystalline shapes. That pyrite five sided crystal is so common to pyrite that.it is called a pyritohedron.

 

[Ben Egbert]

What a gorgeous collection and perfect imaging.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Great images. I am sure they are even more interesting to look at.

 

[AlanLichty]

Beautiful shots - I love the color of the Amethyst crystals.

 

[MonikaC]

Really beautiful, Doug. Kind of amusing that the pink dolomite under the Galena looks like a rice cake.....
How are you lighting these?

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Really beautiful, Doug. Kind of amusing that the pink dolomite under the Galena looks like a rice cake.....
How are you lighting these?

It does look like rice cake, Monika. I put a black sheet of construction paper behind the specimen and use side lighting from a window that is in the shade. I then select the specimen with the object selection tool and darken the area around it until I get the right contrast.