INTRODUCTORY NOTES:
NOTE: These items belong to and are treasured by Dick & Mary, and are NOT for sale by me or by them.
PHOTOGRAPHY: All photographs taken by Dick were with a Nikon Coolpix 990 employing two 50 watt Solux MR-16 lamps and an occasional supplement of an 18 watt Ottlite. These photographs range from earliest efforts in mineral photography in 2001 until today. Early efforts, through some poorly color-balanced Cobaltian Smithsonite, were done with minor photoshop adjustments; though afterwards with a manually set white balance and no color adjustments. These are high-resolution and may take some time to load. Click on any image to see a larger picture.
Richard Nelson’s interest in minerals began around the third grade with trips to the Buckwheat Dump, Franklin, New Street Quarry, Paterson, and Carnelian Creek, Sterling. During family fishing vacations to Maine there was always at least one day set aside to go and visit one of the Oxford County pegmatites. These early experiences led to a study of geology (both hard rock and economic) and five years as an exploration geologist. Today he teaches high school Earth Science.
In Dick’s own words: When I returned to teach in New Jersey, I returned to my old haunts and my collection at that time still focused on New Jersey trap rock minerals. Around 1988 I began purchasing minerals at the local shows and my indulgence in pegmatites followed. I was ambushed by my future wife in 1991 and married in 1992. A trip to explore her roots in Spain followed in 1994, where we met Jordi Fabre and I became hooked on fluorites (of which they now have an EXCELLENT collection! – Rob).
During my fluorite phase my economic geologist tendencies began to rear its metaphorical ugly head and I started to drift off towards the oxidation products of economic minerals (a few pyromorphites, mimetites, wulfenites, and so on). Given this additional interest, I at some point remembered what Marc Wilson (now curator at the Carnegie Museum) told me back in grad school: Tsumeb! And here I am today. My collection focuses on thumbnail sized specimens with an occasional allowance of very small miniatures, and we are trying to assemble a collection that is both aesthetic and diverse in species. My primary sources for specimens have been Rob Lavinsky, Dave Bunk, Isaias Casanova, Leonard Himes, Herb Obodda, Carter Rich, and Dan Weinrich. You never know where a thumbnail will turn up, so it has been a very challenging and fun pursuit!
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