Mike's Rocks

Hello Friends,

I play on a few old man softball teams, and am grateful I still can at my advancing age as my body falls apart. One of the nice things about these leagues is that by the time one is into one's 60s, 70s and 80s, we're all just glad to still be playing a kids game, the egos more or less disappear, and we make friends with other players who have a broad range of abilities and interests. One of these guys is Mike Novack, who's a rock hound for many years. You can find Mike at an occasional swap meet or rock event.

For some years I've been meaning to photograph some interesting minerals, and Mike's collection gave me a great opportunity. We hung out after a game last year and I shot some of his rock on a background of plain white paper with my Fuji W3 stereo camera. I used the edges of the paper to convert these images into phantograms.

The top image is an amethyst geode, the middle one a desert rose cluster (selenite), and the bottom one a smoky quartz cluster. More recently I shot some petrified wood he was able to legally dig up in Arizona. If you'd like to see a petrified wood shot, reply to this email and I'll send you one or two.

Best regards,

Barry Rothstein

I send out a weekly email of these. If you'd like to be included, please go to the contact page and send me an email.

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