The Beginning of Some Rain!

The first week in march passes and the weather forecast seems to say a lot of rain is on the way to the area that I reside in.  I was happy that rain was coming and sad that I probably won’t see snow until the following year.  The V1 was still giving me moments of excitement and I was a little concerned about what it might do to my eye muscles, but I didn’t notice anything really except for the fact that I would have try to focus for a minute after watching for a while.  I went to a few other places within my area and tested out some 3D pictures on various things like the super market, major retail stores and a few restaurants.  I felt like I was a journalist in the moments of secretly taking out my camera and randomly taking pictures of adamant objects and displays.  I even got a somewhat decent picture of myself looking at a mirror in a bathroom at a local Mexican food restaurant.  I realized I didn’t have any pictures of myself in 3D because I am the one always taking pictures and I also realized that is a recurring theme at other events that I have photographed.  I went outside and noticed that the clouds where getting darker and it might be time to take some 3D photos in the rainy weather.  I did not have any covers for my camera and I was too lazy to create anything that could help protect my camera at the moment.  It finally started raining and the conditions outside seemed very rainy but not too windy plus a little cold.  I put my jacket on after I laid some spare dry cloths to change into upon my return.  I grabbed the camera and it was time for another adventure.  I got out in the rain and I started to have fun.  I started thinking about the shots I wanted and started clicking away.  My camera got a little wet but I kept wiping it off and was too into the zone to worry about it.  I started moving quickly onto the next location getting wetter and wetter by the minute.  I was getting some great wet forest and a few swamp resembling images to add to my collection.  I started thinking about my camera and how the the rain could seep into the center of the camera from the buttons.  My camera was really wet so I called it a day.  I walked into my house and immediately dried the camera with some paper towels and changed to a drier set of cloths.  I relaxed for a bit and wanted to wait for the camera to fully dry prior to uploading the photos on the computer.  The next day I placed the memory card into the computer and started viewing some of the rain pictures.  It was a fun adventure with good effort and everything seemed to be functional with the camera.  I put the camera next to the computer and started getting excited for the warmer season that was steadily approaching!

A Few Pictures of the V1!

This is the V1 3D viewer which is the perfect companion for the W1!  These are regular digital pictures to show the V1 and the need for glasses is not a necessity with this auto stereoscopic digital picture frame!

The Ending of a Winter Season!

The winter season seemed to come closer to an end as the snow faded from the ground slowly and the month of March began.  I was happy to have the V1 to show people because seeing a 3D screen without glasses was in demand and not common.  I felt that I had a decent position within the consumer world of 3D because it wasn’t popular yet and the fact that relatively affordable 3D televisions, 3D monitors and 3D Blu-Ray Discs have not been released yet.  The only 3D monitor I was aware of was a Samsung monitor for the computer that Nvidia sold with their 3D Vision products.  I believed Samsung had a larger 3D model but it seemed hard to get and absolutely no content to view with it.  The 3D launch wasn’t too far away and I know prior to the forthcoming major holiday season that some of these items should be available at retailers.  I could feel the 3D wave approaching but it was not here yet.  I enjoyed the moments showing people the V1 and when a viewer figured out and understood how to achieve the viewing angle they thought that it was impressive.  Very few people thought it was unnecessary but they really weren’t 3D advocates and at first had trouble getting the correct viewing position.  The feeling of not needing glasses to see my pictures was great and I could have fun with friends and random viewers.  I started thinking of different things I would like to shoot but I already took well over 30 gigs of pictures and the space was adding up.  The post-production process with these pictures always seemed to take up a lot of time and I now truly realize the commitment that tags along with shooting and viewing 3D.  I knew that the chance of getting more snow was at a very low probability and at least I have completed my initial task of capturing some decent shots of some snow scenery.  I guess it was time to think about shots in the rain instead of the snow or even going to the beach seemed like a great idea.  It was time to get more memory cards and anticipate a change in the coming weather conditions.

The V1 Arrives!!!

The V1 arrives at my door with style from the regular mailman.  The package didn’t come via EMS like the games I usually order from Japan, but it still arrived in an orderly fashion.  I wasn’t sure whether I was more excited about the V1 then I was about the W1 but I knew that playing around with this 3D technology help satisfy my craving for actual 3D.  I opened the package and saw the V1 box that was obviously larger than the W1 box with a similar design.  I pulled it out from the wrappings and plugged it in.  I noticed that the front of the viewer was really glossy and I had to place the ball end of the leg into the back of the frame in order for it to stand correctly.  I inserted my best of snow pictures memory card into the device and pressed the small power button on the back of the 3D photo viewer.  A little sound occurred and the Fuji 3D logo appeared and the pictures started displaying.  The 3D didn’t look right at first because I wasn’t in the proper position.  I realized that this was discerning because if I wasn’t used to the screen of the camera and knew that you had to be at a sweet spot, I probably might have gotten frustrated.  I moved my head around and noticed that I had to be at least a foot or half a meter away with perfect angular alignment in order to achieve the perfect 3D.  It looked amazing at the correct viewing spot.  If I had moved a little out of position the image would appear ripple like and almost inverted.  I pressed the menu button on the viewer and saw that it was all in Japanese.  I thought this might be a problem if I can’t navigate through the menus.  I loaded up the manual on my net book and figured out how to change the language settings.  The seller on eBay mentioned that they could set the language to English but I thought it would not be a problem and it wasn’t.  The manual described that there was three possible angles to achieve the 3D viewing and I will tell you that the main angle wasn’t the easiest to get and the other two were not as good as the center angle.  My snow pictures appeared and I was almost in a trance.  I also read in the manual that I could have some Mp3 files on the memory card that the V1 will play them.  I knew exactly what I wanted to have playing along with my snow pictures.  Earlier that year Sting released a winter album that was very traditional and enjoyable, so I converted that to Mp3 and the album seemed to be almost as if it was meant to be synchronized with my pictures.  I thought to myself that if Sting saw this he would be proud.  After about thirty minutes a disclaimer appeared on the screen saying that I should take a break for health reasons.  I also believed I read somewhere that you shouldn’t have any children with the age of four or below viewing the 3D equipment.  Should these bits of information concern me?  Was this technology tested enough that they had health results from various people and children?  Was I at risk from using all of this 3D equipment?  Will these questions or disclaimers change in the future or even deter people away from the 3D revolution?  Was this investment really worth the effort and money?  I saw some of my greatest snow pictures and I believed it was totally worth it just because I had some perfect 3D pictures.  Now I had a way of showing individuals my pictures without the usage of glasses and they can be viewed the way that they were intended to be.  I was nervous around the picture frame because I knew I couldn’t just pick one up at your local retailer.  They probably won’t have one like this for another four years until the technology gets cheaper and better.  Now all I needed was a case to travel with it and I would be ready to show people on my adventures and truly display my 3D digital pictures to show the beauty of the third dimension!

The Snow 3D Anaglyph Pictures!

Here is some of the best 3D anaglyph snow scenery pictures that I have taken with the W1!!!!

The Massive Snow Storm!

The massive snowstorm was approaching and seeing it coming on the news got me excited because the previous storm was a blast around the time that “Avatar” arrived.  I knew this was my chance to use all of my experience with the W1 to get some decent 3D snow pictures.  I could feel the sensation pulsing threw my veins for the event.  I ran to the grocery store and got stocked up with necessities and filled the cars completely with gas.  I also stopped at the special beverage establishment to prepare to be snowed in.  I got a ride to work as the snow began to fall and it just happened that I had the next couple of days off.  I got I excited like a kid and their first time in a candy store.  I got the batteries charged up when I got home and realized I forgot to get extra memory cards.  It was okay because I had enough room left for some pictures on the current solid-state storage cards.  The morning came and I went outside before noon and started clicking away.  I was cold but every picture was worth the uncomfortable effort.  Not only did the branches make for some great 3D pictures but the fact that snow gave it a monotone look caused me to realized that the anaglyph versions will turn out perfect.  I took pictures until my memory card ran out and went straight to the computer and started converted pictures.  The process was a timely procedure just like any editing or photo correction but it must be completed in order to show what snow scenery looks like in 3D.  I was happy with the turn out and my 3D investment was starting to pay off!

Yeah!....More 3D Pictures!

Here are a few pictures of the people that enjoyed getting their first 3D pictures taken that I encountered on my adventures while frequenting a couple of stores!

Discovering the V1!

I started doing research for a 3D auto stereoscopic picture frame viewer and just happened to stumble upon Fuji’s V1.  The pictures of this seven-inch 3D picture frame seemed unbelievable and a perfect companion for the W1.  I also realized that the W1 was initially sold with the V1 as a regular package and it was an unintentional accident that I got the camera separate from the viewer.  I couldn’t find any reviews on it but I assumed it was just a larger version of the same screen that was on the camera.  The V1 was a little more expensive than the camera and also possessed it’s own wireless technology to communicate with each other.  You could immediately view the 3D pictures without having to remove the card from the camera and put it in the viewer.  I started wondering how cool this would be to have to show people on my travels.  I started reading and watching videos on it but didn’t really now how to order it.  A week passed and I found a good buyer on EBay in Japan and placed the order.  This was probably the most expensive item I ever ordered off of EBay and was concerned about it arriving in good fashion.  I started to daydream about it and knew it had to be great to see the pictures I have been taken on a larger 3D screen.  I decided to start thinking about best of picture collections and getting memory cards just for specific sets of pictures to have ready for the V1 just like I started doing for the regular inexpensive picture viewer that I had purchased previously.  I hope that this almost seven hundred dollar item on the way from Japan was worth every cent!

Geese and More Picture Viewing!

I finally captured some pictures of geese while driving around from my car and was satisfied with the results.  I didn’t get any pictures with them at a lake or some location with water but the fact that it was convenient to just roll up and start clicking away was perfect.  I also took some pictures of some cats and some other random things not from my car.  This was like a new thing to just start randomly taking pictures from my car.  I thought to myself that all I need was some binoculars and I might be considered a stalker.  I guess some rope, shovel, map, some plastic wrap, and a baseball bat wouldn’t be a good idea either.   It was like guerilla photography from my car and I also started to feel like a member of the paparazzi.  The weather outside was still cold and now it was the middle of February I felt like the winter came by so fast that I was going to go crazy.  I went to the local wine, beer, and spirits store around the corner and a game shop and displayed the camera to a bunch of friends.  I took some pictures of them and they were all amazed by the screen of the camera and it was the first time that they were in 3D.  Some of them loved the technology even with having no prior understanding of it, some were skeptical about the 3D revolution and others just flat out became overly excited.  It was kind of fun showing off this new toy before it becomes normal like cell phones.  I liked looking at my friends in 3D because it felt a little more realistic because you get a little more immersed when looking at these 3D Pictures.  This is the same intended effect that movies in 3D seem to try to produce and I know that “Avatar” definitely accomplished that.  I remember when I went to see “Avatar” in 2D a few weeks ago that It was torture knowing what the 3D was like and not being able to see it in 3D made me almost want to leave the theater and walk into a 3D viewing, but I did not do this because I noticed the colors were a little different.  The colors seemed richer and slightly brighter in the non-3D version.  I remember reading articles that the Dolby 3D projection had better or different color variations then other digital 3D projection systems.  I had no way of validating this because I wasn’t sure what kind of Projection Systems that I was seeing but I know that they used RealD glasses (excluding the IMAX version).  It might have been Sony or Texas Instrumental based projection equipment, however I never asked the theater employees about the projectors because it didn’t seem important at the time.  I wasn’t really a fan of projectors as far as the home consumer market is concerned, but to think about a dual projector or even a 4K projector was always mind boggling.  I started wondering about showing my pictures to people again and the only way that I could truly show them was with the screen of the camera.  There had to be a better and somewhat portable way to achieve this so I decided that it was time to investigate this even more thoroughly!

Even More 3D Anaglyph Pictures!

                                   Yes!!!Even more anaglyph 3D Photos for your enjoyment!

A Relapse of the W1!

Here is a few 2D pictures of the W1!

The Essence of Winter!

The essence of winter could be truly felt with the brisk cold temperatures and the month of February slowly approaching.  I was beginning to notice that the gigabytes on my computer where adding up and memory management for my 3D an 2D cameras where together more that hundred gigabytes and I wanted to back up the files to DVD-R discs but the idea always seems easier than it really is.  I will eventually get a 1 terabyte USB external HDD but I always like to have a copy on DVD-R as well.  The pictures would be split up to 4 gigabyte per disc and then I will have to figure out where to store all of these discs.  I started to look around me and noticed that books and junk were slowly building up around my computer.  I almost feel like a hoarder with all of these nonessential items.  I remember one of my old roommates from college was going to school to be an architect and he was also a minimalist.  I always wondered how he could basically live without anything except a few tools and some furniture.  I have various media and games other things around me that I knew I could do without but for some reason I have to own these things.  My uncle is sort of crazy and hordes newspapers until he can’t see out the window or even sit in his car.  I look in his room and it is a wall of faded newspapers.  Now I know that this is because something is wrong with him in general, but it makes a great example.  I wish I wasn’t a movie or video game fanatic because I probably would have lot more money to put towards projects.  I like it when it is cold out because I don’t want to go outside and the insect population is down and the spiders haven’t begun multiplying yet.  Thinking about these things makes me apply better methods for memory management.  Sometimes our computer desktop or hard drives gets so cluttered it can become a problem.  I find it is best to copy the DCIM file from the SD cards that I use in the W1 incase if I decide to recopy the card I want it the way it was originally.  I figure I could create custom cards in order to show people the best of 3D collection.  I looked around me again just to see memory cards and DVD-R discs just continuing to grow.  How are people going to start learning the process of memory management?  It is like assuming that people think that a new digital camera comes with a memory card or don’t even understand that you need a memory card in the first place.  If you buy a video camera that records to a SD card you better start think about memory management and the process of keeping the files that are perfectly digitally mastered for future use.  Will there be or is there a considered etiquette or methodology for the art of memory management?  Is it possible to use so much memory that we forget about the stuff around the computer?  Will we have so much junk on our computer that we will eventually forget what is really important?  They way I saw it that there is going to be more snow and obviously more pictures and seemingly more HDD space wasted.  I even thought about driving and taking pictures from the car.  It is like the deer hunters who are so lazy that they shoot the deer from their vehicle instead of going into the woods.  I was on a mission to get pictures of geese to see if I can a better picture of an ever-populating goose than the demo picture I saw prior to purchasing the W1.

Into the New Year!

The New Year was about to happen and I found some old fireworks and was preparing to set them off slightly after midnight.  I made sure I made empty beer bottles readily available to assist me in with the small bottle rockets that I had besides a few sparklers.  I wondered what fireworks might look like in 3D.  Not big ones because they would be too far away but sparks that were relatively close would possibly look cool.  I didn’t take any pictures of fireworks just some random pictures around the television.  There was no party happening so I really didn’t have any subjects to photograph.  I was a little depressed about not having or even attending a new year’s party this year so I just thought about ideas of a scavenger list of photos that might be interesting.  I also had a feeling that more snow was a good possibility so I definitely wanted outstanding snow pictures.  I started wondering about if the possibility would ever exist for printing these photos or how cool would it be to show 3D photos on a screen at a 3D movie theater prior to a movie beginning.  I know some theaters either do slide shows or have some kind of commercial programming at least twenty minutes prior to the show time.  I remember some advertisements that I have seen for putting advertisements prior to movies, but unfortunately with some saturation of higher end advertisement campaigns that someone’s individual add will appear on the movie screen before anybody even sits in their seats.  I did ran a few advertisements during the summertime of a picture that I had taken a few years prior as an experimental idea to get people to maybe find it on YouTube with their mobile device or at their home computer.  My personal campaign was with good effort and the results were lackluster.  My photo got published within a local section of a major newspaper and was nice to hear from family members about it and the good results that came from the enjoyment of viewing the photo.  I wanted to place my special cloud photo on the screen prior to a movie but I decided I would place the photo in a “fan bill” that was available at a couple movie theaters within two states.  I also placed the image in a tourist booklet than ran in multiple locations at the Jersey shore.  I felt that I got a little experience in the field of advertising.  I ran the article in July and August.  The person for the “fan bill” told me that the time already passed for exceptions approvals but since I had the image ready for their printers from getting in ready in Photoshop (I only added text and created the proper size, file, and color requirements) and just emailed it to the lady praying that they would run it anyway.  I knew that they would like the image plus advertisements were decreasing with the stock market and economy being at a low so I figured that they needed the money.  They next day I got an email saying that they will run the picture and I knew it was on.  I was excited to sit before the movie began and to see my advertisement.  I also knew that I could walk around various shops at the Jersey shore and see it on the local tourist magazines almost at every other tourist attraction.  These advertisements that I ran happened before any information about the W1 was even readily available.  I spent a little over two thousand dollars to run the advertisements in hope of getting more traffic to my you tube site but it was an unsuccessful attempt but was fun to show people the picture anyway because it felt cool that shop owners and some visitors inquired about the picture and happened to be a little confused but slightly amazed by it.  I wanted for people to be able to see my 3D pictures but didn’t have a clue about truly achieving that goal.  I thought that this might be one of my New Year resolutions.  The ball was about the drop, so I got a beer bottle ready for the bottle rockets and it was the beginning of the year 2010 which was relevantly the year of the consumer 3D revolution.

Some Regular Pictures of Anaglyph Glasses!

Here are some regular 2D pictures of the various anaglyph glasses that I have acquired!

The first showing!

The Holidays had arrived and I got the small picture frame set up on the table, the Blu-Ray player was up and running, the multitude of glasses were readied to be handed out and I couldn’t wait.  The pictures that I had converted might not have been the best pictures in general but I know some day I will have great pictures to show and that day will be coming soon.  I had chips, pretzels and cheese on the main coffee table near the television for the coming viewers and in the dining room I had carving roast beef, lasagna, eggplant parmigiana, green beans with almonds, chicken marsala, caesar salad, dinner rolls and some hot roasted peppers for all the guests to enjoy.  I didn’t prepare any of these culinary items because I had someone that I knew take care of the food category.  I figured if everyone could eat something good that it might enhance their 3D viewing.  My family members started to arrive around seven thirty and got some beverages and began talking amongst themselves.  I was almost ready to start showing some pictures but I wanted everyone to get comfortable.  The time started to go by fast and it was an hour into the party and some friends had also arrived and I got too anxious so I started giving everybody around the TV the inexpensive glasses from the other side of the world.  I started to start the slideshow and it was quite comical to see everyone wearing the glasses.  A few guests were impressed but most people thought the 3D wasn’t that great.  I started to get upset and wasn’t sure about this reaction.  I didn’t feel too good about all the effort that I had already invested into this 3D experiment.  What was I doing wrong?  Did people in general not really care about 3D?  Was the world not ready for consumer level 3D?  Will 3D pictures even have a chance in the future?  Will there ever be a 3D camera available for purchase at regular stores?  Did the glasses turn viewers away from the 3D?  Did I just not take good pictures and that they should never even be viewed?  I knew it was time for a drink to make myself feel better from all of these obtrusive thoughts.  I couldn’t figure it out.  The 3D looked perfect with the glasses that I used.  I wasn’t using the glasses that I got the day prior to the party because I liked the ones that I was using when converting my pictures.  The 3D viewing was over and the party resumed as if nothing ever happened.  I needed to think about what I was doing and try to investigate what just happened.  I decided to forget about this for now and that I was just going to wait for the new year to come and will deal with it then.  I loaded up on some of the vast food items and before I knew it everyone was gone and the clean up phase had to begin.  It was a good effort but the results weren’t the results that were expected but it was fun none the less!

Getting Some 3D Glasses!

I left that Wednesday morning to see “Avatar” three times back to back.  The first showing had one of my programmer friends with me.  The second showing I had to fight to stay awake.  The third showing I met with a different friend.  All three showings were max capacity of 3D viewers and it was crazy.  So far I have seen “Avatar” in IMAX 3D four times and I planned to see it in 2D and digital 3D eventually.  I was still waiting for the hundred glasses from china to arrive and I was starting to get worried that they won’t be here on time prior to having guests over for a holiday celebration.  A paper brown package arrived and I was super excited and followed to leave positive feedback for the seller and was ready to show some 3D pictures.  I also figured that I might need more glasses in the future so I immediately placed another order for another hundred anaglyph glasses.  I now could create a CD-R or DVD-R and give the converted pictures with a pair of glasses for future 3D viewers of my 3D pictures.  I was feeling more comfortable about this 3D camera purchase and felt like I was ahead of most people that will be taking 3D pictures in the future.  It was nice to have 3D pictures of family, friends, animals, places, and various oddities.  I also starting thinking that  about a hundred years from now that 3D pictures will so easy to view that the date when picture was taken will be like having a European cell phone Within the United States two years before the cell phone explosion.  I remember as a child traveling various parts of Europe and seeing tons of people talking on little cell phones and even people were faking the action of talking on the cell phones just to look cool.  I didn’t see that happening in the states prior to going on a European adventure.  The cell phone explosion happened around the USA just a few years later and was like the same thing that I saw on my travels.  Could this happen with 3D?  Will the future cellular phones have the same style of screen that my 3D camera has?  Will it be so easy to take a 3D picture or video on the spot?  Will the News eventually go 3D?  I heard about that YouTube was supposed to get ready to do actual 3D to watch on 3D monitors, TVs or even mobile devices.  I started thinking even deeper about what was going to happen when 3D screen material becomes so cheap that it will be on walls at places that you go to visit.  Will clear acrylic screen technology be able to produce a 3D image?  All of these questions and only answers that turn out to be only speculative.  It is fun to think about but also irritating at the same time.  I guess we will eventually figure this out because it is only a matter of time.

Some more pictures!

These are some 3D anaglyph pictures from The Turkey Day Adventure and the first snow!

Before the Big Show!

The holidays were here and it was almost 2010 and I was not a hundred percent ready to show the guests that were coming over in a few days.  About a few weeks prior which was right after the first snowfall I needed to get glasses for everyone that was coming over and I searched the internet and went to eBay and searched for the Nvidia 3D Discover glasses and was surprised not to see any.  I kept searching for anaglyph glasses and stumbled across some lots of them.  I found a seller from China who sold a hundred of them with free shipping for a little over twenty dollars I said this is too good to pass up.  I read the sellers feedback and reviews and saw that the seller was legit and purchased one set of a hundred anaglyph glasses.  I was so happy to be able to give anaglyph glasses with a disc of 3D ready photos to various friends and family.  I was too excited to wait for these glasses and kept a pair of my “Spy Kids 3D” glasses in my pocket with a flash drive of pictures so I could show people at my job.  When I showed a couple of fellow associates the pictures on the computer there were amazed and asked “How did you do this?”  A feeling of joy saturated my emotions and it felt great.  I saw that this could a good path to be involved with this type of technology.  I went over to a digital picture frame that had a USB input and tested the pictures on that and showed some other workers and they thought it was cool.  It seemed that the 3D got people more immersed into the pictures and caused a different kind of reaction then my 2D photos did.  I went out later that day and purchase an inexpensive small picture frame so I could also use that when guest come over during the holidays.  I thought maybe I could print these pictures so I put the flashed drive directly into my printer I had and all I saw was a black screen for a minute so I pulled it out.  I didn’t know what to do about printing so I wasn’t worried about that.  Now the anaglyph glasses were in transit from China and I had the Blu-Ray player set up and also a little picture frame to show a crowd when they came over.  I started to research about printing 3D pictures and saw that there was a place that I could upload my picture and the lenticular prints would be created and shipped for a somewhat of a hefty fee from Tokyo, Japan.  This processed seemed painful so I didn’t want anything to do with it.  I felt like maybe I could find a better solution but none were apparent.  I decided to drive to the local IMAX Theater and purchase a week and a half ahead of time the tickets for James Cameron’s “Avatar” because it was going to be sold out.  I purchased tickets for the first morning show of its released to go with three friends and secured that day off of work and I also purchased three more tickets to go see it three more times back to back on the Wednesday after the initial release.  I thought it was a crazy idea but I had a feeling inside me that it was worth it.  It was a few days before the release of “Avatar” and I had a dream that I met James Cameron and told him about myself.  I wish I could have showed him some 3D pictures because I know he would have appreciated it.  Almost every channel on the television was talking about the massive snow storm that was approaching and it was going to be intense.  The snow arrived and I was nervous about getting to the theater with my two friends so I called the theater just to make sure that they were going to be opened.  The morning came and my one friend with his compact car attempted to get to my house but kept getting stuck.  I called my other friend with an SUV and asked why his wasn’t coming with that instead of waiting for the compact car.  He was hesitant just because it was a new car and decided that he no choice but to get us or we would not make it to the movie.  The snow was dense and there was so much of it.  It was hard to get to my place so I had to walk towards the main road to get picked up.  We stopped at a convenient store to get some goodies and to park the compact car prior to getting in the SUV.  We arrived at the movie twelve minutes prior to starting and the parking lot was not even really plowed and everyone was having trouble so we parked and ran in the theater.  Thank goodness we pre-purchased the tickets because people were being told that the show was sold out.  The ticket was ripped and the 3D glasses were handed to us and we go the last of the perfect center seats that were available and were finally able to take a moment to relax because we made it to the IMAX Theater.  The movie was of pristine 3D quality and was a blast.  I took of my glasses for a minute during the film to see what the parallaxing looked like to get an idea of how the images worked.  I realized the parallaxing was so great that your eye muscles didn’t have work hard or too much compared to the few other 3D films that were out there.  The movie ended and it was time for lunch.  Driving through the snow was not fun but we good some food and I was back at my house to ponder what I saw.  It was kind of nice to have some 3D shooting experience because I felt like I understood the direction 3D was kind of going into.  Now the question was “how do I watch “Avatar” at home in 3D”.  I didn’t even want to think how long that was going to be.  I went out the next day and got some snow pictures in the morning and surprisingly got some decent results.

The Turkey Day Adventure!

I want to tell you about the morning of Thanksgiving Day of 2009 and how I just put the parade on the television and new it was time to get the turkey in the oven.  It was my actual first turkey that I was cooking because every other year somebody else cooked the meal for everyone.  I wasn’t cooking for a party so I didn’t need a lot of food so I just kept it simple for a few people.  I have cooked many chickens prior to this day and figured that the functionality of the turkey had to be very similar to that of a chicken.  I decided to cook the turkey just like I did with the chickens using my general recipe.  I used an oven bag to put the turkey in after adding the proper items to bring flavor to the bird.  I used olive oil with salt and pepper on the entirety of the turkey.  I placed rosemary, sage, thyme and some variously chopped onions on and in the turkey.  I used some dried stuffing mix inside and around the turkey to fill the remainder of the room that was available by the pan and cut a small hole in the top of the oven bag after tying it and it was time to put the turkey into the oven.  I believe I had the oven set somewhere around 350 Fahrenheit similar to when I cooked my chickens and I knew I had some to time to kill so it was perfect to go on an adventure to get some 3D pictures.  I came up with a plan to follow a path through the woods into an adjacent neighborhood to get some pictures and I knew I had to do a little trespassing in order to be successful.  I grabbed the W1 and knew it was time to put that wrist strap on and get a good grip on the camera and travel up the street to a hidden path way that a few people knew and that deer often travel.  I started taking photos on the pathway just to make sure everything was working before continuing on.  I make it near the end of the path and I could see that I was next to the back yards of a few houses.  I struggled through some terrain and made it through the yard into this slightly peculiar neighborhood.  It wasn’t the best built neighborhood and not every house was at it seemed to be.  I felt like I was some kind of journalist because I knew the history of the area and wished that more money was used to create better houses, sewers, or other things that I will not mention.  So I started clicking away and I noticed a garage door opened and a strange man in partial hunting gear exited his garage quite oddly.  I was getting paranoid and thought he was coming after me.  Then I got scared and got the hell out of there vowing never to return because it seemed like it could be dangerous.  I cut through another yard and terrain to get back on the path and secretly watched the man standing strangely between two houses like a zombie.  I almost wanted to take a picture of this event but thought it was unnecessary.  I started thinking all of these crazy things and realized I can’t be involved with this place regardless of the situation and headed back to home base.  It was an excellent field test for the camera and had now I experienced how to move fast and hold the camera properly when in stealth mode.  I got home and get myself a nice beverage to compliment the holiday and started to calm down and feel good.  I decided that the next thing to do is to transfer the pictures to anaglyph to see my results of The Turkey Day Adventure!

The first snow trial!

The first real snow had touched the ground and it actually felt like December.  I was proud to take 3D pictures of this because snow always got me excited.  I was like a young kid again with a new toy to play with.  I added up the pictures and saw that I took almost eight gigabytes of pictures so far but it was worth every memory amount just because a great 3D picture made the effort worth it.  I went around to some different spots in the woods to take some snow pictures.  It wasn’t really an exciting event and there wasn’t enough light or snow to justify the effort.  I was not happy because I could not get any really good snow pictures so I went back inside and decided to do some post-production work on the computer.  I started thinking that the holidays were approaching and that there will be some family members and friends coming to my home and I thought it would be a great time to show everyone the 3D pictures when they came over.  I didn’t have too many anaglyph glasses or really anyway to show everyone without using the computer.  I went out and purchased a relatively inexpensive Blu-Ray player to replace the HD-DVD player and I added a longer HDMI cable to compliment the player.  I could now put the anaglyph pictures on a disc and display them on the 720P television in my family room.  It was sad to say “goodbye” to my HD-DVD player but it knew the time would eventually come.  When I first saw a movie on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray it felt like the first time I saw a Laserdisc film when I was younger.  The HD-DVD versus the Blu-Ray war was actually a good thing for the consumer market even though it seemed like a bad thing and that it was an annoyance because when Toshiba made the executive decision to allow Sony to rule the High-Definition market a lot of people felt like they wasted their money on an already obsolete technology.  The HD-DVD was region free so you could order “Brother Hood of the Wolf” from France and watch it with little (correctly choosing English in the beginning) or no problems at all.  The Blu-Ray was not region free but you could find region free Blu-Rays on the internet and watch them with ease.  The main reason why this war of the 1080p movies was good because Toshiba poured an insane amount of money into solid state research and development.  This only meant that memory cards were going to get bigger and cheaper very quickly.  The ability to show JPEGS from a DVD-R on a Blu-Ray device was great because it showed the picture at optimal quality.  I was getting closer to my goal of showing other people these pictures almost like it was going my first art exhibition.  Unfortunately I still didn’t have any really impressive pictures to boast about but that day was sure to come.

The W1 in action!

I was living the dream of taking 3D photos out in the field.  The processing didn’t seem to be too fast but patience was a virtue with the W1 camera.  Holding the camera was awkward because you had to realize that it was easy to get your fingers over the right lens because it was immediately below the main button of the camera.  I had to slide the front down to get ready to shoot then slide it back up and it fit into my pockets when I was moving to another location. If my pockets were smaller like some other pants that I owned it could have been a problem fitting the camera into my pants.  I didn’t always place it into my pockets because I found it more convenient to hold it tightly with the wrist strap when I was in motion.  Getting a good 3D picture wasn’t easy because if things were moving and I didn’t have the flash on the images were usually blurred.  If I used the flash regardless of the situation it helped with the blur.  The camera was not ideal in low light situations because the focus might not be accurate and you can notice on the computer the limitations of the quality that was produced by the camera.  It seemed that three out of ten photos came out good but the more light the better the image was.  Sunny days looked beautiful and late nights were not so good.  A great 3D photo was worth all of the trouble that that camera seemed to have.  I kind of got this feeling from the reviews that I found on the internet but I wanted 3D so bad I could taste it.  I decided to test out the video with this camera and it wasn’t bad.  There was some ghosting but it was 3D standard definition video.  I thought it would be so cool to make a short film with the 3D but I had no idea how to edit the actual 3D video.  Taking the video was a hit or miss with the W1.  If an image was too close it looked like it was split up or out of focus but if it was just right like within around three feet in front of you it looked great.  Viewing the video was neat to see on the camera but not as good as the photos.  You had to be cautious because the way buttons were set up you had to hit the view button then select the video and press down to view it but you don’t want to hit the down button again because it will erase the video when it was playing.  This was a feature that I hated and I was glad that I read about it within the PDF file before using the camera.  I went to my computer and transferred the files to it because I wanted to watch the video with “StereoMovie Maker” to see what it looked like.  The anaglyph video quality was not that great compared to the pictures but was kind of cool.  I noticed that audio quality of the video was excellent compared to my other digital cameras.  The 3D video files were 3D-AVI files which were another format that I never saw prior to using this camera.  I converted the video to anaglyph and it quadrupled the file’s size and was split up if it reached a little more than two gigabytes of file space.  This was annoying to realize another memory managing conundrum.  I could edit the anaglyph video files with decent video editing software but did I really want to shoot a video for anaglyph when ten minutes was going to be more than eight gigabytes to preserve the original quality!  This wasn’t really bad compared to other uncompressed or 1080P video files out there in the world but still needed to be downsized and compressed for DVD unless it was designated for a Blu-Ray burn.  After vigorously viewing these pictures and video I realized that sometimes taking photos or footage of objects or subjects that were red or blue caused problems when seeing them when converted to anaglyph.  This was just another thing to think about when shooting with a 3D camera.

Continuation from the first set of photos!

Grab your anaglyph glasses and take a look at these color anaglyph photos that are a continuation from the first set of 3D photos!