My 3D Summer Vacation

[P3D Gabriel Jacob <jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The teacher (Dr.T) asked, for our first assignment this season,
to report on our summer vacation. It wasn't really a planned
vacation, but nonetheless it was enjoyable. So here goes....

For my summer vacation, I went to Greece for two weeks to visit 
family. In Greece I managed to take 37 rolls of films. I never
had the intention to take so many and/or try to match Dr.T's
amount of film shooting, but now know that it's pretty easy to
get carried away, so to speak. I say this coincidentally because
just yesterday I read an article in our local newspapers weekly
photography column, just about that. In it the columnist writes
tongue in cheek, that the essence of photography can be distilled
into a dozen words: Find something worth photographying. Take
plenty of pictures. Throw away the failures. 

Of course the first step is to find something worth photographing.
That said, on my vacation I didn't really have any intention on
going to see any of the wonderful sites in Greece and stayed mainly
in a town in central Greece. The town is nice but for me it's kind
of like my second home. Meaning, most people don't bother to take
pictures of their local surroundings. Similiar like not seeing the
sites of where you live, but tourists that do. With that in mind
I took the approach in my picture taking to take first, pictures
of family in their local habitat and the more unspectacular the
picture, the better. What I mean is, I sought out to take everyday
pictures of family in every day activities from swimming, church
going, shopping and to the rather mundane such as cooking,
relaxing, passengers in a car, knitting, watching televsion, etc.
My wife mentioned to me that these would be very boring but in my
mind was not striving for pictures that would win any awards
(in another time or if I had the talent maybe) but rather common
snapshots that would be more valuable in the years to come. So in
that context, it was very easy to go though alot of film. Actually
I think most people (including myself) take out there cameras only
on special occasions, but the most precious moments (not right
away but years later) are the everyday activities. 

Before going on the trip I had to choose which cameras to take
along. From the various types such as Loreo, Lenticular, SLR's
FED, Kodaks, etc. I decided on the Realist and a twin Yashika
fixed-focus/auto-exposure P&S.

The Yashika's are not wired together but mounted on a novel hinged
bar (more on it in the future) that can be arranged in horizontal
or vertical formats in less than a minute and are practically
invisible. I had attempted to wire them once but upon opening them
up, found that 4 or 5 wires would have to come out of the camera
and wasn't ready to accept the challenge at the time. Nonetheless
less than 15 percent of the pictures show any signs of movement.
 
I took along the Yashikas because I found it to outperform my FED
and film processing would be cheaper for prints and slides could
readily be made in 2x2 format. The stereo base is 120mm or 150mm
in the horizontal format and 62mm in the vertical format. Another
surprising thing about the twin Yashikas was that they fit more
comfortably into my short pants pocket!

I decided on the Realist, since it is rather easy (I can't believe
I said that!) to use and has a rangefinder. Actually my wife took
the Realist a few weeks before, since she left on vacation before
me. During her 4 weeks she only took 1 roll! It was her first
experience with a Realist and she did okay considering I gave her
a 15 minute lesson.

As mentioned, I took about 37 rolls of film. I took about 12 rolls
print film with the Realist. Luckily I didn't have any problems
with it except for some double exposures (my fault). A few had 
noticable differences in exposure between the left and right image
due to my film processor not using any mask for 5p, but most
usually come out pretty consistant for image pairs. These will
be mounted in traditional 3.5x7 inch cards. The Realist was also
used where close-ups (2 feet) were desired. This works rather well
if there is not too much depth. I couldn't do this with the Yashikas
of course.

The rest of the film was shot with twin P&S, and took mostly print
and 8 rolls of slides. The slides are in 2x2 format for viewing in
in either 2D or 3D. A few rolls of slides were given for scanning
into PhotoCD and is my first time trying this route. Will report 
the results in about a week, when I get them back. I was thinking
of transfering some negatives to PhotoCD but will try it another
time. I am curious to see how much better it is, scanning slides
directly to PhotoCD compared to scanning a print. Also I wonder
if the advantages of slides over prints are lost when it comes
to scanning them into PhotoCD format?

The 17 rolls of print film (1 roll being in 2D with a few side
stepping shots and aerials) will be mostly viewed with View-Magic
Over/Under viewer and/or Freeviewer (both mirror viewers). Some
prints were made into panoramic wide prints but haven't gotten
those back yet. These will also be viewed with the mirror viewers.
Finally a few will be made into 3.5x7 inch stereocards for sharing
with family. 

The prints from the P&S were pretty good and had no problems with
exposure between left and right images. One complaint was that if
the scene was dim and and subjects beyond the flash range, the
scene would come out fuzzy because of the wider aperture selected
by the auto-exposure. In bright scenes or closer shots the images
are very sharp considering these are P&S cameras. I decided on
using fixed focus cameras since most of the shots taken would be
of subjects being at least 10 feet away and the wider stereo base
help in these matters, especially in panoramas. 

All in all was pleased with the results and another reason so many
films were taken was because I also took pictures of the same scenes
in Realist prints, P&S prints, and P&S slides. Surprisingly I found
myself taking less video on this occasion. Maybe if it was in 3D it
would be a different story. Finally I also got a chance to take a 3
hour tour (no, not of Gilligan's Island) of Amsterdam and shot some
slides and video there. I just wished I could of spend more time
strolling the streets and canals.

P.S. With this new attitude, I will be taking a few more pictures
of things I normally wouldn't have taken pictures of. For example
around my neighbourhood of everyday life and maybe some "great" 
pictures along the way. As the same article in yesterdays newspaper
mentions: You don't have to travel long distances to take great
pictures. Opportunities for portraits, for landscapes, or for
nature shots exist in you own neighbourhood. All you have to do is
shift your perspective so that, for example, you're able to explore
the photographic potential of a local park in the same way you would
tackle the Serengeti.

So lets see more 3D film consumption (film based, digital or
otherwise) out there! Make Dr.T proud. ;-) No, I don't have any
association with Kodak or any other film company.

Gabriel, reporting back from Montreal, Canada.


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