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Description

I create backlit gemstone pendants backlit with little LED lights (up to five per pendant - epoxied to the back of 40mm x 30mm cabochons (polished gemstones) and powered by a 3 volt coin cell battery in a battery holder with an on-pff switch). This allows me to "illuminate the inner beauty of the stone". This is wearable illuminated gemstone art. In addition to that art form I then use a USB microscope (connected to my desktop computer) to take microscopic photos down inside my backlit pendants. I find interesting scenes down in the stones and take many photos down in each backlit pendant. The softwear allows me to alter the color, the brightness, the contrast, the color saturation, and the white balance of the photos. In addition . . . . there is a filter that reverses color . . . so what was white becomes black, what was blue becomes yellow, etc. I find interesting "scenes" down in the gemstone and take multiple photos varying the color amongst eight separate color palettes. The microscope has a ring of its own LED lights but I can't use them because the cabochons are curved and highly polished . . . so light form those LED, reflects off the surface of the stone back into the camera. So I mostly use my backlighting to illuminate the stones for photographs . . . this tends to create dramatic heavily shadowed images. I have learned to use a pen light (and sometimes an ultraviolet penlight) to provide a fill light source for my photos, so you can see what elements in the stone are "lurking in the shadows". I post these color adjusted USB microscopic images down in my backlit pendants to several Facebook groups and my own Facebook page. One of those Facebook groups I post these images to is "Natural Pictures in Stone" where people post photos of slabs, cabs (cabochons), and chunks of stones with apparent images in them . . . and then ask you, "What do you see?" I like to call it "Rock Rorschach" (like the ink blots) and I believe looking at and seeing things in the stones, exercises your brain and stimulates your imagination. Here is one of my color adjusted, USB microscopic photographs down in one of my backlit pendants, using the pen light as a fill light to light up the upper surfaces of the stone, supplemental to the backlighting provided by my LED lights attached to the backside of the gemstone.

This is my first posting here, so if it is successfully posted, I will follow up with a few natural color, non-microscopic photos from that same backlit pendant "Red Plume Agate 01. So I will ask viewers what we ask them on that Facebook group as well as on my Facebook page . . . What do you see? No answer is wrong . . . it's all in the eye of the beholder. Enjoy!

Description

I create backlit gemstone pendants backlit with little LED lights (up to five per pendant - epoxied to the back of 40mm x 30mm cabochons (polished gemstones) and powered by a 3 volt coin cell battery in a battery holder with an on-pff switch). This allows me to "illuminate the inner beauty of the stone". This is wearable illuminated gemstone art. In addition to that art form I then use a USB microscope (connected to my desktop computer) to take microscopic photos down inside my backlit pendants. I find interesting scenes down in the stones and take many photos down in each backlit pendant. The softwear allows me to alter the color, the brightness, the contrast, the color saturation, and the white balance of the photos. In addition . . . . there is a filter that reverses color . . . so what was white becomes black, what was blue becomes yellow, etc. I find interesting "scenes" down in the gemstone and take multiple photos varying the color amongst eight separate color palettes. The microscope has a ring of its own LED lights but I can't use them because the cabochons are curved and highly polished . . . so light form those LED, reflects off the surface of the stone back into the camera. So I mostly use my backlighting to illuminate the stones for photographs . . . this tends to create dramatic heavily shadowed images. I have learned to use a pen light (and sometimes an ultraviolet penlight) to provide a fill light source for my photos, so you can see what elements in the stone are "lurking in the shadows". I post these color adjusted USB microscopic images down in my backlit pendants to several Facebook groups and my own Facebook page. One of those Facebook groups I post these images to is "Natural Pictures in Stone" where people post photos of slabs, cabs (cabochons), and chunks of stones with apparent images in them . . . and then ask you, "What do you see?" I like to call it "Rock Rorschach" (like the ink blots) and I believe looking at and seeing things in the stones, exercises your brain and stimulates your imagination. Here is one of my color adjusted, USB microscopic photographs down in one of my backlit pendants, using the pen light as a fill light to light up the upper surfaces of the stone, supplemental to the backlighting provided by my LED lights attached to the backside of the gemstone.

This is my first posting here, so if it is successfully posted, I will follow up with a few natural color, non-microscopic photos from that same backlit pendant "Red Plume Agate 01. So I will ask viewers what we ask them on that Facebook group as well as on my Facebook page . . . What do you see? No answer is wrong . . . it's all in the eye of the beholder. Enjoy!