P3D contemporary slides!

[John Baird <jbaird@xxxxxxxxx>]

>From: "Dr. George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
...
>The issue of why contemporary cards sell better than stereo slides is
>complicated.  I am still thinking about it.  I was expecting Boris
>or John Baird to say something since they are selling contemporary
>stereo slide work.  

hi gang!  i'm back from a post yesterday to tell my experience marketing
stereo slides!  first let me say my specialty is 3d light painting!
either i'm waving colored lights in a dark studio or i'm dressing my
models in lights or flashing them with colored strobes!! i've been doing
experiments like this for 20+ years but after finding a $20 realist at a
garage sale, i started doing it in 3d!!!  i quickly got tired of the
limited format and moved to twin slrs and most recently to my rbt x2!!!! 
(i love it!!)

john saragusa of vrex kindly scanned and put up 12 pairs of my work in
the gallery section of the 3dexpo.com site while we were off to nsaconv.
richmond!   boy, was i thrilled to get back and find my work up on the
internet??!! (i've just been hooked to the net and p3d for a year now!)
check out the site to see excellent samples of my work!! next step is my
own site!!!!!

i've taken my work to nsa conventions for six years now! showed my first
at the "show and tell" sunday stereo theatre at ft. wayne and got
invited by bill duggin to show stereo theatre in san diego and have done
it ever since with the exception of rochester!  

in san diego i saw franklin flocks do a show that consisted of several
shots of bursting water balloons in 3d! as his show ended he mentioned
that he had dupes of this work for sale and to see him after the show!
people didn't even wait for for stereo theatre to end to approach him
and there he was on his knees in the dark with a flashlight selling 2x2
pairs slides left and right to a large group of buyers!!!!  then and
there i vowed to be a franklin flocks  at future nsa conventions!!!!!  i
even had the audacity to feel that my work was more arty than franks and
that being so, it should be more desirable to collectors!!!  so every
year since then i've taken dupes of my latest work with the thought of
offering them for sale and have had limited success with this venture!

at first i used franks method of selling right after my show but moved
to a table just outside stereo theatre and did pretty well at this for a
couple of years selling $200 worth at $5 a pair!!  then i decided to get
a table at the trade fair and see if i could do better! seattle was a
lot of work and i missed most of the convention having to stay at trade
fair and only wound up selling about the same as did at milwaukee and
atlanta!!!! 

this year boris starosta and i decided to set up a joint booth to sell
our contemporary stereo nude photography! i thought, boy this is the
year they'll flock to buy my work, can't miss, great subject and an
excellent viewing method for selling!! i'd spent around $300 and much
time making almost 300 pairs of dupes!!!  at $10 a pair (my new price) i
figured selling out would net me $3 grand!!!! so,...... how'd i do???
grossed $300 and some of that was 2x2 viewers i sold for $10!!!!!  i had
to be thrilled to have made back my duping costs!!!!!  i longed for the
old days when i made $200 selling slides outside stereo theatre right
after my show!!!!!  why are contemporary 3d slides hard sell at nsa
conventions?????   beats me!!!!!

now, boris did considerably better than i which made me feel a little
jeoulous but also happy for him and relieved that i didn't lead him into
the venture to have him fall flat!!!!  suprising to both of us his
computor generated art work sold better than the nudes and he sold out
of that work saturday! still, if you asked him was the monitary
compensation worth all the time and costs????  i bet he'd say no!!  i
think we'd both say the exposure was worth more than any dollars we took
home! that 3d photo i've got of boris and george kissin' and huggin'
at the 3rd st. diner made the whole trip worth it for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
and look at all the slide dupes i'll have to sell when i get famous!!!!

tooDDDeloo!!   john baird!   creative stereography!   kansas city!


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