Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Smokey Quartz
I want to share beautiful pictures of gems and agates with all of you. I have many that I personally hand pick from the shoreline of Lake Superior and I have not found many pictures of rocks or agates on here so let me be among the first.
This was one of my first attempts at capturing the true beauty of a rock, in this case, a gorgeous smokey quartz. It seems to possibly have a little bit of silver on it or some type of metal. (this is the white or shiny looking scuff on the right)
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
So one thing I like about agates, quartz and other gem-like rocks that usually come with a lot of unique character is their translucency. Not only does this feature make them easy to spot when the sun is shining while I'm out hunting for them but they really come to life when shining any light through them or looking at the sun through the rock. I've actually found a bit of a difficult time finding images quite like these on the internet, so I hope you enjoy them!
Watch how I can turn an ordinary looking smokey quartz, awesome on its own into a shining beauty that glows.
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
You can notice here that the metal or silver vein that is in the rock is darkened and no light passes. I had the idea to extract the metal and figure out what it is, but it would ruin the rock for sure. Many of the rocks I share will be mostly small since light passes through the smaller rocks the easiest.
This next shot I really liked. I was messing around with the zoom settings and was so focused on the rock itself that I ignored the surroundings and I feel it made for an amazing shot. I want to post more of my agates with the same setup. Let's call it my signature shot:
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
While many are small, they are all very different and beautiful to say the least.
Getting the right amount of light through the rock can be tedious. I've purchased some new LED flash lights but they were too bright, so I had to put tape over them. I've been getting some decent shots though.
Have a Steemy night and Happy New Year to all Steemians! This was my new years treat, and many more to come.
Very cool. Can you figure out what that metal is exactly?
Thanks! I can't quite figure it out, I think I would need to take a much closer look. However; I can't get even the smallest magnet to stick, which is indicative that it's a precious metal. There are a lot of rocks I find that have slivers of metal shining on them.
Silver ore reacts to sulfides and sulfur. Nitric acid and sulfuric acid dissolve silver, which is a good way to test silver ore. Just be sure to use proper safety gear
Ahh yes I forgot about chemical reactions. Thanks for this! Will probably wait for summer to test this if I do.
Awesome rocks.....look very nice and i am particularly excited with those photos,really nice.HAPPY NEW YEAR to you too and thanks for sharing
Thank you I am excited to share more! This summer I will record a video when I go picking for more rocks.
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