Logo by David Boyer with 3-D conversion by Ray Zone

 It was only a matter of hours between the first NSA members receiving their Buffalo 2001 Convention packets and the first 3-D glasses appearing on the Chinese lions guarding the entrance of the Adam's Mark Hotel. A similar spirit of stereographic levity could be sensed throughout much of the NSA's July 19 - 23 national convention, which also featured a caricaturist who created instant portraits of members and a balloon artist showing off the world's only inflatable stereo camera! The generally relaxed atmosphere was typified by the Ice Cream Social that followed the annual Awards Banquet, a tasty alternative to the usual Banquet keynote speech.

Charley Van Pelt describes his 12 reel, four packet Lewis & Clark View-Master set at his Trade Fair table. (See SW Vol. 27 No. 5, page 28.) (Stereo by John Dennis)

 Held in Buffalo during the centennial year of that city's historic 1901 Pan American Exposition, the convention was located near Buffalo's Lake Erie waterfront and was only a short walk from the naval park there (the area where the Erie Canal once headed east from the lake) as well as some downtown restaurants. Also within about three blocks was the impressive art deco city hall with its 28th floor observation deck providing a grand view (and hyperstereo temptation) of the lake and the city.
Buffalo's long suffering economy (which also missed out on much of the boom times of the '90s) has left the downtown area with an amazing variety of historic buildings intact. These include not only government landmarks but also

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commercial structures from the small and intriguing to the large and imposing. Many were close enough for appreciation and photography during convention breaks despite the anticipated (but lower than feared) July heat and humidity. Closer yet, fans of PBS humorist Mark Russell soon noticed that the source of his television shows, the studios of Buffalo's WNED, were located directly next door to the hotel.
The Adam's Mark's recently completed convention facility provided an ideal space where all the activities were concentrated in a single large area just a one-floor escalator ride up from the lobby and dining room. The Trade Fair floor wrapped around two sides of the large Stereo Theater auditorium, making it easy to move back and forth between the two events with their usual simultaneous scheduling dilemmas on Saturday and Sunday. There were 498 prepaid convention registrants, with a total of over 800 people attending one or more days of the event.
The Stereo Theater
Under the direction of Dick Twichell, the 2001 Stereo Theater presented a wide variety of stereo formats, from View-Master to medium format to anamorphic wide screen, with a minimum of delays and a quality of projection unsurpassed by any convention or congress in recent memory. At the opening ceremony prior to the first

Previous year's convention chairman Tom Dory relaxes in Buffalo with a fellow 3-D enthusiast at the door of the Adam's Mark Hotel. Reflected in the window are some of the water jets of the huge fountain in front of the building. (Stereo by Gabriel Jacob)

Friday projection, Convention Chairman Marty Abramson welcomed everyone to Buffalo and treated us to a recording of the song Shuffle Off to Buffalo-which was probably the first time many had heard all the lyrics to the city's (and the convention's) "theme song".
TRIBUTE TO HANDEL
by Pat Whitehouse was presented by Bob Aldridge, who has digitally restored each image of this now 15+ years old, universally acknowledged masterpiece. RAILEANNING IN THE THIRD DIMENSION by Mitchell Dakelman featured a variety of railroad cars and engines in different scenic settings.
ON THE SURFACE AND BELOW THE RIM by Bill Salkin included both normal and hyperstereos of the canyon lands of the Southwest, along with some of the best stereos of the famous "slot canyons" yet seen.
LAISSEZ LES BONS TEMPS ROULER by Jan Burandt presented close-up, fast paced, and very entertaining stereos of the Houston art car parade set to Cajun music.		 NATURE UNDER YOUR NOSE
by Roger Richmond revealed how much there is to be seen and stereographed in everyday natural settings.
TRAVELS IN THE 3RD DIMENSION by Simon Bell included images captured all over the world by this professional stereographer while working on his many commercial 3-D slide shows and 3-D Eye-to-Eye children's books for Somerville House Publishing of Toronto.
WELCOME TO RIVERSIDE: NSA 2002 by Lawrence Kaufman invited everyone to California for next year's NSA convention with stereos from in and around Riverside.
PLAYING WITH THE BIG BOYS by Bob Aldridge demonstrated through some amazing images the advantages of medium format stereo projection.
MONTREAL DAY & NIGHT
by Dale Walsh explored the city in various

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A "surface" hyper of some geological formations in the canyon lands of the southwest from On the Surface and Below the Rim by Bill Salkin, winner of the Paul Wing Award for Best Stereo Theater Show

A car with a nose ring was just one of the memorable images in Jan Burandt's Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler-a fast paced 3-D visit to the annual Houston Art Car Parade, and winner of the 2001 Best New Presenter award

 

Set to lively music, the images in Jan Burandt's Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler seem to bounce from car to car, including interiors and drivers. The show lovingly documents the variety of decorative styles and artistic messages from cultural and political to pure Dada.
lighting conditions through impressive medium format stereos.
MY NEW-FOUND FRIENDS, ANAMORPHIC LENSES by Paul Pasquarello filled much of the wide NSA screen with the stereographer's latest work. Paul also took the Buffalo harbor stereo, reproduced as 5n anaglyph, that wraps around the front and back covers of the convention program.
CLIMAX IN LIGHT FALL and DEEP ECOLOGY REALIZED by Melody Steele provided the latest examples of her efforts to blend stereography with poetry devoted to natural subjects.
THE HOLY LAND - PAST & PRESENT by Steve Kiesling opened with vintage 2-D photos, proceeded into stereo-		 views, and finished with modern stereos of the region.
THE CIVIL WAR IN DEPTH (VOLUME 2)
by Bob Zeller presented many of the most unusual of rare Civil War views from the second volume of the famous book. (See SW Vol. 27 No. 4, page 32.)
IMAX 3D IMAGES FROM SPACE by Martin and Barbara Mueller revealed the design technology behind the IMAX 3-D cameras used in making an IMAX 3-D film about the Alpha International Space Station. Some amazing frames from the film taken by astronauts floating outside the station were included.
SPIRIT OF THE CANYONS by Russ & Pat Gager took the audience deep into		  canyons where getting any good photographs at all is a challenge, and getting impressive stereos like these is a triumph.
KNOB CREEK FUN AND GAMES by Edwin Clements documented in stereo a location in the hills of Kentucky where legal owner/collectors of machine guns gather to compare and shoot their weapons. There are about 200,000 registered, privately owned machine guns in the U.S. and many of the varieties-old and new, big and small, appeared in the slides. Some of the most impressive views in this very "eye opening" show were night shots showing muzzle flash and tracer bullets splitting the depths of the darkness.

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FILLES DE JOIE, AMERICAN STYLE by Mark Kernes was shown near midnight following the Friday auction, as an "adults only" stereo look into the adult video industry.

THE 6TH VIEW MASTER INTERNATIONAL SEQUENCE EXHIBITION was presented by Lawrence Kaufman from the Stereo Club of Southern California, and featured winning reels from that competition that again proved how much of a story can be told in a sequence of seven 3 D images.

CALENDAR GIRLS by Phyllis Maslin used the tune She's Got Bette Davis Eyes as an appropriate background to this 4 minute presentation of young women trying out for a sexy calendar.
SKY SOLDIER by Joel Glenn brought the stereos seen in his 1985 black & white book Sky Soldier, Stereo Views of Vietnam to the screen in their original Realist color format. Taken from the literal vantage point of a helicopter pilot, these rare stereos provide an added perspective on the war's between combat periods in the air as well as in and around landing zones.
D.C. IN 3 D: PAST AND PRESENT by James Roy included historic stereoviews of Washington personalities and places, starting with President Lincoln and moving on to Tidal Basin cherry blossoms from the 1920s. The show was first presented at the D.C. Public Library in June, 2001.
HEAT AND ICE by Stuart & Gregory Stiles Demonstrated the source of its title in dramatic 3 D.
STEREOSCOPIC SARATOGA SPRINGS by Stuart Stiles presented stereoviews of the historic resort town as seen in his book of the same name, but even more interesting on the big screen.
BREAKING THE STEREO WINDOW by Ron Labbe was a short video in which Ron's character (a combination of Terry Thomas, PeeWee Herman, and Boris Karloff) carefully explained to the audience the properties of all the different dimensions, ending with an hysterical attempt to penetrate a rather stubborn stereo window which he finally managed to break with the aid of "Maxwell's sliver hammer".

 

Balloon artist Sheree Brown Rosner roamed the Trade Fair with her unique stereo camera, complete with flash and, of course, an air bulb shutter release. (Stereo by John Dennis)

John Waldsmith talks with stereoview customers. (Stereo by John Dennis)

YOU DON'T KNOW ME (WHAT GUYS ARE REALLY LIKE INSIDE) by Bob Bloomberg was a show he had first presented at the Exploratorium Science Museum in San Francisco as part of their "Inside the Body" exhibition. It starred a couple of cooperative cadavers from the Gruber collection set to the title tune sung by B.B. King ("You give your hand to me..." etc, etc).
ARIZONA by Jim Dusen brought back some great memories to those who explored that state following last year's NSA convention in Mesa.
VIEWS OF JAPAN by John Goodman contained some wonderful, not often seen images of Japanese culture from the perspective of someone who had lived there rather than just passing through.
DREAM 5 & 6 by Lynn Butler presented the current evolution of an ongoing effort to reveal a dream state through stereoscopic images which tend to bring vocal reactions from viewers, both pro and con. As the presenter describes the 12 minute show, "Dream 5 is the dream of a girl named Lilly as she journeys to the Far East. Dream 6 is the dream of Gallopina, her horse as he follows her."

 

THE PSA STEREO SEQUENCE EXHIBITION presented by H. Lee Pratt made some of the best stereo story telling slide sequences from PSA members available to an appreciative NSA audience.

"Birds of a Feather" Meetings
VIEW MASTER ENTHUSIASTS was led by Mary Ann Sell. Representatives from Fisher Price took questions from the crowd covering topics from a possible reintroduction of the personal reel (the answer was no) to the sale of complete Harry Potter sets instead of random packet selections (the answer was "not at the moment").
The View Master reel made by Fisher Price especially for the NSA 2001 Buffalo convention (and later distributed to all registered members) was projected. Also shown were reels from Charley Van Pelt's recent Lewis & Clark View Master set. Wolfgang & Mary Ann Sell showed a clip from their newest View Master project, a View Master CD featuring 4 hours of View Master video ranging from View Master documentaries to commercials that have run over the years. Made in collaboration with Eddie Bowers, it includes a tour of the plant and interviews with past VM employees.

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A corner view of the L shaped trade Fair as seen from mezzanine (left) where the Competitive Stereoview Exhibit zig zags down a long row of tables. The yellow doors at top center lead into the Stereo Theater.
The entry stairs are at the far end on the left, while the NSA booth and the food service are at the far
end on the right.
(Digital panorama by Gabriel Jacob)

Dan Shelley shows some anaglyphs on a lap top. His two workshops covered the creation of digital anaglyphs and stereo conversions.
(Stereo by John Dennis)

APEC MEMBERS MEETING was presented by Tom Dory, who is the redistributer for the APEC III exchange. Some APEC business was discussed and the traditional group picture was taken.
INTERNET 3 D MEETING was presented by Dan Shelley, who went over the particulars regarding 3 D and the Internet and handed out a list of all the email 3 D related groups.
MODERN STEREO PHOTOGRAPHY EQUIPMENT USER'S FORUM was presented by Lee Moore. Bill Costa showed his 3 D gear and mentioned that Konica isn't making the S 1 anymore, so there won't be anymore S 1 RBTs offered. Dave Kesner showed his macro RBT gear.
NEW ATTENDEE ORIENTATION for those at their first NSA convention was presented by David Boyer, who also helped enliven the Trade Fair by doing caricatures of members at his table next to the Stereo Theater entrance.

Workshops
ANAGLYPHS WHAT & HOW by Dan Shelley was an overview of anaglyphs and their creation, including common problems and demonstrations of various software applications.
2D TO 3D CONVERSIONS by Dan Shelley included examples and a demonstration of conversion technique.
MAKING STEREO CARDS by David Lee ranged from elementary to advanced techniques.
E3D "EMBEDDED ANAGLYPH TECHNIQUES" by Allan Silliphant explained his closely overlaid images that look normal without the specially designed anaglyphic glasses provided.

A glass view get close examination at David Belcher's table while Bob Duncan makes a sale at the next table. (Stereo by John Dennis)

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DIGITALIA STEREO COMPUTER ILLUSTRATION by Boris Starosta included an introduction to scene building for computer generated 3 D rendering and a discussion of design philosophy and software limitations, stereo variables and output options.
WIDESCREEN WORKSHOP by Bob Brackett and Paul Pasquarello covered the construction of a wide format projection screen through the joining of two standard screens. Samples of wide format slides were projected.
USING THE DARKROOM FOR STEREO PHOTOGRAPHY by David Lee covered both basic techniques and special considerations.
IT'S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS: REVIEW OF LARGE PRINT STEREO VIEWERS WHICH USE MIRRORS by Steve Berezin reviewed current methods for viewing print pairs larger than standard stereoviews and for viewing large pairs on a computer monitor.
STEREO SLIDE MOUNTING by George Themelis, Dave Kesner and Jon Golden explained and demonstrated the basic principles with currently available 41x101 mounts, and included projection examples of mounting errors.
HOW TO DO TRICK/CREATIVE STEREO PHOTOGRAPHY by George Themelis focused on unusual stereo pictures via the use of unconventional composition, films, stereo base, multiple exposures, digital manipulation, etc.
CREATIVE STEREO PHOTOGRAPHY by Boris Starosta used several creative images to illustrate his approach to the art, technical challenges, and ongoing development of philosophy.
THE FRANKEN PONY PROJECT by Bill Davis covered the splicing of two Kodak Pony 135 Model C cameras into a "poor man's RBT".
IMPROVING YOUR STEREO PHOTOGRAPHY by David Lee
answered questions and gave suggestions on many topics.

GETTING STARTED IN STEREO PHOTOGRAPHY WITH A MANUAL STEREO CAMERA by George Themelis gave tips on selecting and using a stereo camera from the 1950s. A variety of cameras were available for examination.
HOW TO TAKE STEREO PICTURES WITH A SINGLE
(2 D) CAMERA by George Themelis covered techniques from slide bar hypostereos to hand held shots to stereos from a moving platform.

Awards

NSA President Mary Ann Sell presented awards at the Saturday evening banquet to the following deserving recipients:

THE WILLIAM C. DARRAH FELLOW AWARD for Distinguished Scholarship and Extraordinary Knowledge of Stereoscopy went to Russell Norton.
THE ROBERT M. WALDSMITH AWARD
for Meritorious Service went to Paula Fleming.
THE BEST ARTICLE ON HISTORICAL STEREOSCOPY AWARD went to Robert King for "L.L. Cupp, Sr. Keystone Salesman and Photographer" in Stereo World Vol. 27 No. 4.
THE LOU SMAUS AWARD for the Best Article on Contemporary Stereoscopy went to Robert Vance for "The Lenticular Legacy of Harvey Prever" in Stereo World Vol. 27 No. 5.
THE PAUL WING AWARD for the best Stereo Theater Show went to Bill Salkin for On the Surface and Below the Rim. Second Place went to Steve Kiesling for The Holy Land Past & Present. Third Place went to Lynn Butler for Dream 5&6. The Best New Presenter Award went to Jan Burandt for Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler.

Caricatures of Convention Registrar Bill Davis and Chairman Marty Abramson at the Trade Fair table of artist David Boyer, who also created the Buffalo logo.

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Buffalo 2001 Treasurer Marybeth Abramson and the giant ViewMaster reel from Fisher Price hanging above the registration table.

Face of the souvenir reel distributed to all convention registrants by Fisher Price as part of View Master's welcome to the NSA. Images include the annual Toy Fest Parade in FP hometown East Aurora, NY, Niagara Falls, Buffalo's Naval Park, and downtown Buffalo.

International View Master publisher Harry zur Kleinsmiede studies a View Master history display at the Fisher Price Toy Museum during the Monday NSA tour of the whole facility. Among the historical photos and other memorabilia displayed under a "View Master Heritage" sign in the plant atrium was a copy of Stereo World Vol, 1 1 No. 1 containing the cover feature "Seven Billion Windows on the World View Master Then and Now". (Photo by Gabriel Jacob)

SPECIAL AWARDS went to Bob Aldridge for his restoration of the Pat Whitehouse show and to Marty Abramson for chairing the convention.

Competitive Exhibits

THE TEX TREADWELL AWARD for Best of Show went to Shab Levy for his digital prints.
FIRST & THIRD place for contemporary views went to Boris Starosta.
SECOND place for contemporary views went to David Saxon.
FIRST place for collections went to Keith Longworth.
SECOND place for collections went to Jim Crain.
THIRD place for collections went to Dave & Cindi Wood.

Trade Fair

The 2001 Trade Fair, chaired by Harry M. DeBan, stretched in a large L shaped space around the side and back of the Stereo Theater in the Grand Ballroom. At 123 tables, 62 dealers offered nearly any variety of stereo image, camera, projector, hardware, software, or gadget known in a plush atmosphere

that featured new carpeting and good lighting. The shape of the room made remembering the location of a particular table (with that item you meant to get back to) easier than in a big rectangular space with row after row of tables.

A helpful map of the room and tables was included in the convention packets, and a good view of the area for those in search of missing family members was available from the mezzanine along one side, where the Competitive Stereoview Exhibits were also located. At the end of one leg of the L was the NSA membership booth, and behind that was a food service area with tables to prevent starvation among the more fanatic shoppers and busy dealers. New NSA Board Member

With the retirement from the NSA Board of Directors of Paula Fleming, the directors unanimously approved Helena E. Wright to fill the vacant spot on the Board. Like Paula Fleming, Helena Wright is on the staff of the Smithsonian

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Institution where she is Curator of Graphic Arts, Division of Information Technology & Society at the National Museum of American History. As if that wasn't enough, she is also in charge of the Smithsonian's History of Photography exhibit. At the Thursday evening meeting, the NSA Board also approved more frequent color issues (or sections) of Stereo World as well upgraded hardware and software for Art Director Mark Willke to use in the design and layout of the magazine.

Bus Tours

Two stereographic excursions departed early Monday morning from the hotel. Tour 1 visited Niagara Falls and included a ride on the Maid of the Mist. From there, the tour went to the Niagara Power generating plant and to Fort Niagara at the mouth of the Niagara River.

Tour 2 featured a visit to the Fisher Price Factory in East Aurora, NY, the new home of View Master. View Master representatives welcomed the group, giving a short introductory talk prior to the plant tour which included refreshments. The atrium of the plant was set up with a variety of View Master memorabilia for the occasion.

The tour included a demonstration of how the "Atlantis" set was produced. Traditional techniques are still used for part of the work, including the huge stereoscopic mirror viewer from the Portland plant for viewing pairs of art cels. Scene two from reel B was on display

as an example. They also had the same scene in a View Master viewer, as 2x2x2 slides, and as large stereo pairs on the wall. Other equipment in the room consisted of high end workstations with Wacom graphic tablets.

The next stop was another workstation where they were converting some scenes from another title. They explained that unlike the Atlantis set that was done entirely from flat animation cels, this set was submitted as 3 D models with the background scenery being flat 2 D. The file sizes were approximately 4000 x 2500 pixels. They demonstrated how they incorporated and converted it into a 3 D scene meshed in with the 3 D models. They had a parallel stereo pair on the wall for viewing with some custom made mirror viewers.

In the product integrity labs a View Master viewer was set on fire! The purpose of this test was to determine not if the plastic burned but rather more importantly the burn rate. Of course they have all this data already and set up the demonstration just for the NSA tour. They also demonstrated a pull test, that determines how many pounds of force the ViewMaster viewer lever could take. They increased the pressure until the lever broke and went flying.

In the Fisher Price toy store the group all stocked up on ViewMaster toys at the employee discount price. At the end of shopping spree everyone was given a bag of View Master goodies. From there it was off to the Toy Museum

Speaking at the Awards Banquet, NSA President Mary Ann Sell honors Buffalo 2001 Chairman Marty Abramson for his outstanding work on the convention. The overwhelming verdict was that this had been one of the most "user friendly" conventions ever, and that Marty and Marybeth Abramson had very nearly thought of EVERYTHING most members would need or ask about. (Photo by Gabriel Jacob.)

and some photography around the huge models of classic Fisher Price toys on the building's front lawn.

Thanks To:
Convention Chairman:
Marty Abramson
Treasurer:
Marybeth Abramson
Stereo Theater Chairman:
Dick Twichell
Trade Fair Chairman:
Harry m. DeBan
Workshop Chairman & Webmaster:
Lee Moore
Auction Chairman:
Bob Duncan
Registrar:
Bill Davis
NSA 2001 Logo art by:
David Boyer
NSA 2001 Logo 3 D conversion by:
Ray Zone
Program cover photograph by:
Paul Pasquarello
Anaglyph conversion of cover by:
Dick Twichell
3 D Glasses by:
American Paper Optics
Souvenir View master Reel by:
Fisher Price

NEXT YEAR Riverside is for you in 2002! For details about the July 11-15 convention in Riverside, CA, visit http://www.3dgearcom/NSA and watch for inserts in Stereo World. 2002 logo by Tony Alderson.

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