Petra's Stones

Hello Friends,

On our trip to Iceland from late May to mid June every day we experienced natural wonders. Aside from dramatic waterfalls, zig-zagging fjords, gorgeous beaches and breathtaking vistas everywhere we went, one of my favorite things came from happening upon Petra's Stone Collection, which was suggested in our travel guide. Their website is https://steinapetra.is/en for the English language version.

As the story from their website goes, ... "Petra, christened Ljósbjörg Petra María, was born on Christmas Eve in 1922 in a turf house on the northern shore of Stöðvarfjörður. ... 'Collector' and 'child of nature' are words that identified Petra. ... From the moment she first opened her eyes, she paid closer attention to her surroundings than most of us ever do. ... Petra began collecting stones in earnest when she and Nenni moved into Sunnuhlíð in 1946. ... for the first time, she finally had a home of her own in which to keep them. ... For the first twenty years of her collecting, Petra gathered stones from the shoreline and the mountain range north of the fjord. ... the vast majority of her stones come from Stöðvarfjörður and East Iceland, as she rarely searched for stones in other parts of the country." Petra is no longer with us, she died on January 10, 2012, at the age of 89. Her legacy is carried on by her grand-daughters Unnur and Petra.

The property we found, which includes the house where Petra lived, is surrounded by thousands of large beautiful stones she collected over the years. The house itself is a store that contains many smaller polished stones and various other collectibles. When we first got there I described my 3D photography and asked if I might move the stones so as to best be able to photograph them, permission I was quickly granted. Over perhaps an hour or so I photographed 25 stones, as well as a number of exotic flowers also on the property. I'll show some next week. I gave them a couple of my books and they gave me a book about Petra's life.

As such here are a few of those 25 photos shot with my Fuji W3 and turned into phantograms in StereoPhoto Maker, using the wooden benches as reference for phantogram processing. The stone in the top image is chalsedony, the middle one is coral, the bottom is jaspar. I'm happy to say I created an exhibit of these images for last week's 3D-Con art gallery, and it was awarded best in the gallery. If you'd like to see a few more of these images respond and I'll send you a few.

Another week gone by, more horrors from Mad King Donald. Aside from the idiotic war with Iran and his ICE goons setting records for the number of immigrants arrested, a couple of stories that caught my attention were 1) his people effectively admitted in a legal filing that they had terminated federal grants on education, energy, health, housing and infrastructure aid, and FEMA requests "based solely" on political criteria, targeting projects and withholding coverage in states that were represented by Democrats and won by Kamala Harris in the 2024 election; and 2) the extent to which Trump has managed and contines to try to put his name and face on things. There's a Trump bridge in Tennessee, an airport in Florida, U.S. currency, a commemorative gold coin, the Institute of Peace, Trump branded passports, and enormous banners of him covering the fronts of several federal buildings. And Trump Gold Cards, Trump Accounts, TrumpRx, TrumpIRA.gov and National Park Service passes? He's failed to rename Penn Station, Dulles Airport and the Kennedy Center but not for lack of trying.

Wishing for better,

Barry Rothstein

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