Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - First Agate of the Season
It's been a few days since I've shared a #rockhound post with you all!
I've been a little preoccupied with my rockhounding adventures as well as the steem #fitnesschallenge that I just joined. As some of you may know, I quit smoking in January for my new years resolution. Since I've quit, I've decided to try and exercise as a replacement to smoking. I haven't been very motivated to do so up until now and I'm going on four days with exercising and doing at least 100 reps a day.
This will go hand in hand with my rockhounding and I have quite a handful of new agates to share with you! I am also probably going to add an additional picture to share with my agate posts -- a picture of the agate just before I picked it! I didn't get a shot of all of the ones I picked, but if I go out and get more I'll hopefully have enough then!
Lights Off
Here's what I would consider my Agate of the day, found during my first agate hunt of the season! I've shared one like this one before! It's mostly quarts with a slab of agate around it. I'm still waiting for the day I find one like this but whole.
You can click on the images to view full screen!!
Through the 60mm Macro Lens
You can click on the images to view full screen!!
Through a Jewelers Loupe 40X25 mm - Lights Off
I couldn't help but notice that the jewelers loupe shot looks a lot like the macro lens shot here but with less detail. Have I been doing something wrong? Is my macro lens = to the loupe? I'll have to double check! The quality of my loupe shots this time around was kinda bad even with the lights on. I'll have to focus more on this segment next time.
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
No Shine
I still like the raw, natural look of the agates I find. My favorite part about this one is the craters on the outside. There are a lot of rocks that I may pass up that have these characteristics that may have been whole agates but I couldn't see what was inside.
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
Just before I Picked it
I've always wanted to take pictures of agates just before I picked them. I even considered starting a segment where I show a picture with a bunch of rocks in the sand and see if you can find pick the agate. At best this segment can help you find them easier when you're out there rockhounding!
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
Shine
I really like the way this one shines. The Quartz shows a lot of depth and you can see a lot of detail inside when you look closely. Hard to see in the picture, but it's still beautiful!
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
Macro lens shots came out surprisingly well this time around, and the jewelers loupe shots were very sub par. I'm not sure what that's about!
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
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
How Big is it?
| Settings with Flashlight in frame | ISO 100 35 mm f/4.5 1/50 sec |
| Settings both Lights Off & On | ISO 800 55mm/60mm f/5.6 1/50 sec |
| Camera | Nikon D3400 24 MP |
| Lens | AF-P DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR |
| Macro Lens | AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm 1:2.8 G ED |
| Location | Superior, WI |
Fun Facts: I took a total of 152 pictures of this rock to 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!
It certainly feels good that the weather is starting to warm up! Being able to go out agate hunting regularly feels great! I look forward to bringing you many unique rock pictures!
Thanks for stopping by! God Bless!
Older than 7 Days
good for viewing, not for voting!
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - So Much Character
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Glowing Fossil
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Thin Agate
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Colorful Quartz Crystal
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! Steem On!
Interesting hobby! Ever found other assortments of shinies, like for example old coins or rings etc like detectors do?
They would be rare finds on the shores of lake superior, but I would like to find these things. I can't say that I have yet. The other day I found a screw, sometimes I find aluminum. There are what I think precious metals infused in some of the rocks found on the shores.
I'd like to get a metal detector though to find these shinies, as well as a 500 LB pull magnet to go "magnet fishing" where I take a very strong magnet, tie it to a rope and throw it in canals or water ways. Of course, precious metals aren't magnetic so when it comes to magnet fishing it's not for finding precious metals.
Yep, familiar with magnet fishing, if you ever need a bicycle in a hurry then it's the hobby for you since you can find 'em very commonly under a bridge 😉.
Detectors sound fun too, "discrimination" set to gold and silver or you could risk digging up an iron dud from WW 1 or 2 if you live in certain area's of the EU though.
Oh yeah I've heard about finding war stuff -- it's actually something that interests me to find as well, but maybe more along the lines of safe things, maybe even old arrowheads. We have Ojibwe I believe up here and a few others. Wouldn't want to find an explosive though!
Congrats on quiting smoking. I nerd to do that myself. Great idea on taking the shot before you picked the agate up. That really could be helpful for people wanting to look for rocks themselves.
Thanks for the feedback, I wondered if it would help others identify them (since the one above was more than half buried). I look forward to sharing more of them!
I love how the second one glows. That's partly how I spot the oil agates at the beach.
Yes me too. It all depends on the angle of the sun. You normally want the sun behind you but in this case it was in front and above. I'm hoping to get a shot where the sun makes multiple smaller agates glow it'll make for an awesome picture!
If you hit a really good patch you may want to do some video's even...
yeah my last 2 agate hunting days I did at least an hour of video each so now I have to tediously go through and edit videos. The end product will be fun though as it would be my second video edit literally. Definitely plan on doing more dtube videos!
I need to figure that out better myself. I'd like to do some lapidary and tie dye video's later in the summer. I'll be looking forward to some agate vids.
It's pretty easy, but if you dont want to just do a video dump you want to write out your article before you even upload the video. That way once you post the video, you quickly edit your video post via steemit and paste your content in. That's how I did my glaciers and agates post. It was more of a test just to make sure I got the process down right.