From the Director - 26 May 06

With the unusual weather we have been having the last few months, it seems like spring has come and gone several times already. But, with the first day of spring actually here its time we dust off our cameras and start planning this year's photo excursions. As always there are plenty of things to photography in the Upper Midwest Region, but there is just something about spring that makes us want to get out and do something. The spring meeting for the NAS-UMR is only a month away, so check out the information below and plan on attending.

If you like to live, breath, and drink in 3D photography you must attend the NSA National Convention for 2006 in Miami, Florida. The conventions are always the best of times, so if at all possible make your way down to Miami this summer. Click on the link, and start making your plans to attend. July is not that far away!

We have several local craftspeople that are making stereo photo items that you can see on our Local Suppliers page.

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions for improvements on this page, please let me know.

Tom Martin, NSA UMR Regional Director (Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, & North Dakota)

email: tlmartin@bitstream.net

Best of the Best for Spring

Spring is always a busy season with taxes, Easter, Earth Day, Mother's Day, Spring Opener, fishing opener, and a dozen other events. Of course you need to make time for our Spring NSA UMR meeting as our main presentation will be the 2005 PSA Stereo Sequence Competition. Stereo photo sequences from 2 to 18 images will be presented from all over the world. But don't be intimidated by the competition, we will still have our open projector segment for 35mm format slides, so please bring any slides that you would like to share with our group.

The meeting will be held in the classroom of the Roseville National Camera Exchange store, Saturday April 22nd, from 2 pm. to 4 p.m.. The store is located on Fairview Avenue, just west of the Roseville Mall, in Roseville. If you need directions, please contact the store at (651) 636-0693, or contact Tom Martin at (763) 591-9453.

Winter Meeting Highlighted View-Master Format Stereo

Still a viable stereo format, we featured our Winter meeting stereo theater and open projector in View-Master format. The feature presentation was the 2005 NSA National Convention stereo theater's first place winner for best stereo show "The Strange Case of Dr. Addison and the Crosswell Twins" by Christopher Schneberger. This was Christopher's first entry to the theater, and the interesting storyline and technical quality made the presentation an award winner. The open projector also brought a number of View-Master reels from several of our members which were warmly welcomed by the group.

It was a good time, with lots of discussions on many topics. Definitely worth the effort to brave the cold and attend a meeting. Let's see you at the next meeting!

Minnesota Stereo Photography Club (MSPC)

We had our first meeting of the MSPC on Thursday, February 23rd at the Roseville NCE, and it was quite fun. The meeting was much more informal than the regular NSA UMR meetings with most of the evening being small group discussions of various stereo photo topics. If you would like more information on the group, join the free Yahoo group MNStereo at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mnstereo/ and click on the join group link. After joining the group you can participate in the discussions, learn more about the types of stereo photography other local stereographers are doing, and get answers to your 3D photo questions.

Here are a few photos of evening.

NSA UMR meetings are held every third month on a Saturday. MSPC meetings are held monthly during weekday evenings, and in conjunction with the NSA UMR meetings during the months that they have their meetings. Check here for the exact dates and times.

MSPC meeting June 8 - Location: National Camera Exchange in Burnsville, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
NSA-UMR Summer meeting - 29 July - Location: National Camera Exchange in Edina, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
NSA-UMR Fall meeting - 28 October - Location: TBD

For more information on the National Stereoscopic Association see the NSA Home page.