Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Agate With Character

bitfiend (59)in #rockhound • 6 years ago

Another day another agate to share with you! I've been binge watching more marvel series / movies (just because they're available) so I got a little lazy last night and didn't post this one (even though I meant to). I've also been asked to judge #comedyopenmicespanol and with that and curating the laughter over at #comedyopenmic I've got my Steemit Plate full! It's all in good fun, and as always I'm happy to share these awesome agates with you, but steemit needs laughter so if this is your first time hearing about #comedyopenmic this is a shameless plug for that!

Found this one last month, I think it's a very different agate. Such a distinct shape to it with a quartz vein going right through it. While it glows very red, the quartz doesn't look red. I assume that the color of the agate makes it appear reddish in colour!

Lights Off

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Through the 60mm Macro Lens

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Through a Jewelers Loupe 40X25 mm - Lights Off

I am really liking the increased level of detail since I've begun cropping the picture first. It allows me to pin-point more specific areas to show you more! It allows for a more focused zoom, however; I am starting to feel that I may not need the Jeweler's Loupe anymore!

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No Shine

With so much character I ended up liking a lot more pictures than normal. There's just so much to this I had to take multiple angles!

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Through a Jewelers Loupe 40X25 mm - No Shine

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Shine

With so much character, once I added the oil to this one it felt like a completely different rock. I was finding a lot more detail that I hadn't noticed before, so there's a lot of pictures in this section! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

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Through the 60mm Macro Lens

There is so much to see here! I would love to see a rock like this turned into jewelry. Even one this big can probably be turned into at least three nice rings. My lack of a real shop more or less prevents me from getting that done, but I am hoping to figure something out soon.

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Through a Jewelers Loupe 40X25 mm - Shine

I have to say that I have always loved macro photography. I can't say I remember the first time something really small blown up to look really big but it was definitely in my youth. Having the ability to do this really makes me feel like I am living my life to its fullest, doing what I love to do! I think taking macro shots of agates is a macro photographers dream!

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How Big is it?

^{Precious Metal to go with A Precious Rock!}

Flashlight Settings	ISO 200 35 mm f/4.5 1/400 sec
Settings both Lights Off & On	ISO 1600-800 55 mm f/5.6 1/50 sec
Camera	Nikon D3400 24 MP
Lens	AF-P DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR
Lens	AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm 1:2.8 G ED
Location	Superior, WI

Fun Fact: I took a total of 460 pictures of this rock bring you the best quality! It takes me about 45 minutes to take the pictures, another 45 minutes to pick the best ones and re-scale them, plus another 20-30 minutes to make the post!

Settings fluctuated on this round as well due to the level of brightness of the rock when it was glowing. It's hard to keep track of all the settings but it wouldn't be hard to recreate with these as a general idea. As I get accustomed to the cropping I am understanding the limits of the camera a little more!

Tonight was a clear night but no moon in sight. Took this one a few weeks ago, but I'm not satisfied with the quality. I figured I'd show you anyways -- I am still learning, and I wasn't using Auto Focus that night. Probably not worth trying to manually focus on the moon with a 300mm lens.