Re: [photo-3d] My very first stereo picture

["John A. Rupkalvis" <stereoscope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Reynolds" <reynolds@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <photo-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 9:03 PM
Subject: Re: [photo-3d] My very first stereo picture


> Stuart Stiles wrote:
> > How many of us can point to our "very first stereo photo?"  That would
make
> > an interesting gallery exhibit.  It might also go far toward encouraging
> > beginners. We tend to be intimidated by the crisp depth and precise
> > composition of some of the work of more experienced stereo
photographers.
> >
>
> My first stereo images are all on my web page.  I stumbled upon a
> stereoscopic FAQ and this mailing list a few weeks before my wedding
> and started playing with my 4x5 pinhole camera
> <URL:http://www.panix.com/~reynolds/photography/pinhole/stereo.html>,
> followed by a single Lubitel 166U, and finally a pair of Lubitels
> <URL:http://www.panix.com/~reynolds/photography/stereo/>.
>
> I don't do B&W stereo anymore (no darkroom to do acceptable stereo
> cards) and I have a pretty poor scanner so I haven't put anything else
> up.  My brother-in-law got my wife and I a digital camera for the
> holidays so I'm planning on experimenting with using the camera to
> take digital captures of my stereo slides in order to get them on my
> web page.
>
> --
> Brian Reynolds                  | "Dee Dee!  Don't touch that button!"
> reynolds@xxxxxxxxx              | "Oooh!"
> http://www.panix.com/~reynolds  |    -- Dexter and Dee Dee
> NAR# 54438                      |       "Dexter's Laboratory"


I don't recall which of my stereo pictures was actually the first that I
did, but I know that one very early one was a shot of Minnehaha Falls in
Minneapolis, Minnesota that I made in 1946.  It turned out a better picture
than many of the post cards of it made at the time, primarily because of the
limitations of the camera and what I had to do to shoot it in stereo.

Most "pretty post card" pictures of the falls showed it head-on, exactly
centered in the frame.  Since I wanted some tree branches in the foreground,
and all the trees were to the side, I chose that position instead.  My
camera was a single Sears Tower box camera that used size 116 film.  The
single shutter speed was about 1/25 second.  I had built a tray on which I
could slide the camera laterally for about 65mm.  It, in turn, was mounted
on a post made from a 2 x 2.  This held the rig reasonably steady.  The slow
shutter speed allowed for enough motion blur on the water so that the two
images were quite similar in character, with no retinal rivalry.  The large
negatives allowed contact prints which I pasted to cardboard so that I could
view them in my Grandmother's card viewer.

JR