NSA '97 update

[P3D <WHMoll@xxxxxxx>]

Since the last digest had a record low number of items, I will take advantage
of the lull to update the list on the NSA convention.  Despite the 4th of
July date, over 500 registered for the convention, not including 1-day
registrations.  The Stereo Theatre was a great success, with "Frogs and
Friends" by Robert Bloomberg winning the blue ribbon for best program by a
nose (or maybe a wart).

In the workshops, the Photo-3D group excelled.  Elliott Swanson did an
introduction to making your own Viewmaster reels that managed to include
something for rank beginers and experienced VM makers.  A mail list doesn't
do justice to his sense of humor - a few :-) 's just don't have the same
impact.  He brought along Wolfgang Sell for some backup, who brought along
Dave Hitchkock who designed many of the Viewmaster cameras.  Dave even did a
little repair work.

David Lee started his program on making stereo cards with the objective of
improving the quality of his fellow Stereoscopic Society members' cards, only
to get "what is the stereo window?"  as his first question.  David recovered
and did a great job of showing his mounting jigs and techniques.  Stan White,
one of the preeminent card makers (he does beautiful hand tinted views),
added a few salient comments.

Ed Comer thought that his presentation would last about 20 minutes, but ended
up spending a full hour describing a rather elegant twinning of his Nikon
Lite-Touch cameras.

Jon Golden proved that a few pictures are worth more than many thousands of
words in his slide mounting workshop.  Using a Brackett Dissolver projector,
he illustrated the differences in slide mounting that have occupied many
threads on photo-3d.  He made it seem rather simple.  The only dissapointment
was when he told the audience that Brackett had stopped making projectors.

John Berkovitz had to give two presentations of his views on perspective in
3D, with a third planned for Sunday.  He had people lined up outside the
room, waiting to get a seat.  Although a master of formulas and equations,
John demonstrated his ideas with 30 very effective slides.  I was so
impressed that I am going to steal some of his ideas for a slide show at the
Atlanta club this fall.

Sam Smith failed utterly in convincing the audience that siamesing cameras
was anywhere near as easy as he made it appear.  He did succeed in impressing
the group with his really nice work and that, for a minimal investment risk,
the audience could get started on a similar career of camera chopping.  He
gave enough pointers that we could get a real head start in cutting up
cameras.

Dean Walch had the most difficult task.  He had only a few days to get ready
a workshop on computer image manipulation (without a computer).  It worked
out great, and uncovered a lot of interest and serious activity among NSA
members in that area.

Tomorrow, Larry Berlin will give a workshop on image manipulation in the
Electronic Stereo Theater.  John Williamson brought in his entire system to
give Larry something to work with.  Next year we will do a better job of
preparing for the computer imaging aspects of 3D.  As Larry observed, there
is a lot more NSA interest in computer images than previously thought.

Elliott gave a dual presentation - tools used in camera repair and how to do
table top 3D.  It was also his third workshop of the convention, including a
cameo on doing paper slides mounts in Jon's program.

The workshops have all been well attended and very effective.  In past years
there has not been a worshop program.  This year there were two tracks of
workshops.  Since I have been appointed as NSA VP of Activities, I should be
able to encourage this trend in future conventions (1998 - Richmond, Va.,
Aug. 6-10; 1999 - Green Bay).  Make plans to be there - they should be as
good as this convention.

Bill Moll


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End of PHOTO-3D Digest 2166
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