Photos on This Site

Private Studio - The catalog photos are taken in a photography studio designed and constructed by Paul Nuckols, studio photographer. Photos are down loaded from the camera and and used in the original format except for cropping non-crystal related distractions, and resizing when needed.

Location Photos - My goal with site photos is two fold: to document the crystal mining process, and to take pleasing photographs. For documentation purposes, I especially like the process of using the camera on a tripod and snapping shots every 15 seconds or so, over 5-10 minutes, creating a series of quick moving pictures; an old-time movie effect when played on a slide viewer. I find that once in a while a really nice still photo can be captured at the site. The real challenge is to capture the action. Now, there's a joke about Middleville action that points out the mellow-dramatic cadence at which it plays out. After all, blocks of hard rock need a lot of force to move them even a little bit. When digging "green", that force comes from you, dear digger. A photographers challenge to say the least, but certainly worth a few laughs and a few good photos. Impact moments are a challenge too: impact of striking the steel, impact of boulder crashing, impact of a full sledge swing. Sometimes these shots become the best stills. Because the mine is so open, no trees nearby, the light is direct, unfiltered, and can create harsh, shadow less photos. Likewise, it can be very dark, all shadow, under a site tarp. Both scenarios create "difficult to interpret" pictures. Dust penetrates even the best wrapped lenses. -Shell Nuckols

Sending Photos to Herks.com - We invite you to show off your Herks, a dig scene, a digging injury, or other Herk related events, by sending us your photos along with a brief explanation. We use .jpg format for pix; most Word, Notepad, and html formats for tags. Please include a statement giving us the right to alter code to conform to site standards. Photos are welcome even if you don't want them published. Just make it clear in your email. Send to: ASK@Herks.com