Fall Sunset

Tonight I went out and  captured the first good Fall Sunset....we have been having some rather uninteresting sunset so far this Fall...but tonight was "Special".

Click on any photograph to enlarge for a better lifesized view.

 

 

 

Butterflies and Flowers

 

I thought I would share with you that follow this blog, some photographs of our beautiful Butterflies that visit us here in Summer and Early Fall.

 

These photographs were taken with my IPhone and not my good Nikon SLR camera...surprising how great they can come out with an IPhone.

 

Click on any image to enlarge for a better view.

 

 

Butterfly on a Butterfly Bush Bloom

 

 

Butterfly on a House Leek Bloom

 

 

Same Butterfly on a House Leek Bloom

 

 

 

 

 



Challenge- Photographing Peitersite Gemstones

A self challenge..to photograph some Peitersite Gemstones that I recently cut and polished.

We went to the Local Gem show here on Friday and again on Monday....on Friday I purchased 3 nice pieces of Rough Peitersite...brought them home and cut them on Sunday and Monday.

Now the challenge..to photograph them so the wonderful colors and choyancy would show( IE the Schiller effect of the Blue and Gold colors ).

This Peitersite has within it much the same type of Gold colors as does Tiger Eye, except instead of ordered bands of color..the bands are bent and twisted into swirls or colors and it also has the very desirable Blue ( hard to find ) along with Black,Reds.

I set the camera up on my tripod and started photographing them on a black background, and following are the results.....However...I didn't quite get the effect that I wanted, so I will try again tomorrow...using a different approach....and will post the results.

Click on any image for a larger view.

A 68.5 Ct. Finished Piece

 

Another view..hand held

 

Another view turned the other way-hand held

 

Now turned upside down view.

 

 

A 58 Ct. Piece

 

Same stone..turned..hand held

 

Same stone slightly turned..hand held

 

A 27.5 Ct. Piece

 

Same stone Slightly turned..hand held

 

 

Now you see the challenge of photographing shiney Gemstones...have to have the light source filtered so it does not make a flash arcoss the stone...am working on it..and will get it figured out.

 

 

Try again tomorrow...and then post the results....wish me luck...lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gift from a Friend and working my Magic

Today I would like to share with you a gift I recieved from a friend.

A friend of my Lady that we met in online chat from here in NC met with us for lunch several times and became friends with both of my Lady and I.

On a recent meeting this friend brought along several pieces of NC Petrified Wood Logs, they are petrified Palm Wood, rather odd ugly looking on the outside, but pure Magic inside.
She gifted me three of these logs and I recently cut into them and started to slab them up and proceed to make cabachon gemstones from them.

I will show you in photographs below, the rough form of a portion of one of those logs and then a couple of the finished gemstones I cut from it.

I will also show a few other pieces of gemstones I have been working on lately.

Click on any photograph for a Larger view.

 NC Petrified Palm Wood ( part of a log )

 

 A Slab cut from the log

 

 Two finished pieces cut from the slab above

 

 

Next: showing some of the other stones I have been working on.

 

 

 A Rough chunk of Picasso Marble ( Jasper )

 

 A slab cut from the above Picasso Marble Rough ( Jasper )

 

 A very nice Cabachon of Bloodstone from India that I cut.

 

Very Rare-Royal Imperial Jasper Cabachon

I cut this from some old stock I had..this material has long been mined out..no longer available.

 

 

A Dendritic Jasper Preform ( waiting on final shaping and polishing)

 

Another Jasper Preform

 

#2 Jasper Preform

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was cut from a Gold Mine Core Drill in Arizona

Note the small flecks of Gold in it

 

 

Another stone resembling Apache Gold

it is high grade Pyrite in Black Matrix

Makes a stunning stone.

 

Summer Blooms

Come with me on a quick tour of some of our Summer Blooms around our yard.

As some of you may know, here in the South, we have to work very hard to get the soil just right to grow great flowers with all the heat we have and little rain .

We must first break up the Red Clay Soil and mix in some Compost and Peat Moss and do constant daily watering.

We will now show you some of our wonderful Summer Blooms, feel free to click on any image to enlarge for a better view.

Hostas in bloom

Close up of Hosta Blooms

An unknown flower ( bloom the size of penny)

A Pink Cosmos ( they come in different shades of Pink,and other colors)

Another Pink Cosmos, a shade darker Pink

A Tono Rustic Blackeyed Susan

A Day Lily..I played around with the background just for fun, See..I just made you smile.



Our friendly little Chipmunks

We will share with you some photo's of our friendly little Chipmunks that come out of the flower beds and steal seeds from the bird feeder.

These little chpmunks are so cute..but very fast moving..hard to have one sit still for a photograph..but He didn't see me till it was too late, and He was just curious enough to nerviously watch me taking His picture right before he dove into the feeder to steal some seeds then scurry away.

Click on any photograph for a better view ( larger ).

Rubbin His Tummy..thinking of food.

Just happens to notice me sitting on a log watching Him.

Looking around..very nervious.

Almost as if He were winking at me..mischevious little creautre.

I hope you enjoy Creators little animal people as I do.

My Bird Friends

Today I will share with you some photographs of our Bird Friends here in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

We begin with a Female House Finch, then a whole House Finch Family, followed by the very elusive Killdeer ( very fast moving and seldome sit still for more than a few seconds, even caught one in flight..leaving ).

As usual , click on any photograph to enlarge for a better view.

A Cute Female House Finch

Same Female different pose

Looking down at the feeder for Lunch

A Family of House Finches..notice the Male with the Red on his head.

I didn't notice it till I went to crop the photo, but you can see a Female flying up from behind the Day Lilie.

A Killdeer poking around the soil for bugs in our garden.

Another Killdeer.

A friend of the one above.

The real photographers challenge...capturing one in flight

They move so fast..really have to be prepared and fast.