The Other Side...

I just spent the last 8 days shooting gems and minerals for Heritage Auctions and their upcoming Natural History auction in January.
One of the items I had to shoot was a nearly flawless quartz sphere.
What do you see when you peer into this crystal ball? Well, the other side---or, at least, what is on the other side. Only backwards and upside down.
One of the aspects I was assigned to show was the fact that this sphere is completely transparent---as much as quartz can be. Some of the images I took do not really present that clarity in an obvious way (some of the shots we just had fun with---"we" because I was assisted by Craig Smith with this one). This was one (again for fun; not a serious contender for the catalog). However, someone familiar with optics would say otherwise. Unless the photographer went to great lengths to arrange reflections on the front of the sphere to be tonally opposite yet symmetrical to that of the image's background, the sphere's clarity is made evident by the fact that the light and dark tones are exactly reversed on the front of the sphere from those behind it.

Neat stuff. Anyway, saving more for later as I intend to use a different image of this sphere for each day this week.