P3D My first stereo show - strange reactions

[Keith Wilson <100303.2573@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I gave my first public stereo show last night, at the local (non-stereo)
photographic club of which I'm a member.  I found the reactions from the
audience to be quite interesting and, maybe, a little surprising.

In fact, we had a stereo evening.  The programme was divided into two
parts, with another member showing his stereos first.  After a break and a
short non-stereo show, I made my presentation.  

The first guy had some nice material, but almost all of it was, I felt,
rather gimmicky.  There was always some object ( a plant, street sign etc.)
very large in the immediate foreground, with the main scene behind it. 
About 30% of his slides had stuff coming through the window, sometimes by
quite a long way.  I found several of these slides difficult to view, and
there were concerted groans from the audience at various points.

My approach to stereo is, I think, slightly more subtle.  Sure, I'll
include a good foreground object if there's one available, but I won't put
it there just so that the shot shouts "This is stereo!".  I also use
through-the-window mounting very sparingly.  Only one of my slides last
night had objects coming through the window, and I very nearly decided not
to include that.

But, what was the reaction from the audience?  Essentially that the first
guy's slides were "real stereo", and that mine were just OK, but certainly
not as exciting and interesting as the first batch.  These comments
related, I think, to the stereoscopic presentation rather than the subject
matter.

Now, this doesn't worry me too much from a personal point of view - I take
stereos purely for my own enjoyment - but it does make me wonder whether a
stereo show for a non-stereo audience has to be gimmicky if it's going to
be successful.  What do more experienced stereo show presenters find?

One more interesting point.  Everyone in the audience of about thirty
people was a photographic enthusiast, but not one of them expressed an
interest in trying stereo for themselves, even though I made the offer of
providing further information and assistance.  In fact, I talked
individually to several members who were looking at my Realist etc., and
the almost universal comment was that stereo was not worth the trouble.  
(Bear in mind that these guys will spend days in their darkrooms producing
material for club competitions!)

One guy said that he'd tried stereo once, and found it to be far too
limiting.  I couldn't persuade him to expand on this, other than to say
that stereo stopped him from doing a lot of the things he wanted to do. 
(Photographically speaking, of course!)

Clearly, I'm not going to make many converts at my club, so I guess I can
wave good-bye to my dream of a stereo category in our competitions!  What
am I doing wrong, guys?


Keith Wilson
100303.2573@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- in the cold and grey UK.


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