Workroom Panorama
When I returned home from work yesterday, I took a panorama with my digital image capturing device from the doorway of my workroom (it moved to a new, undisclosed location with a better view, more natural light, and a less cave-like feel). This time I went crazy and snapped fifteen shots! Unfortunately, I was rushed because the exposure time was eight seconds long and I was quickly losing light. Plus, I was doing about eight other things at the same time.
Fritz, my poor salvaged computer, moaned as he assembled the images. I worried he was going to overheat and collapse from the stress, but the little guy completed his mission. The final assembled image was about 7 by 4 feet! Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, that’s over 90 megapixels!
The final result isn’t very good: the composition is horrible, the lighting is bad, and the focal point is an uninteresting empty office chair. Also, do to the position of the camera relative to the desk, it looks like photograph is split down the middle. However, this is only my second attempt at this — I’m hoping to fail better next time. Perhaps I should research this technique instead of just ignorantly diving in.
Whenever I try something new, I always fail numerous times before I get something decent and there are many more attempts after that before I get something I’m moderately happy with. I’m very stubborn, so I refuse to give up. I’m also a perfectionist that doesn’t believe in the concept of perfection, so I try to do better than the time before. I’m very critical, especially about my own work. I’m glad I’m not confident in my abilities because studies have shown that people who are, do things badly.1
I have a glorious three-day weekend. Along with tackling the enormous pile of things I need to do, I plan on taking a few panoramas. I’d really like to take one of someone’s body. If anyone out there, who can lie very still (nudity is not required), is interested, please contact me.
1 I mentioned and link to a couple interesting articles about this and how messy people are more creative in my report Self-Deprecating Slobs Rule from February of 2007.
Filed Under: Panoramas! + Photography
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Norman's Ridge Panorama
Norman’s Ridge in the Adirondacks [click for a larger view]
Sunday, on my way back to Vermont, I stopped at my parents’ house to pick up some of my crap (I have crap everywhere, even in places I don’t know), walk around the woods, and use the facilities (aka the woods).
While I was there I went up to Norman’s Ridge, which is behind my parents’ house. This is one of my favorite places on earth. The view is spectacular. Photographs or words don’t do it justice. It’s one of the only places in the Adirondacks that one can get a 360° view (the photo above is only the eastern view) without climbing a mountain. The best time to go up there is at night. There isn’t any light pollution so you can see the stars very clearly — you feel like you’re in the sky. It’s amazing.
The photograph above is my first attempt at creating a panorama. I took six photographs and merged them in Photoshop. It’s not the greatest but I learned a few things and I’ll definitely be doing more of these.