Re: News from Green Bay

[Tom Deering <tdeering@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I find MF mounting much easier than 5P.  The film chips are bigger, so the
slides get enlarged less.  So the errors get enlarged less.

Could also be that he shoots scenes that are less likely to have window
violations.  I believe he said he was shooting with two cameras on a bar.
So maybe he is religious about near objects with that setup.

As to fingerprints, I've noticed that my regular dry hands do not leave a
noticable fingerprint on film that I accidentally touch.  Here's an
example.  While giving a talk on MF stereo, I picked up what I thought were
my "dummy" slides, slides with some kind of problems that I don't mind
passing out to strangers.  I shuffled through them one by one, saying
"these are my dummy slides, it's okay if I get fingerprints on them."
After I had gone through the whole stack, I realized they were my "best"
slides!  Later I carefully examined each slide with a loupe, and there were
utterly no fingerprints.  You might not want to try this after a chicken
dinner.

As you say, Don's results are so stunning, you might not notice
fingerprints and mounting errors.

Don was terribly nice, and buttonholed me for about an hour one morning.  I
enjoyed talking to him about his projects.  His budget for stereo has
several more zeroes than mine.   :^)

There has been some talk of a MF slide show next year in Arizona.  I really
hope that happens.

Tom


>Paul Talbot wrote:
>
>> I've just returned from Green Bay and have a couple news
>> items to report.  Headlines only for now, details after
>> a good night's sleep!  ;-)
>>
>>   Don Lopp (whom I had never met) spent almost all day
>>   Saturday at my table at the trade show I was quite
>>   pleasantly surprised to see him, given the health
>>   problems of his that have been reported in this forum.
>>   And I was blown away by his seemingly endless supply
>>   of stunning MF slides.
>
>Don helped keep me entertained between customers, not
>only with his gorgeous images, but a lot of stereo chat
>as well.  While looking through his images, I noticed
>most of his slide mounts were not taped shut, requiring
>a bit of extra care to drop them into the viewer slot.
>I asked him why he didn't tape his mounts shut, and he
>indicated it is because he has been out of mounts for
>about a year and a half.  His solution?  He "rotates"
>images in and out of his existing mounts!  I could not
>imagine how anyone could take this approach and retain
>their sanity!  I told Donn that mounting MF slides is
>such a painstaking process that it would drive me crazy
>to be unmounting and mounting images over and over.  He
>said other people have told him the same thing, but that
>mounting is easy...it only takes about 10 seconds he
>says.  "10 seconds??!!"  Well, 30 seconds at the very
>most, Don replied.  I told him he should go into the
>MF slide mounting business, as several of us on this
>list have expressed an interest in using such a service.
>At $.50/slide he could make $60/hour (if we could get
>enough film chips to him).
>
>Later when I had a chance I told Donn I *still* did
>not believe anyone could mount MF images that fast,
>and asked him for a demonstration.  He removed one
>chip from one of his slides and, working on a solid
>table top with no light source behind the image, and
>no mounting gauge, proceeded to replace it in the
>slide mount.  I didn't put a stop watch on him, but
>he was pretty quick.  I'd guesstimate over 10 seconds
>and under 20.  He didn't reposition both chips, but
>of course it's aligning the second with the first
>that is the most difficult.
>
>When I told this story to Dwight Cummings, Martha McCann,
>and Boris Starosta the next evening, Dwight added "and
>you never see any mounting errors in any of his images,
>either," and asked if I concurred.  I mentioned that I
>only noticed one slide with even a hint of a mounting
>error, and that was a *tiny* window violation.  Now that
>might be because I was so absorbed in the gorgeous images
>that I never got around to carefully checking for mounting
>problems, but there certainly weren't any significant ones.
>(As opposed to mine, most of which still need mounting
>problems fixed.)  Perhaps someone in a folio with Don
>has had more of an opportunity to judge Don's accuracy.
>
>Now the sad part of the story: Don handled that slide
>chip with his bare fingers!  I thought I felt a dagger
>through my heart when I saw that!  How could anyone
>handle such spectacular images so cavalierly?  Could it
>be that when you have many hundreds (thousands?) and
>the ability to make many more at any time...??  I don't
>think I'll ever know.
>
>Paul Talbot


---
Tom Deering    tdeering@xxxxxxxxxxxx

*  DO NOT EVER re-send messages that tell you to "pass this to
*  everyone you know."   In the next five months you will receive
*  hundreds of sincere-sounding declarations of doom that are
*  _wrong_.  Please do not perpetuate the needless panic.