P3D Overview of the PSA 61st International Conference of Photography

["Andrea & Scott Blair" <asblair@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Our conference experience started off Sunday, August 29 with registration 
and greeting other PSA early arrivals in the hotel lobby. What a pleasure to 
see familiar faces, and to also finally meet some people we had been 
corresponding with over the last year or two. Monday and Tuesday we toured 
around the area (but not on the PSA scheduled tours). From Wednesday to 
Saturday we went to miscellaneous presentations, mostly stereo-oriented.

There was a travel program on Tuesday evening sponsored by Fuji, which would 
have been much more enjoyable if every other word out of the speaker's mouth 
had not been "Velvia." Overall, a very nice show with some excellent images.

On Wednesday morning, we gave a workshop on "Stereo Macro with One SLR." 
There was a good turnout considering it was held before the conference 
officially started (we'll try to get a better time slot next year).

Wednesday evening was the only showing of the PSA International Stereo 
Exhibition. Pauline Sweezy, FPSA and her camera club did an excellent job of 
putting together the presentation, which included a selection of work of the 
judges and narration of every image.

On Thursday, we started off the day at the Chapters Awards Breakfast 
followed by the Chapters Officers Meeting. Our Chapter, Mid-Atlantic, 
currently has prints on display at PSA Headquarters.

Later that morning was the showing of the 1999 Stereo Sequence Exhibition. 
What a wonderful collection of images! Congrats to everyone for an excellent 
job. Being a cat lover, Andrea agreed wholeheartedly with the judges' choice 
of the winning entry, "Cats are Cool" by Bob Bloomberg. The Sequence 
Exhibition is available through the PSA Stereo Division for clubs to show. 
It is well worth seeing.

Andrea went to the "Blinds for Wildlife Photography" presentation and got 
some good tips on wildlife photography and blinds on a budget (easily 
adaptable to stereo shooting).

We had an interesting group for the "Lunch and Learn" session. There were 
two full tables of stereo photographers. Andrea was at the same table as Dr. 
T and Scott was at Allan Griffin's table. Exciting discussions followed.

After lunch, John Rolls invited several of us to his room to see his RBT and 
new RBT macro attachment. What a set-up! After we all had a look at the RBT, 
John hooked up the macro attachment and flashes and showed us the 
modifications he made for a more stable, compact rig. His dual format viewer 
(2x2 and stereo mounts) was magnificent and complemented his beautiful 
stereo macro slides.

Thursday evening's program, "Nature's Offerings" by Darrell Gulin, was 
sponsored by Kodak. Darrell is a wonderful nature photographer and a first 
class speaker. It was refreshing to only hear our sponsor's name 
sporadically throughout the presentation, as compared to the blatant 
advertising push by Fuji earlier. Some of Darrell's images were from a trip 
up north to photograph polar bears and arctic wildlife. He was on the same 
trip as Al Sieg, the top PSA stereographer in the world, who presented his 
3-D show the next day.

Friday's stereo feature was the "Stereo Spectacular," a montage of short 
programs shown for four hours. After the judging of the Image of the Year 
(Bill Walton please note that cards took the highest percentage of awards, 
including the top place!), Dale Walsh started us off with his wonderful 
views of sacred sights around the world. Andrea and Scott Blair followed 
with an eerie collection of blacklight images. Other shows included "Fur 
Coats are O.K. Here" by Al Sieg, a wonderful collection of images of arctic 
animals; "Bob and Bill's Euro Tour '99 - Tourists in Paradise" by Bob and 
Ron Leonard, a look at the French Riviera and the Cannes Film Festival; a 
collection of travel images from various PSA stereo circuits; a collection 
of images from Canadian stereographers put together by Stan White; and a 
sampling of Allan Griffin's work. All in all, the best four hours of the 
Conference. Thanks to everyone who participated and for sharing your images. 
Clubs may wish to contact the presenters to see if the programs are 
available for loan.

The Stereo Division Dinner was a wonderful way for us to finish the 
conference. Good food, good friends. Congratulations to all who took awards, 
you deserve them.

Friday evening's program, "Blue Sapphire" by Dr. Peter Rembrandt Van Rhijn, 
was outstanding. His program was in 6x7 format with three projectors on a 
16'x20' screen. Talk about impact. Now if he'd only shot in stereo…

On Saturday, Scott went to "Once Upon a Time in the West" where he heard of 
the laments of the photographer as he explained the black cloud that 
followed him everywhere, rain during droughts, and the amount of equipment 
destroyed. The images shown were what he managed to grab among the chaos. 
Scott's comment was, "I wish my best stuff looked like his worst." Scott 
also went to the PSA Chapters Showcase.

Andrea went to the "Computer Imaging for Beginners" where she sat next to 
Dr. T. After an excellent introduction to PhotoShop, she saw George 
frantically calculating how many Realists he needs to sell to get the 
program. Andrea followed this up with "Experimental Photography Including 
Blacklight and Mylar," where she gathered new ideas for her continuing 
stereo blacklight project.  The last show she saw was "Imagination - Where 
Do Ideas Come From?" by Douglas Boult, which was fantastic. A must see 
program if you get the chance, especially for anyone who may be in a rut for 
ideas. His fast-paced, three projector program crammed a five week college 
course into an hour. Whew!

Come join us next year in Albuquerque, New Mexico September 4 - 9, 2000.

Andrea & Scott Blair
asblair@xxxxxxxxxxx

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