[Raisondetre]

Being compulsive I thought I'd try again, but comparing them to the exotic freshwaters I picked out from countless strands in Shanghai. It's not entirely fair as the exotics are quite a bit smaller and more or less uniform in color, but here goes.

I've used macro in sunlight from a tinted window, no flash. Different zooms. Luster is tighter in the smaller strand, but you can still see mirror-sharp images in the silvery pearls. As I said there is variation across the colors, but even in the exotic strand there are still difference, albeit not as obvious because of the smaller size. These pictures still do not truly capture the surrealness of the Akoyas.