The Five and Dime

3-D movies are all the rage again and people are rushing to get their movies out on the big screen. Of course we’re talking about the 3-D where you put on glasses and the movie has realistic, or sometimes fantastic, depth to them. (There is another type of 3-D movie where the imagery is computer generated using 3-D modeling techniques, but that is another discussion. The recent Toy Story is an example that uses both 3-D types.)

That Pavilion at Olbrich Gardens in Madison using "cross-eyed" 3-D viewing technique (click to enlarge.) To view in 3-D, simply sit in front of the photo and cross your eyes. A combined 3-D image should form in the middle. (It takes a little practice and some people have a hard time making it work.) The web link has anaglyphic photos - red-blue glasses needed. www.GunterAgency.com/3d

I’ve actually been playing around with 3-D imagery since I was a kid.

I used to draw two images and then do the “magic eye” or “cross-eyed” trick to blend them into one. Later on my brother got a copy of Grand Funk’s Shinin’ On album, complete with 3-D artwork and anaglyphic glasses, and I started playing around using red and blue markers to create 3-D images.

Back around 2000, we did a holiday card for the agency that was sent out with 3-D glasses. It gave a link to an interactive, animated 3-D website. It was of “Santa’s Workshop” and when you clicked on one of the toys, they would move in 3-D space. To our knowledge, we were the first company in the world to create an interactive 3-D website.

We’ve been shooting 3-D photos for several years and today we are currently working on a 3-D Wisconsin book (with plans of other states down the road.) If you have suggestions for photos to be included, let us know. We’ll be doing both natural landscapes and tourist attractions.

To see some of our 3-D pictures, you can go to a special section of the agency website – www.GunterAgency.com/3d. You will need red-blue anaglyphic glasses. (Send me an email or give me a call, I can send some in the mail.)