Issue 3/4 · Spring
& Fall Meeting Double Issue June 13, 1999
Spring Meeting
In
Attendance: Simon
Bell, David Delouchery, Steve Horan, Les Jones, Eaton Lothrop Jr., Sam
Schlifer, Josephine (Pina) Vinci, Stan White, Bob Wilson and
Mike Yatsula.
My notes are
vague for this meeting so please excuse any inaccuracies. We gathered
at Bob Wilson's new place in Toronto. Although he
mentioned that he still had unpacking to do their was still plenty to
see and many wonderful Canadiana prints adorned the walls.
Our meeting
got underway as usual with introductions and then our show and tell. Pina,
who has been photographing in 3D for the past 4 years, mentioned the
comments she gets and we most like to hear from people who view our
stereos - "Oh, I'm really there!" Sam who has been
shooting full frame side by sides since 1992 says that the spectacle of
3D makes people think that he is a better photographer than he really
is. Well after seeing some of your cavern views I'd say that you are as
good as they think you are! Sam brought a Depth of Field Scale that he
recreated for the Stereo Realist  Camera. It involves 2
laminated pieces of cardboard mounted together as a dial and it easily
fits in your pocket for quick reference. Simon
shared some RBT views that he snapped of Elvira at the "Encounter in
3D" Imax launch party. Stan unveiled one of his
personally hand built Stanon 5x7 Stereo Cameras. Les showed
off a stereoscope case by Baker, an English photographer who resided in
India. Eaton started collecting inexpensive box
cameras in 1960 and today has included disposable 35mm cameras to his
collection. Steve brought a Illuminated Keystone
viewer for us to goggle at.
Bob
Wilson shared
some information and stereocards from his soon to be  published article in Stereo
World. (Volume 26 #2&3) Titled "Stereo from Eaton's Catalogue"
The box sets ranged from views of the Toronto Department Store (Box of
50 for 10 cents) to views of the 1000 Islands and The Royal Tour of the
Duke and Duchess of York. Cameras appeared in the 1899 catalogue and
viewers and views first appeared in 1900. This continued until 1915
when stereo items disappeared from their catalogue until 1949 when
Viewmaster made their first appearance. The publication of this article
which was also published in Photographic Canadiana is somewhat
bittersweet as it's timing came during the final breaths of the T.Eaton
Company.
After our
meeting had concluded Steve Horan, Mike Yatsula and
yours truly David Delouchery took our gathering as
an opportunity to see "Encounter in 3D" the latest IMAX 3D film at the
new Paramount theatre in downtown Toronto. It's nice to see two new 3D
capable theatres especially in their company's hometown.
Fall Meeting
Our Fall
Meeting was held at Les Jones's house in the Toronto Beaches on
November 21, 1999.
In
Attendance were:
Simon Bell, Burke Brown, David Delouchery,
Bruce Hodgson, Steve Horan, Les Jones, Josh Kaell, Lincoln Ross, Sam
Schlifer, Stan White, Bob Wilson and Mike Yatsula.
People were
quite excited at this meeting as we all had lots to share with each
other. Les who says he  was fascinated by his Aunts'
camera given to him as a child pulled out many interesting items from
his collection. He now works as a market researcher and sports
photographer and he passed around a couple of his full frame views
before we got started. The first view was of a fellow photographer with
a 400mm lens pointing at us during the world soccer championships. The
other which was meant to get our attention revealed three contestants
at a local beauty pageant. Gee Les, what kind of  sporting event was that? He
also shared with us a German made realist camera that came with a
shoulder style attache case. He also mentioned that he has access to a
pile of old Popular Science etc. magazines from the 30's &
40's. Some even contain articles on 3D. If you are interested feel free
to contact him. Les also   brought out 2 box
sets of emulsion on glass views of the middle east which were labeled
"Plaques au Lactate Tons Chauds" and were made by
R.Guilleminot-Boespflug &Co. Another interesting item were
views from the Edinburgh Stereoscopic Atlas of Anatomy. These old
B&W views taken from cadavers showed "in-depth" studies of
various sections of the human anatomy. Each view was about three times
as high as your normal card and above each view was corresponding text
and information about the view.
 
The timing
was perfect as Steve pulled out his modern
Viewmaster copy on the same topic. Available through the NSA this book
by William Gruber contains colour views of the same topic. Steve also
passed  around the
room some views that Sawyer made during wartime for the Navy. These
views contained images of enemy planes which appeared at various
distances and were designed to help the allies identify the various
planes in the sky. Also of note, if you would like to find a complete
list of Viewmaster single and 3-pack collections you can visit this
sight on the web. http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/number6/vm Steve mainly
focusses his collection on Viewmaster items and has a pile of packets
for trade. He says that he still has yet to mount his first realist
views.
Burke who says he is fascinated by perception and
magnetism was trained as psychologist and therefore studied the art of
perception and learning. He now mainly uses his Loreo camera to take 3D
pictures of his grandkids. He shared with us more information about the
company from Calgary that has developed as auto-stereoscopic projection
system. www.visualabs.com This led us into a wild discussion about what
was true stereo and whether or not this system could work. It was
pointed out that there is a new system being developed in England which
uses low level Red/Green and Blue lasers which are mounted on a pair
eye glass frames and draw the project the image on the back of your
retina. Somehow we ended up discussing about people who only had vision
in one eye and it was pointed out that one of the best 3D movies ever
was filmed by Arch Albler who only had vision in one eye.
Josh who best described his interests by saying "I
like Stereo!" warned us of an $8 magazine on WWF wrestlers which
contains Anaglyph views of the stars in action. He says that the photos
have been converted from 2D to 3D and that the "layered" images only
contain 3 planes of depth. Thanks Josh, I nominate you as the official
watchdog of our club. Keep up the watchful eye!
Dave
(yours
truly) passed around a Discovery Viewmaster/binocular combo viewer for
those that hadn't seen one yet and I as well showed off a couple of key
chain notebooks which were bound with Lenticular covers. This meeting
must have been sponsored by Polaroid due to all of the Lenticular
prints and discussion that soon abounded.
Mike from Belleville who collects everything
brought an excellent hologram of two lion cubs for us to drool over. At
first we thought that the picture was taken at nighttime but soon with
a proper light source we all ogled at the beautiful image.
 Bob who
collects & researches early Canadian photography pulled out a
book entitled "Teneriffe, An Astronomer's Experiment". It contained
many views around the island including the view on the right of a
telescope.
Lincoln who sat in our group as an observer says he
has recently started collecting old views works as a photographic
restorer and preserver. Quite a few members felt that he could help him
with his stereoview collection.
Sam mentioned that he feels blessed with
"stereopsis" and feels sorry for his friends who lack the ability to
see in stereo. Sam brought with him a Novoflex sliding bar for mounting
on a tripod it allowed for a 65mm separation from the cameras first
position to the second position.
Bruce gave us a brief history of his fascination
with stereo photography. He said that he worked in a grocery store to
buy his first Kodak in 1954.
Stan showed off his newly acquired Lenticular print
made from one of his classic 3D views of "Liliputian"  people who are cleaning the
lens of a Pentax 35mm camera. The view was prepared by Peter Sinclair
who explained to us the process he uses to make each print. Stan has
been building 5x7 stereo cameras. He contact prints from the negative
and then tints the views. Stan who curates the Canadian Stereoscopic
Archive at Sheridan College says that it may be in need of a new home.
Although it may go into storage temporarily there may be an opportunity
for it to move into the Toronto Reference Library.
Peter received the best possible plug after Stan
showed off his handy work. His business "Stereographic Arts" offers a
catalog of old stereoview images that have been converted to single
image Lenticular prints. Each image is mounted in a sophisticated wood
frame and are very reasonably priced. You can reach him at (416)
690-0377 or sinclair@hotstar.net Peter also brought a painting that his
wife had made of a stereoview image. (Sorry, the painting is in 2D
only!)
Simon brought a pile of stories and items to show.
The comment "Wow, you're really into 3D!" was heard  when Simon started
pulling out the goodies. The first item for display (and keeping in the
lenticular theme) was a promotional ad for Coca-Cola. This 2'x3' print
was designed to be rear lit and we quickly placed it in a window frame.
Simon went on to explain how Kodak, which has a team of 50 people
working in  the
lenticular department, has approached this technology. Using a
photographic process it costs about $3000 U.S. for set-up and about
$400 for each print with a minimum order of 5 prints to get started.
But the quality is superb! Next up was a school calendar book that is
in use across Toronto. The example that Simon brought was from Monarch
Park Collegiate. The cover is a general theme and a space is left so
that each school could apply their name. The printing for this type of
application can be done on a ink jet or digital printer. Simon plans to
make lenticular prints of
the postcard style ad that he has designed for his business. Simon has
also completed an assignment for the National Astronomical Observatory
of Japan. They have built a $350 million (U.S.) observatory on the
summit of Mauna Kea, Big Island in Hawaii. Named the Subaru Telescope
it sits 14,000 feet above sea level were  the air was quite thin for
the helicopter blades to fly in which carried Simon as he snapped
sequential photos of the telescope. The primary mirror of the telescope
is 8 metres across. The final print was handed out at the official
unveiling which was attended by the princess of Japan. This was a very
prestigious undertaking as the Japanese are starting to focus on more
pure sciences. A 4'x2.6' lenticular print hangs on the wall at the
observatory.
 Simon has also been offering
3D video presentations for large corporate conferences and conventions.
He is currently testing the Starmax 3D video camera. It was designed by
a Toronto group which tried its hand at marketing the units and
offering corporate 3D production. The unit can be attached to a
videotape recorder
and the operator wears a LCD dual screen headset which allows them to see the signal in 3D while they
tape. Some of us played with the unit after the official meeting was
over. We also discussed the Vrex technology and it seems that some of
us are anxious to see it in action. Vrex has developed a polarized
system for use with LCD screens on laptops and projectors and allow for
flicker free 3D viewing with just the use of cheap polarized glasses.
Bob asked if Simon had anything else to show and Les chirped in "Ya, do
you have any good stuff?" We all laughed as we delighted in the goodies.
After our
show and tell we spent the rest of our meeting with a couple of slide
shows courtesy of Les and Simon. Les's views were from a hot air
balloon festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Taking place during the
2nd week of October Les gave us a well prepared narration as the
colourful pictures floated by our eyes. Some of the shape balloons that
were on display included Mickey Mouse, Swatch, Virgin Airlines and Tony
the Tiger. An excellent visual essay. Simon's show consisted mainly of
various views taken through an airplane window of cloud formations and
one beautiful image of Central Park in New York. A very "Sound of
Music" image of Mount Ranier, a sun-soaked model lying on a sandy Cuban
beach as well as a couple of "cheeky" party goers ended Simon's short
show.
After a very
full meeting we all recessed for some snacks and conversation.
The Spring
meeting is tentatively set for May at Simon Bell's new offices on Queen
St. E. in Toronto. NSA 2000 will be held in Maysa, Arizona (near
Phoenix) and 2001 will be held in Buffalo, Yippee! See you there!
Happy
Viewing and may you always be blessed with Double Vision!
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