What got you into lasers?

[m0f]

Expo 86 in Vancouver, they had an exhibit on lasers and compared to todays standards a very basic laser graphics demonstration and a nightly outdoor beam show and cloud scanned logo during the fireworks. The outdoor laser was an argon about the size of a truck, not sure of the power level but likely not much compared to todays standards.

That piqued my interest and soon I did a report in Grade 6 I think on lasers, along with an animation I made in autodesk animator on the school's apple II A year later I convinced my parents to buy me a 5mW hene and I was hooked. It came with a book which had some projects such 3 mirror motor, mirror / speaker and home made galvo scanner builds. I worked through those and then got into holography for a year or so, I think around grade 8 or 9.

Couldn't really go much further at the time due to the costs of laser hardware in those days but stayed an interested in the back of mind for many years. Eventually stumbled on an 18mW green pointer (at the time quite expensive and rare), of course quickly got bored of pointing and so took it apart to turn it into a lab laser and dug out the old 3 mirror motor builds and such, and a few other projects.

Then a couple of years later saw an 350mW (50mW 532nm, 300mW 658nm) rgy chinese laser for sale and bought it. Disappointed with the stepper motor scanners and general performance I took it apart and modified a bit, but never really was happy it. I knew about ilda and pangolin, but just couldn't afford it at the time.

Then the fb3 came out and as soon as I discovered that I built a 1W rgb. Not too long after completion a friend convinced me to bring it out to his night club shows. As no variance is needed in Canada, I eventually agreed to give it a try, though anxious as was extremely paranoid of the potential dangers and had built that laser with the intention of a hobby rather than a business, but thanks to photonlexicon I had fully researched safety techniques such as aperture masking and was able to take it on with some level of comfort.

It spread word of mouth from there and pretty much immediately was in the laser show business. As business picked up, I just kept building as funds allowed. And has steadily increased over the last number of years.

[Bradfo69]

Can't believe I haven't chimed in yet. As a kid, I did have an interest in most things scientific... chemistry, electronics, geology, astronomy, (I also knew some astronauts personally - Jim Lovell & Pete Conrad) that sort of thing and... I also developed in interest in lighting.

At maybe 10 years old, I was turned on to things like blacklights and strobe lights and some of the other cool stuff they sold at Spencers. The blacklights initially were for my rock collection since I had some the fluoresced. I eventually decorated my bedroom with various lights and started making my own "light show" to music by coming up with a sequence of turning them on and off. I'm not certain when I actually saw my first laser though. It could have been Laserium at the London Planetarium or, it could have been a Rush concert in the early 80's or, I may have even seen one at a place like the Franklin Institute. But one light I bought was this thing at spencers that was supposed to replicate a laser light show. I know it was a mirror attached to two rubber bands and reflecting what looked like a tungsten filament behind a colored gel wheel, that vibrated to music. Pretty lame for $99 and as a kid that young saving up $100 to buy it and having it turn out looking like crap was disappointing.

I basically got out of all of that after maybe high school and didn't revisit it until 5 years ago when I paid a DJ to do lighting for a concert event I was promoting. When I saw what he brought for what I had paid him, I decided to start buying some of my own and got par lights, dmx controller, stands, etc. And finally in looking through the lighting section of eBay found a little Chauvet spirograph laser that I won for $65. That led to a 220mw RGV which lead to a 800mw RGB, which led to PL and SELEM and, my life and finances have gone to shit ever since... Come to think of it... I haven't gotten laid since I got into lasers. Coincidence?

[m0f]

I can't believe I forgot about that. I too got into strobe lights and those cheap lighting effects at an early age before my first laser. Always was interested in lighting.

[absolom7691]

I too got into strobe lights and those cheap lighting effects at an early age before my first laser. Always was interested in lighting.

Same here. Electronic Goldmine was an awesome place for me when I was younger. They were one of the few places that sold xenon tubes, trigger coils, SCRs and photoflash caps.

[Lazerjock]

When I was 12 I saw my first laser show near my home town. It was outside projected on the side of a building for a festival that was going on. After that I sought them out seeing Laser Floyd, any planetarium show I could find even a traveling laser show in a tent at the fair. I started saving money and when I was 16 I bought a 5mw HeNe instead of a car. I actually made some money with it at the local haunted house.
While in college I worked at the Ohio Science Center where I got to play with every laser in the building. Since then every job I've ever had has been working with lasers, either entertainment, military or medical. I love them!
I suspect I will grow up and get a real job someday....Lol.
Chris

[SaltyRobot]

even a traveling laser show in a tent at the fair.
Chris

You may have seen a show my Dad did then. He was a laserist for Laser Presentations Inc. for many years. They were based in Ohio but went to just about every state especially the east coast. They had an inflatable dome with bean bag chairs inside and did the fair circuit throughout the year. I was young when he was doing that, so I only have a few memories, but I do have very fond memories of him making the shows in the basement of our house and recording patterns on the reel to reel. When they did the shows the majority of the content was live, so no two shows were alike and the type of show you got depended on who was performing that night. So fair to say that is what got me pulled into lasers. They were always around, we never got rid of the equipment, and from time to time through out the years we pulled all the stuff out and played with it.

[digiassn]

Inflatable dome with bean bag chair laser show. That's so awesome. A laser nerds wet dream

[JohnYayas]

You may have seen a show my Dad did then. He was a laserist for Laser Presentations Inc. for many years. They were based in Ohio but went to just about every state especially the east coast. They had an inflatable dome with bean bag chairs inside and did the fair circuit throughout the year. I was young when he was doing that, so I only have a few memories, but I do have very fond memories of him making the shows in the basement of our house and recording patterns on the reel to reel. When they did the shows the majority of the content was live, so no two shows were alike and the type of show you got depended on who was performing that night. So fair to say that is what got me pulled into lasers. They were always around, we never got rid of the equipment, and from time to time through out the years we pulled all the stuff out and played with it.

They had an inflatable dome laser show at the NC State Fair for years. That's where I saw my first laser show. My brother and I went in expecting to see some kind of cool laser demonstration and were surprised that it was a rock and roll light show. We actually walked out because we thought it was stupid. I was probably around 12 then and my brother was younger. Some older guys made fun of us as we were leaving asking if we were scared. haha. Anyway, I wasn't too impressed at the time although I did go back and see the whole show many years later.

[Lazerjock]

You may have seen a show my Dad did then. He was a laserist for Laser Presentations Inc. for many years. They were based in Ohio but went to just about every state especially the east coast. They had an inflatable dome with bean bag chairs inside and did the fair circuit throughout the year. I was young when he was doing that, so I only have a few memories, but I do have very fond memories of him making the shows in the basement of our house and recording patterns on the reel to reel. When they did the shows the majority of the content was live, so no two shows were alike and the type of show you got depended on who was performing that night. So fair to say that is what got me pulled into lasers. They were always around, we never got rid of the equipment, and from time to time through out the years we pulled all the stuff out and played with it.

That's really cool! It was an inflatable tent but there weren't any bean bag chairs you just sat on the floor, it was also the middle of the afternoon though and they my not have been put out yet. My cousin and I were the only two in there. I remember they played 2 songs, both were color abstract shows. One was Guns n Roses-Welcome to the Jungle. At the end they wrote the company name in script. I can't remember the name though.

Chris

[SaltyRobot]

That's really cool! It was an inflatable tent but there weren't any bean bag chairs you just sat on the floor, it was also the middle of the afternoon though and they my not have been put out yet. My cousin and I were the only two in there. I remember they played 2 songs, both were color abstract shows. One was Guns n Roses-Welcome to the Jungle. At the end they wrote the company name in script. I can't remember the name though.

Chris

Things keep matching up. Especially writing in script. Sounds like you saw their show.

Since it was a fair you would pay like $5 or something and get 2-3 songs. My dad never liked the idea because they were limited to 3.5 min songs. The boss always wanted 2-3 songs and never wanted to go over 10 minutes per group to keep the fair crowd flowing. So they were never able to do longer Pink Flyod and Led Zepplin songs. Not to say they did nothing with those groups just couldn't do the longer songs.

@JohnYayas
Yeah they probably did make fun of you for leaving. LOL. The guy that ran the door every year for those shows with my dad is a close personal friend now. He would tell me that to keep him self entertained he would wear a cone head mask while he was doing the barking for the show. For what ever reason the women loved it. He would stand on top of the ticket booth at times and poke fun at people while they walked by. Pretty much did what ever it took to get people through the door. They also had a HeNe laser on top of the ticket booth, so when it got dark they could shine it on people. Back then many people had never seen a laser before so it was like shining a laser in front of a cat.