Life Is 3D

I love finding “accidental stereos” – one of my happy places was always Big Tree Park in Longwood, just a little north of me here in Orlando FL. It was home to The Senator, the oldest living thing east of the Mississippi, a 3,500-year-old(!) bald cypress tree 125 feet high. That is until 2012, when a careless crackhead burned it completely down while lighting up inside the trunk. The above photo is an accidental stereo pair I took before I was into 3D.

The above photos are from drone footage (sequential frame grabs), showing what the site looks like today. Some of the remains of the great tree have been turned into pieces of art.

And here’s a really old 2D photo showing The Senator’s true scale, 17 feet in diameter, since my ‘accidental’ shot is a little on the hyper-stereo side, which makes everything look smaller.

I’ve now found 3 different photos showing Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall inspecting his Stereo Realist while on location filming The African Queen; perhaps he is instructing her on how to use it when he’s busy acting with Hepburn? Boy, I would love to see those pictures!

Beautiful scenery was all around Mistakes? We made a ton of them on a recent trip to coastal Maine & Acadia National Park, a destination everyone should plan on visiting. Check out these & other 3D photos from the trip

While reading a book on The Three Stooges recently (never let it be said that I don’t pursue academic interests), I came across a nice offstage view of Moe Howard and his wife Helen, walking arm-in-arm enjoying a little time off from a comedy tour he was on in the early 1950s

Besides being a great picture, there was nothing to notice out of the ordinary, but what caught my eye before turning the page was the shape of the camera case he’s holding. It looked suspiciously long, like perhaps it might hold a stereo 3D camera! Time to investigate

Upon closer inspection, I realized that the stitching & leather pattern is identical to one I own, my trusty Stereo Realist. To verify this, I contacted Moe’s son Paul, a wonderfully talented caricature artist whose work & information can be found on his website Caricatures By Paul. He told me that his father did indeed shoot some family & recreational photos in 3D stereo.

Here’s Moe in action, demonstrating his superior eye-poking and pie-throwing skills from one of only two 3D films the Stooges ever made, “Spooks” (the other was “Pardon My Backfire”)

I really enjoyed “Prometheus”, and seeing it in 3D is HIGHLY recommended. It’s nice to see a film shot in native 3D for a change. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad there’s so many movies coming out in 3D these days, but plenty of it is converted-from-2D, which leaves much to be desired in terms of a quality image. While I have seen a few excellent conversions, you quickly see the difference in “Prometheus”, where you can make out every drop of sweat standing out on an actor’s brow!