Panorama-orama

Some days it is good to just have a fun shooting day.  Yesterday was that for me, and one thing I wanted to play with was panoramic shots.  There is a bit of a learning curve, but also lots of resources to make decent shots come together.

Panoramic images are a lot of fun to look at, but to do them well is often labor intensive.  Of course, there are apps for phone panoramas, which is great fun.  Here is my son playing in downtown Dallas, captured in the middle of an iPhone panorama shot.  Click through to flickr to see the full size photo.


A few attempts with the iPhone show its limitations, but if you have a very static scene and a steady hand, it is fun.

Later in the evening I took a 4-image shot across the downtown skyline from a different spot.  I had a 5D and 50mm lens with me, so the detail is good, but not great.  Again, click through to flickr to see it up close.  The vertical line about 1/3 in from the right is not a merging artifact, it is a light pole on the bridge where I was shooting.


This was automatically merged together quickly with Photoshop's automated photomerge option.  If it were a daytime shot, the problems would be easier to spot.  And there are always problems to correct.

Finally...   to see how it is really done, read through this post about creating a gigapixel pano of San Francisco with amazing detail.  It also highlights some good info on the how-to side of things.

Have a great Friday!

Marge and the moon

I was in the neighborhood of the Margaret Hunt-Hill Bridge this evening, which warranted some quick pics.


The occasion was a creative Circle Meetups gathering and presentation by Austin Mann.  To say he does good work is an understatement.

Most of the conversation revolved around storytelling and creative work for nonprofit and faith-based organizations, which is exactly where I want to be, so that was great.

The other thing that grabbed my interest was Mann's work on "motion fine art."  The idea of high definition screens as art displays is not new, but the idea of fine art with a time/motion element thrown in is intriguing.  The possibilities are quite endless.  Wouldn't have to be video, per se.  Digital mixed-media.  Or something.

Here is one of Mann's creations.
Covet from Austin Mann on Vimeo.

Quick Pic - Lightning in Dallas

Our room in the new-baby section at Methodist Hospital in Dallas has a great view of the Dallas central business district, so when a nice spring thunderstorm rolled through, it made a great first shared photo experience for me with our new baby Joshua.

Missed a lot as always with lightning, but you have to take advantage of unique photo opportunities, right?

And the results.. nice!




I had debated bringing the Gorillapod, assuming I would shoot most everything hand-held. I'm glad I did!

Don J.

Quick Pics - More Reunion Arena

Do you ever get sort of attached to a photo project a little more than you thought you would? I have no real affinity for Reunion Arena, but having watched it go from intact building to a mangled wreck, I now feel drawn to the place.

Of course, after a while, all of the photos start to look the same. The idea then, is to find new details and new angles to shoot from. (a full set of my Reunion shots here on Flickr)

Mangled twisted rebar... interesting...

Framing the shot within the photo is usually a nice touch. This has also been massively adjusted in Lightroom because I wanted the funky colors.

Walking farther than on previous visits gave me a shot of the arena with part of the skyline behind, and the Reunion Blvd. exit sign below.... I thought it was going to work better but it just turned out OK.

I thought this picture of the stairs would be neat, but after looking at it I think the broken glass and debris are what make it interesting.

Without any people to give scale to the size of the place, the machinery has to do the job. The area that looks like a ramp is a stairway covered in rubble. Where the equipment is sitting would have been blocked by the upper seating bowl.

I bought a used truck (new to me!) earlier in the week, so I wanted some tough looking truck shots... this was my favorite, with the sun doing some nice highlighting to pop it out from the background. You have to watch out for reflections in the shiny parts though...

Have a great weekend, everybody (and go make some pictures!)

Happy Shooting,

don J

Quick Pics - Reunion Arena

I mentioned a while back that I was occasionally taking photos as demolition of Reunion Arena progresses.  For those of you with lots of fond memories of events in this building, it may be sad.  For me, I have some good memories of a few Stars and Sidekicks games, and some concerts as well.  The building itself never really grew on me though.  It has a unique shape and is (soon to be was) a definite landmark, but it wasn't a building to fall in love with.  

As of this morning, it is down to a few seating supports, the roof, and a big hole in the ground.

The workday begins....

Photographic note...  having a person in a shot of something gives a sense of scale.  We can relate to the size of a person and feel how big or small something is.  

The wildlife don't seem to mind one way or the other about the building, as long as the trees remain.  

Happy Shooting,

don j