P3D Re: Stereo Cards

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

No, I have not been on vacation... Just busy with work (real work).
I will be in Seattle in two weeks and that will be vacation!  I'd be 
happy to meet with stereo enthusiasts from the area.  Let me know...

Bill Walton responds to half-kiddding John R (?) and makes the point
that shooting stereo slides is easy:
   
> Someone, John R I think, made a posting stating that there couldn't be
> much discussion of stereo cards as they are so easy to do..  My question
> - Easy compared to what?  Surely he is not comparing stereo cards to
> stereo slides.  Stereo slides require no participation from the maker,
> except for the initial loading of the camera and the tripping of the
> shutter.  Once these two Major steps  have been taken the film is sent to
> Kodak, where it is developed and mounted and sent back to the shutter
> tripper.  Then he/she puts the mounted slides in  a slide stereoscope and
> looks at the finished product.  What could be easier than that?

IMO, this is one of the greatest strengths of shooting stereo slides.
It is easy!  Declared snapshooters (or "shutter trippers" as Bill says)
like Bill Davis (hi Bill!) and myself, have great fun shooting stereo
slides, worry free.  Great quality of results with minimum effort.
That's what made the system very popular in the 50s.

Not to imply that shooting stereo prints can be inherently complicated.
Loreo/Argus have taken the pain off stereo prints.  However, does the
quality from this prints match the quality of a stereo slide pair from 
a good Realist-format camera?

Shooting stereo slides can be complicated too.  "Stereo slides require
no participation from the maker, except for the initial loading of the
camera and the tripping of the shutter..."?  Surely you are kidding Mr.
Walton.  Knowing that with slides "what you shoot is what you get" 
requires more thinking when taking the shots.  There will be no darkroom 
work to make up for sloppy composition or bad exposures.

But there are also many ways to show creativity in slide film work, 
beyond tripping the shutter.  Mounting, positioning of the stereo window, 
creative cropping, slide copying and alteration for creative effects, 
using different film bases, exposures, magnifications, slide sandwiches, 
double exposures, trick photography... are just a few examples. 

Imagination is the limit, even with slides.

-- George Themelis


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