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Macro Monday: Blue John

Blue John is a form of fluorite, found in Derbyshire England, properly known as Derbyshire Spar. It is famed for its banding of blues and yellows and its transparency when cut thin enough. It was very popular for jewellery and ornaments during the reign of Louis XVI which is how it acquired its colloquial name - from the French Bleu-Jaune. This fragment is about 1"x1½" and 3/16ths thick. I've been experimenting with flash for macro, so to show its translucency I sat this on a diffused flashhead with ¼ CTB at ¼ power and lit from above with ½ CTO at full power. The flashes were fired using a Phottix Odin remote.

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Uploaded on September 10, 2018
Taken on September 10, 2018