First spring flowers

I did first photos of the first spring flowers of 2015 today. Not much of them yet, mostly crocuses, some snowdrops and winter aconites. Spring flowers are my favourite subject, some more to come for sure 🙂

snowdrop

First snowdrops of the 2015! Not the best composition but there were no other options available. I had to stack two pictures to get both flowers sharp.

crocus

Group of purple crocuses. I did hundreds of these and I still like it, nice flowers!

winter-aconite

Winter aconite (Eranthis) is usually the first flower to appear. I was lucky to find this nice group of them.

Moravian Karst ice challenge

We finally got some winter. After a cold week with snow came the idea to check the nearby caves and make some icicle pictures if possible. Unfortunately, the frost was too weak and there were only a few suitable pieces. At least I spent a nice day outdoors with my friend Frantisek Novotny and we managed to produce few decent wintry pictures.

kocka

Just few small icicles hanging from the entrance of my favourite cave.

ice-texture

The only small icicle with suitable texture for some more fun. Stacked from two photos to achieve a bit better DOF.

krtiny-church

Baroque church in the Krtiny village, constructed by the famous architect Jan Blazej Santini. Pano stitched from 7 vertical photos, final resolution 42 megapixels.

Various mineral photos

I have visited my friend and mineral collector Ivo Halicek few days ago. The primary reason was to discuss his website development but I managed to do also some photos of his awesome minerals. I have focused on pyrite because I needed photos for the pyrite article.

pyrit-stiavnica

Pyrite with sphalerite and quartz from abandoned mines in Banska Stiavnica, Slovakia. Now considered a classic and very expensive material. Size 6.5×4.5 cm.

malachit-textura

Nice texture of polished slab of malachite from Katanga, Democratic republic of Congo. Aproximately 10 cm wide.

pyrit-rio-marina

Nice pentagon dodecahedron of pyrite from Rio Marina, Elba island, Italy. This classic piece has 6×6 cm.