Photomicrography

“Photomicrography for the Cash-Strapped Collector” By Derek Yoost

Ever wonder how to get decent Photomicrography without a microscope and all the expensive equipment that comes with it? In this lecture, I will show you the fruits of a project of mine and how I accomplished it. I wanted to see how good I could take pictures of small things with the least number of specialized optics. Using only things that most mineral, fossil, or meteorite collectors should already have at hand, I will show how you too can pull it off. My passion for fossil collecting started when I was 10 years old and has never stopped since. Starting at the age of 14, I worked in a rock shop (Jim’s Gems) in Wayne NJ and gleaned a vast knowledge for the collecting and lapidary hobby. For the past 27 years, my collection has grown to include fossil amber, fish, reptiles, and mammals that are unique to New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. I also collect local minerals from New Jersey, shells, bones, meteorites and other natural history items and artifacts. This hobby has brought me to many interesting localities and fascinating people. I also maintain a web site on my favorite fossil collecting site, Big Brook at njfossils.net. To date, I would guess that my favorite fossil that I found is the insect (a blood sucking Midge that may have feed on dinosaurs) that I found in Cretaceous aged sediment in Sayreville NJ. It was new to science and was eventually named after me (Culicoides yoosti). _________________________________________________