And here is a beautiful tungsten oxide, Hubnerite, whose deep, rich lustre is every bit as stunning as that of my favourite sulphides, and which could easily compete in the category of minerals with a magnificent black colour. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Rubellite is the red or pink variety of tourmaline. In this specimen, it is not the crystal’s symmetry that matters, but the magnificent interplay with other minerals. It’s almost like an abstract painting! #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Baumhauerite is a rare sulfosalt. This specimen comes from the type locality in Switzerland and features beautiful bronze-colored striated crystals, set off by the white dolomite matrix. It’s like a tiny jewel (few millimeters) in a shiny white case! #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

The delicate needle-like structures of Artinite—in this specimen from a tunnel excavation in the Italian Alps—give a deceptive impression of snowy softness... but those tiny crystals definitely prick your fingers! #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

A mixture of native silver and chalcocite, with beautiful localized iridescence likely caused by the presence of iron forming other sulfides. I love sulfides for their often massive, metallic appearance. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

A throwback specimen for #MineralMonday today! I got this specimen of Microcline var. Amazonite and Smoky Quartz back in June of 2021. Crazy how time flies!

A yellow #MineralMonday today! Like Calcite, Baryte forms crystals of various sizes and shapes. This specimen comes from Sardinia and its crystals barely fit within the lens’s field of view at 1:1 magnification. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Hematite has long been a companion to humankind; ground into powder, it used to colour caves red. Here is an iron petal formation that is somewhat reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House. Or perhaps it’s Sunday morning drinks. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

It’s ‘failed shot Saturday’! Here’s some brucite: a gorgeous yellow colour, backlit to show the crystallisation details, but the framing’s a mess and it’s generally rather dull. That’s when you realise how far you still have to go. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Calcite comes in an infinite variety of forms. Here, on a specimen previously featured, it appears as a small sphere tinged with black boulangerite. Magnification: 2x; field of view: 18 mm. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

I risked my life for you last night to take a photo of the toxic Villiaumite, with its beautiful red color and simple but deadly chemical formula, NaF. 5x magnification and 8mm field of view. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Arfvedsonite is a silicate whose name is rather difficult to pronounce in French and which forms beautiful black crystals that are often striated. The photo doesn’t quite do it justice, but there are also blue highlights. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Pyropes are the red variety of garnet. In this Norwegian specimen, they are embedded in a thin grey Kelyphite shell within a Forsterite matrix dotted with green diopside. Look at that deep red! What a contrast to the green of the diopside! #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Kunzite is a variety of spodumene, characterised by a delicate pinkish-purple hue. This backlit crystal from Afghanistan boasts a beautiful, rich and uniform colour, as well as a stunning, delicately striated surface. Happy #MineralMonday! #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro #MacroMonday

A touch of blue azurite for this Sunday – I swear on my favourite citrine that I’ve only edited the photo to do justice to the dazzling blue of this heavenly azurite! #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

An andorite crystal, named after a Hungarian mineralogist, but every time I see it I think of Andor in Star Wars. I wonder if there’s a connection – I haven’t looked into it yet. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

A failed shot! I share my failures too. In this photo of tyrolite, the debris and dust spoil the view of the beautiful, radiant clusters of this blue mineral. But how do you clean these tiny rosettes, just a few millimetres in size? #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Mellite is a fairly rare organic mineral that forms as a secondary mineral. Organic minerals aren’t all that common, and they don’t always look very spectacular. But they’re the minerals closest to us :-)! #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Atacamite is a halide that forms small, deep-green crystals, shown here as a layer on a rock matrix. The abundance of crystals and their random orientation give the photo an almost abstract look! #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Epidote is a silicate that forms beautiful green needle-like crystals. This was a challenging photo to take because the length of the crystals results in a large depth of field, which causes a lot of artifacts. I’ll try again with a higher magnification. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

#MineralMonday! Here is a beautiful rhodizite crystal, a very hard borate that forms stunning crystals, but is quite rare. This one comes from Madagascar. I love the growth patterns on the surface of the facets—I really like the sharpness of this photo! #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Manganite is a manganese hydroxide that forms clusters of highly lustrous crystals. Look at how the main crystal in the photo (FOV 32mm) is chiselled and fractured! This pattern is also seen on the other crystals, all of which are highly reflective. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Chabazite is a zeolite associated with Orpheus, and its name derives from the Greek word for ‘melody’. Its beautiful orange cubes exhibit a luminous, dazzling transparency: the photo has been adjusted to capture its natural appearance, with backlit. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

A ruby, a variety of corundum, in its rock matrix. This specimen has been part of the Naturae lapides collection for decades, and this is the first time I’ve been able to photograph it from such a close distance in such detail. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Salammoniac is an halide salt that has been known since ancient Egyptian times; its name means ‘Ammon’s salt’ in Greek. Look at its beautiful, geometric, transparent crystals – yet they are so fragile! #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

A calcite sphere covered in boulangerite, twinned pyrite crystals, clear quartz and pyrrhotite covered in calcite – there’s a bit of everything in this photo. The field of view is 30 mm. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Copper, prized since ancient times and a constant companion to humanity, forms magnificent concretions when found in its native state in nature. A beautiful specimen from Michigan, that can be seen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih9t... #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

#MineralMonday Conichalcite, calcium-copper arsenate hydrated, Black Range, New Mexico USA, FOV 1 cm. ⚒️ #geology . No MAGA! Science = Resistance! #standupforscience

Natrolite is a zeolite that forms stunning crystalline flowers, and its transparency makes it ideal for backlighting. Look how clearly you can see the square cross-section of the crystals! One of my favourites so far for this #MineralMonday #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Wavellite forms radiating spheres with beautiful rays, featuring a striated surface of a lovely aniseed green, whose irregularities create a waxy lustre. And you can see all of this clearly in the photo! #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Sometimes the flattening of the relief caused by stacking, combined with a dark, shiny mineral, results in a somewhat flawed, almost abstract image in Helicon. The sphalerite specimen is magnificent; I’ll come back to it and try to do better. #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Cuprite is a copper oxide whose tetrahedral crystals display a beautiful, distinctive red – an inimitable carmine with purplish highlights. This specimen comes from China and features crystals of all sizes, as seen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Zw... #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

A cloud of supreme softness: this pink Rhodochrosite is formed of intertwined spheres covered in a mantle of tiny shiny quartz crystals. This specimen comes from Greece and you can view it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmFW... #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

Carrollite is a sulphide that rarely tarnishes and retains a bright, light grey metallic lustre. On these beautiful crystals, the growth striations form magnificent abstract patterns #Mineral #Minerals #FocusStacking #Macro

In a complex mineral formation, I found this little pyrrhotite ‘tent’ sheltering a quartz star – isn’t it lovely? Within the 36 mm field of view, you can also see pyrite, hematite and sphalerite #mineral #focusstacking

Hooray, it’s #MineralMonday! I’m sharing this beautiful Indian Cavansite with you – it has such a gorgeous blue colour. I love the way the light passes through the top crystal; I spent my weekend taking photos and I’ll be sharing them with you every day. #mineral #focusstacking

Galena cubes inlaid with rhodochrosite. It’s tricky to adjust the colour balance to capture the bright pale pink and the dull metallic grey. It’s a large specimen, so it’s also difficult to frame properly. I’m learning, I’m learning! #mineral #focusstacking

The slightly unsettling green of Torbernite, a radioactive uranium mineral, whose follicular structure creates these ridges and layers. This was an easy photo to take as everything is almost in the same plane, so I applied a stronger magnification to see the layers. #mineral #focusstacking

Today is 1 May, Labour Day! Here are the delicate ridges of a Barytine, tinged with orange by iron impurities – a small specimen added to the Naturae Lapides collection in the 1970s. #mineral #focusstacking

A cluster of talmessite spherules. The pink colour looks nice, but I’m a bit disappointed with how it looks. Perhaps I should have zoomed in more to show that each spherule is covered in tiny sparkling crystals. #mineral #macrophoto #focusstacking

It’s a bit of a tricky photo to make out, as the rutile starts from the black hematite and extends into the quartz in the classic ‘angel’s hair’ pattern. It’s tricky to get the lighting and transparency right, but gosh, it’s brilliant to be able to take macro shots like this! #mineral #macro

Dioptase scattered across quartz crystals, from Namibia. Capturing the stunning color of dioptase realistically is always a challenge. #dioptase #crystal #quartz #mineral #focusstacking

For this #MineralMonday, a classic Vanadinite from Morocco, with its brilliant deep-red hexagonal crystals. 222 photos in the stack, and a little touch of Helicon #mineralmonday #mineral #focusstacking

Berthierite from the Herja mine in Romania, with its stunning iridescence. With my new small directional light, the lighting is better, but how can I improve the sharpness? #mineral #focusstacking #berthierite

I’m also sharing a failed shot—a beautiful marcasite, but the lighting doesn’t do justice to its iridescence or its structure. The stacking has caused some weird artifacts all over, with too much motion blur and poorly captured areas. I’ll have to try again! #mineral #focusstacking #fail

Still not entirely happy with the lighting, I’ve ordered some small spotlights. Here are some beautiful, smooth, shiny vesuvianite crystals from Italy, Valle d'Aosta. #mineral #focusstacking #vesuvianite

I love the striated crystals of stibnite (or stibine) and the way they catch the light in this beautiful dark sulfide. This one comes from Maramures in Romania, of course. #mineral #crystal #sulfide #focusstacking

Yellow carpathite crystals in a quartz matrix, from California Carpathite is a rare organic mineral classified as Strunz 10B. The name, of course, derives from the Carpathian Mountains. Highly fluorescent: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A3l... #mineral #crystal

Creedite from Mexico Few days of macro, what I have learned so far: - More light! Especially to highlight details - Must adjust colors and saturation to get close to the natural view (or not) - Need less vibration: turning the micrometer screw causes image shifts #mineral #creedite #crystal

For this #MineralMonday, I’m taking advantage of my new macro photography setup to showcase the beautiful deep pink color of a cluster of pyroxmangite crystals from Brazil. View it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q28y... #MineralMonday #mineral #crystal