Crystal photography

One of the things I really wished I had mastered while I was still working was the ability to take decent photomicrographs of the various samples we examined.  Admittedly, it would have been difficult with the air sensitive compounds, but they generally were not terribly photogenic since the were almost nearly always partially decomposed.   I have been playing with some of the mineral samples I have sitting around to see what I can do.  This is a back lighted fragment of an unknown mineral ca. 1 mm maximum size.

I may have to try growing some "perfect" crystals.  The beauty of small crystals (natural or newly grown) is the near perfection of the morphology.