For Alex lovers everywhere

[Gailey]

Up until today I wondered what all the fuss was about. Then I happened across this wonderful looking stone. I can''t link to it, because it appears on a blog page. It was cut by a man I have heard little about before called Dale P. Carriere and it was photographed by Jeff Hunt. I hope neither of these gentlemen mind me posting the pictures.

Perhaps Jeff will see this and come and tell us a bit about photographing such an enigmatic stone (without giving his secrets away of course).

Meanwhile, enjoy!

 

[Cind11]

Wow! What a gorgeous stone!!!!!

 

[RevolutionGems]

I''m not at all wild about the cutting but the material sure is impressive. Wow.

 

[SparkleSparkle]

Gorgeous!! Love it!

 

[Jeffrey Hunt]

Hi Gailey,

I don''t mind a bit telling a little of the story behind this stone. It took me hours to photograph and was excruciating. How can it take hours to shoot a gemstone? - Well, that''s one of my secrets. (Very funny.) It weighs in at 0.38 cts and the size alone made it difficult. I also don''t consider myself a master photographer so this was all a bit of a learning experience.

The blue with purple flashes was taken under florescent lighting.
The purplish photo with a hint of green was taken with a combination of tungsten and incandescent. I consider this a normal look for the stone indoors.
The third photo was taken outdoors, entirely in natural light.

Interestingly the stone also had flashes of red when you viewed it indoors next to a window. Astounding.

About the cutting, my understanding is the rough was much larger and a great sacrifice was made in this rare material to keep the grade as high as possible. There are inclusions, angles were chosen to insure a higher ct weight. Hard to imagine at 0.38 cts. Minas Gerais Alexandrite is evidently some of the best you will see. Shooting the stone and viewing the color change was wonderful. I''m sure we all wish it was bigger and cut a little sharper with correct angles, but sometimes a gem turns into a real jewel and those things don''t matter anymore. (My humble opinion.)

Something funny about the photoshoot - having read an earlier post about dropping a stone in the grass and looking for it. When I shot this outside I set up a huge painters drop cloth in the back yard and set up a photography table right in the middle of it. I was not going to lose that stone!

Kind Regards,

Jeff

 

[chrono]

Superb photography, Jeff! Thank you for the background information as well.

 

[Arcadian]

nice! .38 is really tiny? What kind of rig do you have?

-A

 

[Gailey]

Date: 1/26/2010 9:24:15 PM
Author: Jeffrey Hunt
Hi Gailey,

I don''t mind a bit telling a little of the story behind this stone. It took me hours to photograph and was excruciating. How can it take hours to shoot a gemstone? - Well, that''s one of my secrets. (Very funny.) It weighs in at 0.38 cts and the size alone made it difficult. I also don''t consider myself a master photographer so this was all a bit of a learning experience.

The blue with purple flashes was taken under florescent lighting.
The purplish photo with a hint of green was taken with a combination of tungsten and incandescent. I consider this a normal look for the stone indoors.
The third photo was taken outdoors, entirely in natural light.

Interestingly the stone also had flashes of red when you viewed it indoors next to a window. Astounding.

About the cutting, my understanding is the rough was much larger and a great sacrifice was made in this rare material to keep the grade as high as possible. There are inclusions, angles were chosen to insure a higher ct weight. Hard to imagine at 0.38 cts. Minas Gerais Alexandrite is evidently some of the best you will see. Shooting the stone and viewing the color change was wonderful. I''m sure we all wish it was bigger and cut a little sharper with correct angles, but sometimes a gem turns into a real jewel and those things don''t matter anymore. (My humble opinion.)

Something funny about the photoshoot - having read an earlier post about dropping a stone in the grass and looking for it. When I shot this outside I set up a huge painters drop cloth in the back yard and set up a photography table right in the middle of it. I was not going to lose that stone!

Kind Regards,

Jeff

Thanks Jeff!

How well do you think you would do photographing middle aged, slightly overweight Englishwomen?

 

[Sal from Cal]

Wonderful pictures Jeff and thank you for telling us about how you took them. Glad that my story of my almost disaster was able to help you avoid one of your own

 

[Arkteia]

Amazing photograph and amazing stone. I think it''s better to sacrifice more rough to obtain a perfect stone than to sloppily cut whatever comes your way to maximize carat weight. Alexandrite is not a smallish stone, not like garnet. 0.38 ct is still seen in a ring.

Congratulations!

 

[Arkteia]

Date: 1/26/2010 9:46:40 PM
Author: Gailey

Date: 1/26/2010 9:24:15 PM
Author: Jeffrey Hunt
Hi Gailey,

I don''t mind a bit telling a little of the story behind this stone. It took me hours to photograph and was excruciating. How can it take hours to shoot a gemstone? - Well, that''s one of my secrets. (Very funny.) It weighs in at 0.38 cts and the size alone made it difficult. I also don''t consider myself a master photographer so this was all a bit of a learning experience.

The blue with purple flashes was taken under florescent lighting.
The purplish photo with a hint of green was taken with a combination of tungsten and incandescent. I consider this a normal look for the stone indoors.
The third photo was taken outdoors, entirely in natural light.

Interestingly the stone also had flashes of red when you viewed it indoors next to a window. Astounding.

About the cutting, my understanding is the rough was much larger and a great sacrifice was made in this rare material to keep the grade as high as possible. There are inclusions, angles were chosen to insure a higher ct weight. Hard to imagine at 0.38 cts. Minas Gerais Alexandrite is evidently some of the best you will see. Shooting the stone and viewing the color change was wonderful. I''m sure we all wish it was bigger and cut a little sharper with correct angles, but sometimes a gem turns into a real jewel and those things don''t matter anymore. (My humble opinion.)

Something funny about the photoshoot - having read an earlier post about dropping a stone in the grass and looking for it. When I shot this outside I set up a huge painters drop cloth in the back yard and set up a photography table right in the middle of it. I was not going to lose that stone!

Kind Regards,

Jeff

Thanks Jeff!

How well do you think you would do photographing middle aged, slightly overweight Englishwomen?

You should add, "whose mood changes every minute, depending on the weather" (LOL).

 

[Arkteia]

Date: 1/26/2010 9:24:15 PM
Author: Jeffrey Hunt
Hi Gailey,

I don''t mind a bit telling a little of the story behind this stone. It took me hours to photograph and was excruciating. How can it take hours to shoot a gemstone? - Well, that''s one of my secrets. (Very funny.) It weighs in at 0.38 cts and the size alone made it difficult. I also don''t consider myself a master photographer so this was all a bit of a learning experience.

The blue with purple flashes was taken under florescent lighting.
The purplish photo with a hint of green was taken with a combination of tungsten and incandescent. I consider this a normal look for the stone indoors.
The third photo was taken outdoors, entirely in natural light.

Interestingly the stone also had flashes of red when you viewed it indoors next to a window. Astounding.

About the cutting, my understanding is the rough was much larger and a great sacrifice was made in this rare material to keep the grade as high as possible. There are inclusions, angles were chosen to insure a higher ct weight. Hard to imagine at 0.38 cts. Minas Gerais Alexandrite is evidently some of the best you will see. Shooting the stone and viewing the color change was wonderful. I''m sure we all wish it was bigger and cut a little sharper with correct angles, but sometimes a gem turns into a real jewel and those things don''t matter anymore. (My humble opinion.)

Something funny about the photoshoot - having read an earlier post about dropping a stone in the grass and looking for it. When I shot this outside I set up a huge painters drop cloth in the back yard and set up a photography table right in the middle of it. I was not going to lose that stone!

Kind Regards,

Jeff

Jeff,

In a different post, you have mentioned the stone turning blue under fluorescent lighting. Now, this is very interesting because it is exactly the phenomenon that I have been observing in my alexandrite. I did not mention it here but since it is a phenomenon I had never read about I even wanted to send my stone for a third certification (It is a Brazilian alexandrite which has Gubelin and GIA certifications, 2.73 ct with a 100% shift; cut with a huge window but still a phenomenal color change). But it does turn very blue under fluorescent light (my office has strong fluorescent light). I do not know if it is typical for all alexandrites but I have noticed that none of my synthetic stones exhibits such a phenomenon. I wonder if this color is observable in all real alexandrites and had never been mentioned before because there was no fluorescent light routinely used until recently.

 

[oddoneout]

I like all the colours.

 

[LD]

I've stayed out of this thread until now because the picture of the blue colourway (apologies Jeff) doesn't look like Alexandrite to me. Of course it IS an Alex but photographing them are the most difficult thing in the world and I know that what you see with your eyes does not translate easily to a photograph. I appreciate Jeff's explanation of how he took the photos and I'd love to set him down with mine to see what he could do - so Jeff if you're ever in the UK please let me know!!!!.

I have had the immense priviledge of seeing many hundreds of specimens but I've never seen one go blue in fluorescent light and certainly none of mine do. Either I just haven't ever been in the right lighting conditions or it's a particular strain of Alex that exhibits this phenomena that I haven't seen. I'd love to see it but, as with all Alex, I'd need to see it with my eyes because photos lie so easily with this gemstone!

I also have a different opinion from most that the Brazilian material (to me) has more blue tone than Alex from other localities. I know that's not the considered opinion but it's what I've seen. The Brazilian stones I have are a more teal green (certainly never blue) but even they do not look blue in fluorescent lighting.

I'm also curious when people refer to Alex as muddy?????? Again, this is not something I see. They can have silk and this means that the overall look can be dull but to compensate, the silk can enhance the colour change! Very poor quality Alex I suspect might appear muddy if the colour isn't the expected green to purple and I do see that in some vendor's photos but I'm still to see it!

If there are any other Alex collectors out there I'd love to hear their opinion as well because Alex is my passion! I'm such an anorak!

 

[Bella_mezzo]

so pretty!

 

[Stone Hunter]

WOW I think that the photographer (Jeff Hunt) has great skill -- thanks for posting on PS. I am terrible at taking photos of color changers and could use all the pointers you''re willing to post.