P3D NSA '99

[WADE Howard <hwade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just got back from Green Bay--my first NSA convention. Wow! I am so
impressed. I've been shooting 3-D pix for about twenty five years but this
last year is the first time I've been connected with the community. I won't
miss the next 25 conventions unless I'm dead, and even then I'll try to be
there.

When I arrived at the Breakfast buffet Thursday morning I looked around and
didn't see anybody I knew. My Portland Cascade Club members hadn't shown yet
and I was just standing there, feeling alone, when a very nice lady asked me
to join her and her son. She was Lois Waldsmith who's been an NSA mainstay
since the beginning and her son John was the first Stereo World Editor. In
the next 1/2 hour I was introduced to about 50 people who stopped by to pay
their respects, almost all names that I recognized from Stereo World, P3D,
and the Who's Who of 3-D. After that I felt fine about just walking up to
anybody, introducing myself, and launching into a new line of
discovery/story/education.

Room hopping was a ball. I got the opportunity again to meet a ton of great
people and to look at the tremendous variety of items for sale or display. I
became acquainted with so much equipment that I'd either only heard about or
didn't even know existed. Just having the opportunity to look into Hugo
DeWeiss' incredible viewers was inspirational. Not quite inspired enough to
rob the banks I'd need to in order to load up my wheelbarrow with all the
goods I wanted of Hugo's and Jon Golden's. But maybe if my wife keeps
turning those IPO's into gold...

Having the chance to see Boris Starosta's full size naked lady phantogram
was worth the price of admission alone. The workshops by Dr. T, David Lee
and Tom Deering were full of enthusiasm and information. And Tom's workshop
would have been totally entertaining even without information or even words.
And that Red Suit!!!

I agree with the previous postings about George Themelis' Realist Book. I
read it on all the planes coming home and picked up a lot of new
information. I think if you have a Realist, no matter how familiar you are
with it, you should get this book. There's new information you don't know
about.

As a new member of SSA I was happy to meet so many of my fellow folio
members at the SSA Dinner. Also the SSA sponsored card contest had a
fantastic array of stereo images, thanks to the organizing of Bruce
Springsteen, support of Gail Trottier, and hard work by the panel of judges.
Then there was the Stereo Theater with about eight hours worth of mind
blowing images. I had to miss some because of workshop conflicts but the
ones that really knocked me out were Robert Bloomberg's Day of the Dead and
Gary Schacker's A Tourist At Home. Hats off to Harry Richards for organizing
a grand event and imbuing it with his bubbly presence.

All I am saying, is that if you haven't been to one of these, you are
missing a lot and should start thinking about what you'll be packing for
Mesa 2000.


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