[photo-3d] Back from NYC - part II

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <drt-3d@xxxxxxx>]

Continuing with impressions from our NYC visit....

Having the kids with me certainly limited my movements.  
Every morning they got up around noon and all they wanted 
to do was stay in the hotel room and watch TV!!! (as if 
they don't get enough of that at home!)  But I convinced 
them to "go places" and managed to spend a day at the 
American Museum of Natural History - a fabulous museum 
(Greg Dinkins was a great host - thanks Greg!), walk 
around the streets of Manhattan, spent time in Central 
Park.  My 8 year old son Tony proved to be quite a rock 
climber at Central Park but he was really impressed when 
he saw three people getting arrested and handcuffed, 
right there, in front of our eyes... we don't know why 
but we saw the action as in the movies!  Only in NYC!

I even talked them into seeing a 3d movie at the Sony 
Imax Theater (my first Imax 3D movie too): Cirque du 
Soleil, Journey of Man.

I am sure more has been written about this Imax movie here 
(check also: www.cirquedusoleiljourney.com).  I personally 
enjoyed it and found the 3d effect to be very pleasing and 
easy to the eyes.  But I am more interested in what others 
think.  Like my children.  It was hard to get them to say 
if they liked it or not.  The story line was weird and 
basically one would have to enjoy the images and 
acrobatic acts for what they are.  The question is "how 
does 3d help in that respect?"  

I am coming to believe that a basic "problem" with 3d movies 
is that, unless the movie is loaded with (computer-generated 
many times) 3d tricks after a while, the viewer gets used to 
the "3d effect" and forgets that he or she is watching a 3d 
movie.  The appreciation evaporates slowly, a situation that 
we might call "3d fatigue".  Being a stereo photographer 
myself  I maintain a high appreciation for the 3d imagery 
throughout the movie, especially knowing the technical 
challenges involved.  But for young children and the 
general population after a while a 3d movie "feels" like 
an ordinary movie, unless if reminded by things poking 
in front of your face.  The Cirque du Soleil, Journey of 
Man, had very little "in your face" effects so I enjoyed 
it for what it was:  Good acrobatic performances in 3d.

Saturday afternoon we took a 5 hour boat tour of Manhattan.  
I learned a lot from the live narration, plus took plenty 
of hyperstereos from the slowly moving boat.  (BTW, I had 
hopes of taking hyperstereos through the train too but it 
turns out to be moving too fast for this purpose, plus the 
scenery was not particularly exciting).

We spent our entire Sunday in Conney Island.  Among the 
various rides, arcade games, food, etc., we also went 
swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.  It was fun!

Monday we visited the Intrepid War Air & Sea museum.  This 
is a great place for stereo photography, especially 
airplanes sticking out of the stereo window.

Photographically speaking, everything worked very well.  
No problems of any kind.  The only regret was the lousy 
weather... An entire week of cloudy/rainy weather.  Oh, 
well... This is still good light for many subjects.

While the kids were sleeping or resting, I continued my 
mounting marathon.  I had Paul mail Spicer mounts directly 
to our hotel, in case I ran out.   I have now developed a 
mounting travel-kit that allows me to mount almost anywhere.  
This consists of a compact (ultra thin) light table, 
tweezers, scissors, RBT modified mounts, infinity spacer, 
thin aluminum tape, regular transparent tape, a pen, one 
thick red marker and one thin red or green marker, and 
pre-punched Spicer mounts. Also a viewer (I am using my 
new Ekeren viewer).  

The pre-punched Spicer mounts have their windows poked 
out and are also stamped with my name in the back (they 
can also have the red dot placed in the front but I 
usually do that after mounting and before closing the 
mount, using the thick red marker).  I also write comments 
with the pen in the front and put the date with the red or 
green marker.

Unfortunately, I broke my ultra thin fluorescent table.  
This is extremely simple in design, operating like the 
Ekeren light source, with one bright FL tube on the side 
of a plexiglass material.  The light is distributed evenly 
and diffused over the transparent material.  So for this 
trip I brought my SAM (Stereoactive alignment magnifier), 
using it mainly as a light table.  In the train ride back 
I did not have access to an electrical outlet so I could 
not use the SAM.  

As a testimony to the power of DrDave's RBT/Spicer mounting 
method, I was able to mount most slides without a light table.  
For common scenics with my S1, I separated the RBT rails 
using the "infinity spacer" (the modified RBT yellow tool 
described in previous postings) and had a nice automatic 
window placed in every slide.  For close-ups or slides 
from other cameras I had to lift the slide to see the 
image through light reflected from a white piece of paper.

This system worked quite well until my viewer's batteries 
discharged around 1 am.  I was still able to view by 
taking the light part off the Ekeren and pointing the 
viewer to the light.  But by that time I was ready for 
a nap.

Overall, a very productive visit in New York city!  I now
look forward to getting back my slides (today) from the
local lab and going through another mounting marathon.

Life is great when you are having fun!

George Themelis