Rocks that ROCK!

Introducing a month long exploration of natural wonders seen by a woman who always has a camera on hand. We begin exploring with the wonders of minerals.

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"Velvet Beauty" is a magnificent collector's specimen from Bisbee, Arizona. This museum-quality piece of malachite and azurite was available for purchase at a rock and gem show for a mere $25,000. See a higher resolution image here.

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A titanium wash over a piece of quartz crystal is heat-treated to produce great color and flash. Seen on display with a vendor at the world-famous Quartzite, Arizona Rock and Gems show. Higher resolution image here.

Most of my rockhounding these days is manifested in collecting images of great rock and minerals, such as this amazing specimen of pyrite crusted on the bevel edges of these cubes of calcite from China, seen at the Tucson Rock and Gem Show.

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More like this

They look exactly like star nebula formation photographs taken at a very close proximity â¦

⦠and all 3 mug shits look a bit alien looking â¦

... ... B Jefferson Bolender even has a tripod attachment - can you get any more Martian?

By Wallace Turner (not verified) on 29 Jun 2009 #permalink

ibviously (sic) I'm typing in the dark here on an old fashioned macbook without the lightly up keys ...

The reference to mug-shots was changed by MS Orifice without any due diligence on my part.

By Wallace turner (not verified) on 29 Jun 2009 #permalink

At least I didn't make this mistake in Greg Laden's blog (which is where I thought I was commenting) ...

By wallace turner (not verified) on 29 Jun 2009 #permalink

You made me laugh, Wallace! I am in an alien landscape for sure in that "mug shot". It is the Imperial Sand Dunes in southwestern California. You comment on my tripod - ironically, most of the images I will be sharing were shot handheld with point and shoot cameras.

Perhaps if anyone wonders about my nick of cobalt123, I am known on flickr.com as both cobalt and cobalt123. I encourage anyone who likes the photos I am posting to look at them in the very large view there.

Wonderful!

By Skeptigal (not verified) on 04 Jul 2009 #permalink