Gallery 5- Johan Buelens Mineral Photographs...
Johan H. Buelens is a professional photographer, with his own vision on mineral photography. Here you may find a small selection of his work together with his comments. Original fine art prints are available. Contact Johan H. Buelens and visit his website www.johanbuelens.com
All photographs © Johan H. Buelens

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TOURMALINE Although this specimen, consisting of a ring of massive, deep blue Tourmaline crystals surrounding a core of fine white Albite crystals, was displayed with the crystal termination towards the viewer, I preferred to photograph it from the side, where some of the Albite crystals formed a nice patch. Technical note: A fine nightmare. It took several tries before I even got close to the picture I wanted. The enormous contrast between the snowwhite Albite and the dark blue Tourmalin dwarfs the contrast range of the best films, so I had to fiddle with the lighting to get things under control. In a darkened room I opened the shutter and gave a single flash from the ringflash mounted on the lens; then I fired the studio flash located above the Tourmaline crystals ten times in a row before closing the shutter. Nikon F4S, Micro-Nikkor 60mm 2.8, Fuji Velvia. (Today I'd certainly use the Fuji Astia for a shot like this.)

SILVER This small chunk of Silver was, as most metallic specimen, a challenge to get on film: to avoid reflections one should use diffuse light, but then the brilliance of the subject is lost. So I decided to use hard, frontal lighting instead, which causes some small areas to be slightly overexposed, but renders nicely all the deep hues of the oxydized patches. Technical note: Ringflash on the lens, Nikon F4S, Micro-Nikkor 60mm 2.8, Fuji Velvia.

DIOPTASE My approach here was to show this specimen of Dioptase as a landscape, the three green crystals contrasting in form and color with the background. I focused on the crystals and included the unsharp foreground on purpose to render an impression of depth (a well-known trick in landscape and architecture photography). Technical note: In keeping with the landscape approach, I used diffuse lighting from above: a small softbox was all I needed. Nikon F4S, Micro-Nikkor 60mm 2.8, Fuji Velvia.

PYRITE This is one of the most enigmatic pictures at first sight. It shows a detail of two interlocking cubes of Pyrite, whose vertices are slightly below the center of the picture. The lighting I used is a perfectly neutral daylight color: the colors in the picture are generated by interference phenomena when the light is reflected by the minute growth patterns on the crystal sides (the different colors correspond to different surface structure / angle of lighting patterns). Technical note: A single studio flash with standard (silver) reflector was used; a small piece of white cardboard opposite the light source corrected the contrast. Nikon F4S, Micro-Nikkor 60mm 2.8, Fuji Velvia.

STILBITE This small but beautiful 'bowtie' of Stilbite contrasts nicely with its dark matrix. The hard, frontal lighting makes all the details stand out. Technical note: Lighting was provided by a single ringflash mounted on the lens. (This kind of lighting typically creates all the small specular highlights seen in the picture.) Nikon F4S, Micro-Nikkor 60mm 2.8, Fuji Velvia.

ARAGONITE A quite uninspiring specimen at first sight, this piece of Aragonite revealed several `abstract landscapes' when scrutinized closely. The subtle interplay of all the different hues, as seen on a fine art print, cannot be rendered, however, on a computer screen. I guess the brownish bow across the picture will be considered a blemish by a mineralogist, but the picture (at least from this photographer's point of view) would not be half as interesting without it. Technical note: I tried to light the specimen from behind, but that killed the colors and flattened the picture. So I used a single small softbox to get soft, frontal lighting. Nikon F4S, Micro-Nikkor 60mm 2.8 at 8, Fuji Velvia. Color correction with a Minolta ColorMeter III.

WAVELLITE This specimen is a real eye-catcher, with its thin layer of yellow-green Wavellite crystals shining against a dull gray background. A picture of the whole specimen would look quite flat and monotonous, however. I was ready to give up on this one when I noticed this detail on one side of the stone: the fan structure reminds me of some plant fossils, and the nice color gradient enhances the composition (other crystal groups on the stone show no color gradient). I really like the colors and the textures in this picture. Technical note: A single studio flash with standard silver reflector was placed above and lightly left of the specimen. Nikon F4S, Micro-Nikkor 60mm 2.8, Fuji Velvia.