Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Mostly Quartz but Still an Agate
Good evening Steemit World! Tonight I am writing pretty late. (Sheesh, It's almost morning now!) I've had a bit of a writers block and I've been pretty tired. Also no dreams either. I wonder why that is. It feels as though I've had dreams the last few days, but I can't remember any at all. It probably has something to do with the way I've been waking up. My primary focus upon waking up has been checking steemit. That excitement alone has been enough to make me quickly forget about my dream.
Todays Agate of the day is hardly an agate, but it's still quite the agate. Mostly Quartz Crystal, it still shows a few agate characteristics. It seems to me that all the actual agate part of this rock has been mostly sanded off naturally. After all, it has been tossing and turning around Lake Superior for a few million years.
I want to give my agates away somehow but it doesn't seem to make sense to mail individual rocks all over the globe. Perhaps the lot of agates that I post throughout the month would be feasible, but then the package could get heavy.
I've also considered a giveaway or lottery where you guys have to guess how many rocks are in a jar. These are just ideas to make my rock posts a little bit more engaging while giving back to the community.
Lights Off
After playing with my camera settings a little more, I feel that I finally got the desired effect from the flashlight picture. This is pretty darn close to the same effect I got with the Samsung S8 Active, so I am pretty satisfied. Not too satisfied with the white balance that occurred. WB on the camera is set to auto, so I might have to deactivate that for this particular picture.
You can click on the images to view full screen!!
Through a Jewelers Loupe 40X25 mm - Lights Off
This is a sweet shot of the "eye" in the agate.
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No Shine
After observing the rock, I went for the parts with the most character. There's a little bump in the rock that looks like it could be a bullseye, but even wet/oiled I can't get good detail, so I didn't bother with it.
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
As you can see a hole in this one, I tried to get a close up shot of what's in the hole, but there was not enough detail. There's a decent shot of it in the shine section.
Through a Jewelers Loupe 40X25 mm - No Shine
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
Shine
Once we get her nice and oiled up, this agate takes on a whole new life. Someone asked me what kind of oil I'm using. You're supposed to use mineral oil but for now, I am using vegetable oil. Once I'm done with the rock, I wash it with soap to get the oil off, as I don't know what the vegetable oil can do, if anything. Maybe just get it dirty, and I don't want that anyways.
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
Jewelers Loupe 40X25 mm - Shine
Enjoy the closeup shine!
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
How Big is it?
Well, it's not as small as the other agates I've been posting, that's for sure! Also included, a giant piece of Jasper that I found. At least I think it's Jasper. If you know for sure, feel free to confirm! I've got a much bigger one too, but it's all covered in deposits so I'd have to really sand it down.
You can click on the image to view full screen!!
| Flashlight Settings | ISO 200 35 mm f/5.4 1/50 sec |
| Other Settings | ISO 800 55 mm f/5.4 1/50 sec |
| Camera | Nikon D3400 24 MP |
| Lens | AF-P DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR |
| Location | Superior, WI |
After a re-examination of my camera settings, 800 ISO works for all the pictures except the flashlight picture (the first one). In order to get the desired effect that the S8 Active gave me, I had to turn it down to 200 and zoom out to 35 mm. This gave me more or less the desired result.
During the lights off segment where I placed the light underneath the rock, I tried ISO 400 and I may have gone with that but I think it was too dark. However; I didn't quite document that, so I'll have to double check next time.
*Fun Fact: I took a total of 349 pictures of this rock bring you the best quality! *
I share my rock and agate photo's exclusive with the Steemit community! Feel free to share your thoughts!
Thanks for stopping by! God Bless!
Previous Rock Posts
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Ridiculous Bands
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - My Wife Doesn't Believe I Found This One
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Trying out my D3400 + a Bonus Rock (Biggest Rock I ever Photographed)
Older than 7 days
good for viewing, not for voting!
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - My favorite type of Band
Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Shines like it's Polished!
Looking Splendid. History right there! Cracking job bitfiend.
Thank you I appreciate the positive feedback! It really makes me smile! :)
I find your posts to be really interesting, thanks for sharing. I live in Ontario so I'll be on the hunt for now on! I'll follow you.
Ontario you say? Are you near the shore of Lake Superior? If you are, you'll definitely be able to find some. The agates I post have not been polished. This is how I found them on the beach, so as to give you an idea what to look for. Thank you!
Never been to Superior, only great lake I haven't been to in fact. I'm near Georgian Bay, not sure if there is agate around here.
I would think that there are! Probably not lake superior agates specifically but different gemstones for sure. I've found Amethyst here too.