P3D Stereo World magazine

[XZAF88A@xxxxxxxxxxx ( L S MOOR)]

Greetings Photo-3D:

I now have a response to the group from Stereo World Editor John
Dennis regarding George Themelis' comments about Stereo World
content posted here on Photo-3D. 

The NSA is primarily a volunteer organization.  The Stereo World 
editor is a family man who holds down a full time job (just like many 

of us).  All NSA members have a vested  interest in encouraging 
competent people to contribute to  Stereo World.  John Dennis makes
his contribution 10 times over with each issue of the magazine that 
he edits. 
I would like to see more submissions from the Photo-3d group ( 
including George)
to Stereo World. This would be more productive than nit picking the 
fine 
efforts that are being made on behalf of the members of NSA.  NSA 
remains
 a "big tent" organization which strives to serve the interests of 
all of its
 members - shooters, collectors and graphic artists.  After all, the 
members are the NSA!

I hope that the Photo-3D group will keep in mind that the National 
Stereographic Association consists of more than Stereo World magazine.

We conduct annual conventions with heavy participation from modern
shooters and computer graphics artists.  Some of the finest 3D 
projection
programs in the world are presented at the annual NSA convention. 
This year,
we will have  projection programs on Friday, Saturday and half a day 
on Sunday.
We might even have a 3-D movie.

Also, keep in mind that NSA has a web page with a "MEMBER'S GALLERY".

There is an E-Mail address where images from members  can be sent for 
consideration for 
publication on this web site.  So much for my thoughts, here is 
John's posting: 

For now, please post the following on photo 3d:

It would be a lot easier to respond to criticism of Stereo World's 
current
stereo coverage if I thought it was just a bunch of cybergossip and 
sour
grapes. In fact, I agree with much of the general thrust of recent 
critical
comments seen here. SW's coverage of current stereo photographic 
trends,
practices, discussions, ideas, and equipment has needed improvement 
for a
long time.

The possibility explored last year of having George Themelis do a 
regular
column raised hopes of correcting much of that problem and of 
inspiring
more input from others on current stereo topics.  Just how impressive 
such
a column could be is evident from one look at George's work on the 
Ohio
club's STEREOGRAM newsletter, which of course uses a good chunk of 
his time
and energy.  To a large extent, just editing his and others' 
contributions
here could provide our readers with a lot of useful information and 
ideas,
but I think only George could really do that editing while also 
providing
the needed illustrations. In any case, the column idea is (and will 
remain)
open.

A U.S.-based "3-D Magazin" or a "POPULAR STEREOGRAPHY" would need to 
be
heavily into things like computer graphics and consumer video 
technology in
order to satisfy a commercial publisher's demographics/target 
audience
requirements. I think it would soon begin to look like most existing
computer and video mags, as the stereo photography aspect would draw 
the
least advertising revenue.

The money required for even the most basic full color publication of 
that
sort would be considerable.  Just to make possible the few color 
issues of
SW, the donated separation and prepress work over the past few years 
has
come to over $100,000.  And that doesn't include the printing costs.

The fact is, Stereo World can fill a lot more of the needs (and even 
some
of the desires) of active stereo photographers with reasonably 
regular
contributions from even just two or three knowledgeable people.  The 
more
new products or ideas seen in a publication, the more people send in, 
and
the more sources an editor has for follow-up questions or related 
potential
articles. I think it's a question of reaching an unknown critical 
mass of
material to get things snowballing. Even if some of the results are 
simple,
short news items, the total volume and variety of information in an 
issue
can make the difference between readers feeling pleased or frustrated.


As I've said on previous occasions, the "balance" between
historic/collector material and articles for and by shooters is both
flexible and deceptive.  Vintage views take up a lot of page space - 
often
far more then the text related to them - while extensive coverage of 
a new
camera or viewer, even with photos, can often be accomplished within 
a page
or two.  What this means is that even three times as much coverage 
of
modern aspects of stereo would generally require fewer pages than one 
large
historic feature.  Lots more shooter material can go into the 
"average"
issue without upsetting an overall balance of coverage, and there is 
no
rigid NSA policy regarding balance except that the concept is a 
general
goal.

Of course there is no such thing as an average issue.  The recent 
double
issue would have been nearly 90 pages long (and even later) if 
several
articles hadn't been postponed as the layout process proceeded.  It 
turns
out that at least three these articles were of very definite modern 
stereo
orientation, leaving the double issue blatantly unbalanced.  The 
next
couple of issues will be just the opposite, and may of course spur 
some
complaints from historic view collectors.

One specific thing George Themelis mentioned was that Alan Lewis 
should
have been the subject of an article.  This reminded me that a series 
of
"profiles" covering the lives and work of several current stereo
photographers, designers, and writers has been a concept in search 
(nearly
abandoned) of an author for some time now.  You can pick your own 
list of
names - mine would include people like Sam Smith, John Williamson, 
Susan
Pinsky, Stan White, Alan Lewis, John Bercovitz, David Lee, Phyllis 
Maslin,
Bob Bloomberg, George Themelis, Shab Levy, Jonne Goeller, Dan Shelley,
 Ron
Labbe, etc.   Consider this an invitation to seriously think about 
taking
on this project as a  regular SW feature.  You wouldn't need to write 
all
of the profiles personally, just find people willing to do specific
interviews, and arrange for use of a few images of and by the 
subjects.
This would be one more step toward improving SW and could introduce 
all of
us to some fascinating people who certainly deserve a bit of 
recognition.

In Depth,
John Dennis
Editor, Stereo World





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