By Ted Grussing
… a constant companion and with an image like this you could place this scene anywhere, for example in a raging ocean with waves crashing high on the cliff faces and perhaps a quiet lagoon in the horseshoe portion of the peaks, boats at anchor safe from the raging seas that surround the island … or you could take reality which is an unnamed set of high mountain ridges a mile or so NW of Thunder Mountain on the east side of Long Canyon. Just above the left ridge line and out of the frame is Seven Canyons Golf Course and of course it is in very early morning light from this morning. Not sure how high these ridges are, but guessing in the two thousand feet range. We had a nice start to the morning with about a forty five minute flight, followed by breakfast and a lot of coffee … may repeat it again tomorrow morning and continue what promises to be a very busy and fun week.
Spent the afternoon mapping out a large piece (400+ grams) of gem silica aka Chrysacolla that I bought back in the early 80’s and need to spend perhaps a couple more hours mapping it under strong light before making the cuts. It has a lot of very gemmy robin egg blue material in it, a couple of cracks, some druzy quartz lining a cavity that goes into the stone … still think there are several 50+carat top gem quality stones and a lot of smaller ones in the piece. For reference, a gram equals 5 carats; carat is a unit of weight. Anyhow this is going to take a series of cuts which will have to be properly sequenced to get the maximum yield from the rough so another few hours of study as once I make the diamond blade cuts it cannot be taken back and that is art of the challenge I have always loved in gem cutting. I’m hoping for about a 30% yield or about 600 carats in finished gemstones. Maybe I’ll take some photos of the rough cut material if I put it to the diamond blade tomorrow.
Have a beautiful day, look for the beauty that surrounds you and smile … we’re still breathing!
Cheers
Ted
Whatever else you do or forbear;
Impose upon yourself the task of happiness;
And now and then abandon yourself
To the joy of laughter.
— Max Ehrmann
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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com
In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.
Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses. By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.
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