Fossil photographs

Recently, I was asked to do some fossil photos for the new publication about protected natural reserve. Because of the technical limits and small size of the objects, I was forced to stack the final pictures (some of them from 10+ photos) to achieve good results. I also tried a new approach to artificial software backgrounds. Feel free to comment the results.

Fossil Mollusc

Almost fully preserved ammonite

Sea Urchin in pretty good shape

Alpine adventure

The last week of July was dedicated to mineral collecting trip to the Alps. Unlike the last year, we had pretty nice weather all the time in the Mont Blanc massif. Our base camp was significantly higher this time and we managed to make some long trips over the glacier to the peaks around. The irony is that the best crystal pocket was discovered just about 15 minutes from our base camp. However the last day was really nasty weather, lot of rain and cold wind. The weather forecast promised another 3 days of rain, so we had to cancel our planned visit to other alpine localities in Switzerland. Despite the shortened program, the hikes, collecting minerals and photography conditions were simply great.

glacier in the french alps

You have to hike up the loooong glacier to get to some promising spots.

glacier in the mont blanc massif

Awesome views but also hard work to carry all the stuff up to the base camp.

camping on the alpine glacier

Camping on the upper part of the glacier.

alpine peaks and the glacier

Fresh snow covered the peaks during the night thunderstorm.

steep glacier and peaks

Climbing these steep and cracked glaciers is not that easy – you bet there is a reason why alpine minerals are so expensive!

sunset in the alpine camp

Sunset in the cold base camp.

crystals from the alpine pocket

Some quartz crystals mined from the pockets called alpine clefts.

smoky quartz cluster

Sometimes you got lucky and find such nice cluster of smoky quartz just laying on the glacier.

 

 

Ksiaz castle and minerals in Poland

I had a great time at the Ksiaz castle in Poland, where I was at the mineralogical conference PEG 2015. The Ksiaz castle is very nice place with awesome landscape around. There was also some short fencing show with fire dance – this inspired me too make some long exposures and the result is pretty nice. We did also some field trips to the famous granite quarries in Strzegom. The mineral finds were not that awesome but the locals had some pretty impressive specimens. Despite some rainy weather I really enjoyed it and of course managed to make a few pictures too.

Ksiaz castle in Poland

The main building of the Ksiaz castle from the central yard.

Ksiaz castle in Poland

The castle from the nearby viewpoint about an hour after sunset.

fire dansing show

This is how dance with the torches looks like with 20 second shutter speed.

Smoky quartz crystal on the albite

Killer piece of smoky quartz crystal on the albite feldspar from Strzegom.

Feldspar cluster from Strzegom

Very nice cluster of orthoclase and albite with small smoky quartz crystals from Strzegom.