the blog

Gems and Minerals

I’ve joined in on a fun little deal with the Mamarazzi of The Woodlands group where we post a blog limited to 10 pictures on the 10th of every month. You’ll find the link to the next photographer’s blog at the bottom. 

This month has no theme, so when I was trying to decide what to post I delved into my “Artsy Fartsy” file to see what I had. This is a file I store on my desktop of fun and weird pictures I take just to try new techniques or to capture something unusual. A lot of what is in this file never sees the light of Lightroom…a little photography humor…because I didn’t nail the technique or I lose interest in the subject matter so it’s not worth processing the images. Today though, I did find some “gems” to share (last attempt at comedy, I swear).

I took these pictures on our most recent visit to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. They have a permanent exhibit in the Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals showcasing over 450 specimens. I love this exhibit for two reasons. Firstly, I love jewelry and the exhibit holds many exquisite examples of custom-made jewelry using very rare cut gemstones. Secondly, the uncut gems and minerals are pieces of art themselves, beautifully lit up and just asking to be photographed. Gorgeous, immovable objects; how hard can they be to capture with your camera? Well, let’s just say, kinda sorta hard. If you want to be spared the photography breakdown, just scroll below for the pretty images. I won’t judge you;)

There are several factors that made taking these pictures difficult:

  1. The exhibit is in total darkness except for the fiber optic lights inside the individual glass display cases which light the minerals and gems. 
  2. As I just said, each mineral or gem is inside a glass case. Take a moment to consider how many finger prints and nose smudges the exhibit cleaning crew must remove on a daily basis! 
  3. Using a flash is not an option as it would blast light off of the glass displays and crystals themselves leaving unsightly hotspots in the images. 
  4. The minerals are not naturally symmetrical or compact so obtaining focus of all the delicate features is difficult. 
  5. The displays are fairly small (3×3 ft) and there are lots of museum guests crowded around each one at any given time. 
Let me also mention that the museum security guards were following me like hawks. I probably triggered some alert since I was pretty much the only person taking pictures of every display at all different angles. They must have thought I was planning a heist. 

 Anyway, I compensated as best I could for the aforementioned challenges by using a high ISO, a large aperature and trying to find exhibits with clean glass, good angles and no people.  I remember when I was taking the pictures that they were still pretty dark even at ISO 4000 but I just kept shooting and figured the images would make their way to my “Artsy Fartsy” file. 
 
In Lightroom I was able to bring more light into the images with the Exposure and Fill Light options. It was a treat to see the gems open up as I adjusted the lighting. In the end, I think the images turned out pretty good. It was definitely a nice challenge for my camera’s sensitivity and my steadiness at slow shutter speeds in basic darkness.  
 
All images taken with Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 4000, 50 mm lens, f8.0, 1/60 

 

Now go check the next member of our 10 on 10 blog group to see some of her beautiful Senior Portraits. Click here!

 

 

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