P3D Detroit - October report

[fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Dr. George A. Themelis)]

Another fun night in Detroit last night!

First, we were treated with a presentation of the Detroit PSA Salon,
presented by Billy Turner with his Brackett Dissolver.  Many fantastic &
inspiring stereo images!  I recognized a few familiar names, Dr. Albert
Sieg winning the best of show, Scott Blair winning one HM, images by
Andrea and other well known stereographers.  "Our own" Dennis Hanser
won the "Helin Award: Fishing with Bait" for second time in a row.
Nice job Dennis!  (As for me, zero accepances this year :()

The slide competition held a pleasant surprise for me.  I had almost
given up competing this year after last month's extraordiary performance
by Dennis Hanser.  So, I just picked 7-8 slides without even projecting
them (first time in my life).  I showed them to Shawn, our young co-op
student from Case Western, using a cheap $3 viewer.  Shawn picked 3
slides and commented on what he liked on these or did not like in the
ones he left out.  I thought that was interesting and decided to enter
his choices, not expecting much in the first place.  Boy, was I lucky!

Subject: P3D  Cityscapes

First entry:  Overview of Nafpaktos, a city in Greece.  This is where
my friend Chris Politopoulos lives... When I visited with him last year
he took me up high to take some nice overview pictures.  Used twin
Minoltas.  Not much depth, but the orange ceramic tile roofs, the
distant sea line, trees and houses... made for a pleasant scene.
First place!

Second entry:  Overview of Athens from Acropolis.  Acropolis is built
on a hill, overlooking Athens, a very densly populated city with about
1/3 of the total population of Greece.  Used one single SLR moved between
exposures for a striking (if I may say so :-)) hyperstereo.  Buildings
next to each other.  Lycabettus hill at a distance breaking the monotony.
First place!

Third entry:  A street in Athens. I had a few street pictures but Shawn
picked this one because of the interesting architecture, depth, people...
This was in Plaka, the old part of Athens.  Realist camera.  Looked
good in projection.  Second place!

Thanks to Shawn's good choices, I am now back in the race!  Which means
I have to try harder now to get those "Farm", "Shadows", "Creative Blur",
"Metal/Glass" shots!!! 

Next month's topic: "Kids".  That's a personal DrT special!

Somone mentioned earlier about how hard it is to guess what the judges
will like.  This is especially hard if it is your own images that you
are trying to select.  We are emotionally involved and thus incapable
of seeing through the judge's eyes.  We need someone to make these
selections for us.  My wife has proven to be of no help.  Others have
not helped much either.  This guy, Shawn, might have the "magic eye",
a gift to pick up the winners... We'll see!!!  (If it turns out that
this is the case, Shawn will be in very high demand around here! - 
with many Cleveland club members in the area... sorry Pittsburgh
members!!!! :-))

Reporting from Cleveland for the Detroit Stereographic Society,

George Themelis


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