P3D Last night in Detroit

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

We left late from Cleveland but made it to Detroit in 2.5 hours record
time, going 90 MPH at certain portions of the drive!!!

A very interesting meeting.  We first saw a "tutorial" 2D slide show
by Kodak on taking pictures with impact.  Lots of pictures on people
and animals.  

While I was watching this interesting 2D slide presentation, I kept
on thinking how could these concepts be applied to stereo photography.  
With great difficulty certainly!  Lots of these pictures were "lucky 
snapshots".  The kid made a cute face and it was captured on film.  
The narrators kept on saying "have the camera ready at all times to 
capture this unique moment."  Yeah, sure.  By the time you pull out 
the old Realist, the lightmeter, check the aperture, check the shutter 
speed, check the focus, cock the shutter, stick the  camera in your 
forehead, etc.,,,, the cute face is gone, the dog has walked away, 
the cat has fallen off the tree, etc., etc., etc.

Sounds like I contradict myself with some of the things I have said
in the past... but reality finally sunk in me and I am finally getting
an RBT S1 to be able to capture the moment without having to worry
about setting ANYTHING!  The RBT S1 is the stereo snapshooter's dream!

The competition assignment was "kids".  I bet I can go through my slide
collection and pick out 100 fantastic stereos with kids.  This was 
certainly my subject.  But, it turns out that Dennis Hanser has a nicer
collection of pictures from when his kids were young.  In most of
his pictures I have seen, kids are used as photographic props to
enhance a scenic view.  But he managed to pull a few pairs where kids
are kinda prominent in the scenic view.  All with twin Minolta's 
X-700, back-to-back and 28 mm lenses with polarizing filters.  A hard
to beat combination, gave him a 1st, 2nd and 3rd places!

Anyway, I admit defeat!  I barely captured a HM (with daughter Lea
and friends in "Hay Ride", see previous comments by Mark Dottle.... 
this was shot with an RBT S1 two years ago when I was test-driving one... 
if I only had a Realist at that moment, there would have not been a 
picture) and a second place with son Tony playing wild games inside
one of these play tubes in McDonald's (lots of depth in this one).
My third entry with Lea blowing bubbles is one of my best and most
favorite pictures but it does not project well (it looks great in
the viewer).  

Next month: Christmas Party, mounting workshop and "Down the Farm".
That's another Hanser special.  I think he lives in a farm.  Is 
early winter a good time to shoot farms with an RBT S1? :-)

-- George Themelis

PS.  I asked Billy Turner if I can be a judge for the next Detroit 
PSA Salon.  That might give me a clue on why I have been collecting
so many rejections in that particular salon.  Billy gave me a hard 
time because I have never judged a PSA Salon.  But everybody must
start from somewhere, right?




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