David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Peridot Crystals (Pele’s Tears). Image taken with D2xs camera and 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 100, f/22, 1/60 sec, flash). Thom was curious what I was taking macro images of in my hotel room while waiting for dinner.
I have always been fascinated by crystals. Before I retired I learned to solve chemical structures using single-crystal x-ray images. I love whenever I ever find a crystal in nature.
While we were out on our morning photography composition lesson outside of Volcano National Park, I found this black volcanic rock with yellow-green sparkles. I brought it back to the lodge where I had a macro lens, and spent the afternoon trying to get some pictures of the crystals. Later on I discovered that the crystals were a semi-precious gem known as Peridot (Pele’s Tears).
Late night or early in the morning (hard to tell this far north when there isn’t much darkness at night) I looked out my cabin window on the MV Explorer and saw the electric blue Noctilucent clouds. I read about them before (http://www.spaceweather.com/), but had never seen them. The clouds are ice crystals that are very high that you can only see for a short time when the sun is below the horizon. One theory is the crystals are nucleated when micro-meteors pass through the upper atmosphere. We were in the Baltic Sea traveling from Stockholm to Copenhagen and the sun doesn’t set until very late I set up a camera in my cabin and and started taking pictures.(Nikon D4 camera, 28 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 200 or 800, 28 mm, f/1.8, 1 sec)).
Walkabout after the second snow storm in two days with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 90 mm f/2 lens.
Ice Crystal Diffraction Creating Colors in Clouds Above Lago Argentino. From the Deck of the Francisco de Viedma Ferry Between El Calafate and Estancia Christina. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 55-200 mm lens (ISO 200, 95 mm, f/16, 1/250 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 8 and Photoshop CC.
