Fun for the whole family with Stereo Photography

[Mark_Poole@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Mark Poole)]

     As I was putting the finishing touches on my new homebuilt twin SLR 
     hyper rig, I was looking for a way to jump back into stereo 
     photography (it has been months since I have snapped a 3D shot).  
     
     Every year, here in Lynchburg, Va, the paper lists the houses with the 
     most gaudy light displays.  As I read the article, an idea was born 
     (you might say a light went off, but that would be too easy a pun for 
     me.  ;)  ).
     
     My wife, my niece & her boyfriend bundled into the car after I dumped 
     (gently) the whole rig into the trunk.
     
     We had a grand time, careening down the back streets of Lynchburg, in 
     search of the  brilliant glow of the most tacky displays.
     When we would find one, I would try not to park too illegally, pop the 
     trunk, jump out, get the twin-rig out, dodge oncoming traffic, fiddle 
     with everything, take a few shots and we would speed off again before 
     the police could arrive...  
     
     There is one house that comes to mind: it appeared that every square 
     foot of yard contained a light, or train set, or a plywood cutout of 
     an elf, etc. I had a great deal of problems shooting this, because of 
     the sheer number of cars going by to view the display.  The owner 
     dresses up as Santa and passes out candy canes to the kids in the 
     cars.  Every car contained people (kids and adults) with a look of 
     wonder, surprise and bemusement.  I wish I could have caught their 
     expressions on film, but the exposure was too long.
     
     Technical Considerations:
     I was shooting ASA 400 film, and even then, the exposures were 3 and 
     four seconds long (at f8), so a tripod was mandatory.  I set these 
     both on autoexposure, aperture fixed. I have had fairly consistent 
     results with autoexposure. My right Minolta 7000i was acting up 
     (randomly not firing), so I had to trigger it manually in a few shots. 
     I don't think this will matter, as these were static shots.  Of course 
     all the blinking lights will burn in as always on at that length of 
     exposure.
     
     We all had a blast! I can not explain the attraction, but the tackier, 
     the better.  I hope the slightly hyper shots do the displays justice.
     
     We are far from finished, our local Elk's home is supposed to be a 
     Mecca of illuminated gaudiness, and there is this guy who strings up a 
     sleigh and reindeer twenty feet up on wires...
     
     Happy Holidays to you all!
     Have fun!
     ------------------------------------------------------------------- 
     Mark Poole               |  Mark_Poole@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
     The ants find kingdoms in a foot of ground -William Rose Benet 
     ------------------------------------------------------------------- 


------------------------------