Morrisonite photos

Posted by Mark on Apr 7, 2010 in nature photography | 18 comments

Morrisonite hillsides

I have finally spent some time catching up on some of my rock abstracts.  This time I have added some Morrisonite photos to my gallery.   Morrisonite is a particular type of jasper found in Oregon’s Owyhee desert.   The story has it that it was originally on the property of an old hermit, James Morison back in the late 1940s.   Once the colorful jasper became public knowledge, his land was flooded by rockhounds, commercial interests, and trespassers until ultimately it took blasting and heavy equipment to get to the jasper that was left.

I read no one knew what happened to James Morison, he sort of just disappeared.   I find it fascinating that my photographs of today are somehow connected to this old hermit in the hills of Oregon who lived over 60 years ago.   The area where this jasper is found is reported to be quite rugged.   I saw a rugged landscape in this image, and the blood red color symbolic of how man can rip at this planet’s natural treasures.

This image was captured wet, using a Nikon D700, 200 mm f4 macro lens, and cross-polarized Nikon R1C1 macro flashes to eliminate reflections and glare.  Post processing in Adobe Lightroom 2 and Adobe Photoshop CS3.   More pictures of Morrisonite and other abstract macro landscapes can be found in my gallery.

Black and white abstract

Posted by Mark on Jun 28, 2009 in nature photography | 5 comments

Amethyst Sage

As fascinating as I find the colors of the rocks I have been photographing, sometimes it helps to take the color away to just be amazed by the patterns.   This is a macro abstract of Amethyst Sage, evoking thoughts of some fantasy world.  I move from seeing a mountain volcano erupting with bats in the night to seeing dragons.   I find that geometrical elements can influence the types of images you may see – the sharp points and sharp lines lend themselves to darker responses.  What do you see?

Primordial fire

Posted by Mark on May 18, 2009 in nature photography | 11 comments

Pietersite abstract

Pietersite fires

These macro abstracts of the rare stone Pietersite reminded me of the primordial fires that helped form this planet.  I can’t help but imagine that fire being frozen in time in these rocks.   Given it is found only two places in the world – Namibia, Africa – where this particular piece originated from, and from in China – you wonder if it is telling an ancient story.

The chatoyance of this rock can make it difficult to photograph.  Change the angle of light, and the colors and patterns shift before your eyes.   It is hard to capture its true reflectance and shimmering in a non-reflective presentation.   Believe it or not, I actually had to tone down the colors as captured by my camera.  The reds came through much too saturated, and I toned them down to keep them from overpowering the other intense colors.   I am fascinated, and perhaps a little haunted by this stone.

Stone Windows

Posted by Mark on Dec 2, 2008 in nature photography | 10 comments

I have finally got back into my growing rock collection and actually revisited an older piece of Arizona Petrified Wood I have.  This small slice has some of the most incredible micro landscapes within it as you can see above. .  These two images are of the front and back of the slice, and I think they are quite complimentary of each other.

The concept of “Stone Windows” came to mind to me – looking into this small piece of stone and seeing not only something of your imagination, but it is also a window into the past. .  Imagine what was going on in the world when this piece of wood was being solidifed!!. .  It is actually quite hard to believe this was once wood actually!

I did something with these images I don’t normally do – I used the Auto-Tone Develop preset in Lightroom. . .  Of course, normally I like to adjust myself, but once in awhile I will hover over this preset just to see if it is close to what I want. .  Raw files are typically a bit flat. .  Auto-Tone really did well with these particular images and just made them sing. .  I didn’t adjust anything else, except for to decrease the luminance of the red a small bit, it was just too red.

Just to give you an idea of what this small piece of petrified wood looks like..

Tiger iron abstracts

Posted by Mark on Sep 7, 2008 in nature photography | 11 comments

The closer we look – the more we see   Such is the case with this new rock I have added to my gallery called Tiger Iron   I have seen some macro shots of Tiger Iron in various places, and started keeping my eye out for some. .  Tiger Iron is somewhat of a mixture rock – combining tiger eye, red jasper, and black hematite.  Under diffuse lighting, it really doesn’t look like much. . .  Rather black and bland with a few stripes visible. .  But stick it under some good light and cross-polarized flashes, and the layers come alive. .  I ended up getting a nice slab of it (about 4×4 inches) that is already polished, and boy is it a doosy of patterns and colors. . .  In real close, or backing up a bit, the possibilities seem endless in this single slab.

It is hard not to get lost in these for quite some time. .  They are the type of images that take awhile to soak in, and usually reveal something new with every glance.  One characteristic that probably doesn’t come through well enough is that those gold chatoyant bands actually reflect light like metallic gold   Very difficult to portray in an image.

You have to wonder how many millions of years those layers represent   Imagine what the world was like back when each of those cells and layers were forming   A single rock can not only hold possibly a thousand photographs, but a thousand stories of the Earth’s history as well.