Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Bands and A Bullseye
Good Evening Steemians! It's been a while since I posted to the #rockhound tag, but I do plan on picking up the pace! Are you a rockhound too? Share your finds with us! I manually curate the #rockhound tag and have created the account @rockhounds to also upvote your rock posts! After about 7-8 days of not posting an agate, I got the itch to go hunting for some. I've also been working on an agate hunting video and it's already over 30 minutes long so I may have to shorten it up more. What do you think? When I finally had the time to get an agate post up, I realized I couldn't find my flashlight so this set me back a few more days, but today I bought one! Hopefully I take better care of it.
This flashlight is smaller, so I had trouble adjusting to its size. It's also significantly brighter and I even put a Lithium batty in it so it's even brighter still. I can tell you one thing -- I think I got the brightness I've been looking for. This agate is pretty thick and I didn't think it would glow. I have a few that I wanted to share but I couldn't get them to glow at all. At best a tiny corner. I'll have to re-think the thumbnail for it.
Lights Off
You can click on the images to view full screen!!
Through the 60mm Macro Lens
Tonight I tried something new (as suggested by someone else) and it was a huge and helpful tip. However; I struggled a bit. My focus was minimum distance and I needed to increase distance and maximize focus, followed by a cropping of what's in focus. The point is, you should see more detail but I struggled with the glow this round. It's a learning process! I also think that since I'm not mounting the camera auto-focus wants to readjust to my every movement. There's also a light that wants to turn on when I go to take a picture that I need to read up on. Alas, I had to move forward or I'd skip yet another day and I don't want that!
Through a Jewelers Loupe 40X25 mm - Lights Off
I think that once I'm done with this post I might get another rock going just to further test the focus problem I have, but the Jewelers Loupe shot came out decent.
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
No Shine
This was another agate I found on agate beach, the day I forgot my camera. No picture as I found it, but I've also found it kind of hard to hunt agates and do that. I haven't scratched the idea, but it has proven a little difficult for me to include such a pick for every post. There are a handful coming though!
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
Through a Jewelers Loupe 40X25 mm - No Shine
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
Shine
Thanks to the tip I received to crop my images before I scaled them, I am able to show a lot more detail without having to zoom in. This is giving me much better results, however I still had an issue with autofocus. Manual focus seemed to work better in some cases more than others. Even though I struggled a little bit I am still relatively satisfied with the results and I am excited to bring you better quality and more detail as I go along.
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
Through the 60mm Macro Lens
I feel that the level of closeness was slightly taken away by increasing the distance but I really made up for it by cropping. It makes me wonder if I can get the perfect focus on a minimum distance shot and crop it for some amazing results.
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
Through a Jewelers Loupe 40X25 mm - Shine
I think the lights on my loupe is starting to run out of batteries. It seemed to come out darker than normal and I usually wouldn't have to change settings at all. So much detail for such a little rock and two bullseyes! Of course, once again cropping only what's focus provided for some amazing results. Some I didn't even have to resize!
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
How Big is it?
Precious Metal to go with A Precious Rock!
| Flashlight Settings | ISO 100 35 mm f/4.5 1/100 sec |
| Settings both Lights Off & On | ISO 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 275 pictures of this rock bring you the best quality! It takes me about 45 minutes to take the pictures, another 30 minutes to pick the best ones and re-scale them, plus another 20-30 minutes to make the post!
Now that I've got a flashlight again, I am looking forward to making more rock posts! That and my schedule has normalized a bit. Motivation is key, that's for sure! I think a lot of effort goes into these, but I enjoy it immensely! So much so that I really liked the end of my last post where I included a picture of the moon. This one was taken the same day but at an earlier time, so the man in the moon is is facing a different direction. I've always wanted to take these kinds of detailed shots of the moon! It only makes sense to include a giant glowing floating rock above our planet in my posts!
I share my rock and agate photo's exclusive with the Steemit community! Feel free to share your thoughts!
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
Thanks for stopping by! God Bless!
Previous Rock Posts
None
Older than 7 days
good for viewing, not for voting!
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Spotted Agate
March
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - March Rocks
February
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - February Rocks
January and Beyond
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - January Rocks [and 2017]
When I joined Steemit I made the decision to always Power-Up my earnings. For now, payouts are set to 50/50 but you bet I will convert & Power Up! Besides internal transfers, I have never cashed out and don't plan on it! Power-Up only!
Hey @bitfiend,
Have you, as a rockhound veteran, seen the Making Spatial Data Yield Agates post by @gra?
Was wondering if that might be something for you.
No i hadn't seen it yet but thanks for sharing! That's quite the write-up!! Totally up my alley
Yeow what very cool rocks you have 💎
Really like the one with the bullseye!!
I was given a spirit stone today :-)
Nice I hope it's polished yes? These are all pictures of the same rock.! A lot of character for just one little guy right? Thanks for commenting!
Totally a lot for one rock! I love rocks like that,
agates are by far my favorites, but then most
rocks are lol
The spirit stone is only polished by the waves.
It's a concretion from near Captain Cook park
Alaska. I need to get some pics of her :-)
Make sure you share your rocks with me via the #rockhound tag I look forward to it!
I love how you can see into this one. Nice find and great photos! Looking forward to watching your video.
I get lost in them once I add the oil! It changes everything! I can't say that I enjoy editing videos but I have a sense of accomplishment for what I have so far. Thanks for stopping by!