When photographing clear quartz whatever can be seen through the crystal can appear blurred and distorted. This is caused by refraction.
Refraction occurs when light passes through a transparent material. In doing so it changes direction as it moves from one medium to another.
Clear quartz has a higher refractive index than air which means as light passes through, it bends more than when light passes through air.
The bending of light can cause anything seen through the crystal to appear as if it's moved. Look through the top section of the crystal in our photos, instead of seeing the black background you can see the surface on which the crystal is standing.
Look closely and you'll also see that it's blurred. The camera is perfectly focussed.
Also notice when looking through the centre of the crystal in our second photo that the black background is not aligned with the sections that can be seen on either side.
The degree of distortion and blurring will depend on a number of factors including the thickness of the quartz crystal, the angle at which the light passes through and the position of whatever's behind.
