Went to some places recently.


_MG_7155 by Nikky, on Flickr

Full album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/allynfolksjr/albums/72157655432784464

Some photos from my trip to Vegas! For some reason the park we went to made me decide all I wanted to photograph were panoramas so that's all I got. Stitched together and poorly edited are these following 4 pictures. Oddly enough, these were taken before CES when I discovered the Panono gadget.

Some details on the photos. These were taken with my 24-104mm lens between the 24 and 50mm focal lengths at f/4.0 using a tripod. So while these are pretty big, largest one is 128 megapixels, tomorrow I plan to drive out to the top of a mountain with my 75-300mm lens and zoom all the way in and take a series of photos. Maybe around 50? I may also bracket each shot for exposure and have an HDR panorama where I can really zoom in. I'm not sure how many files Lightroom CC/6 can handle or how big of a pano it's capped at but I also have Photoshop CC so I can make the pano in that if Lightroom fails me.


Red Rock Canyon Pano 1 by Alex Glanville, on Flickr


Red Rock Canyon Pano 2 by Alex Glanville, on Flickr


Red Rock Canyon Pano 4 by Alex Glanville, on Flickr


Red Rock Canyon Pano 3 by Alex Glanville, on Flickr

Why do you hate the rule of thirds? All the gear fetishism in the world can't rescue poorly framed subjects.

I don't. As I said in the post above, I was playing around with making panoramas and I didn't really think about framing or anything. I focused on taking a bunch of photos to create a larger photo. Now that I have some idea how the stitching process works I plan to take a more thought out and prepared panorama. For instance, "Pano 4" had a more information off the right but I failed to take photos of the sky that far over and thus could only, and barely, fit the rock in the frame.

Same with "Pano 2" but I didn't think to take any photos past the trail. Maybe there was some obstacle like a tree or a group of people that could have been avoided had I moved up - which I don't think was the case because I have a pretty long/wide pano that I took on my phone.

Secondly, I really like sky and clouds in my photos. I really like your photo at the top of this page but the lack of sky is certainly a major issue. For example, after "Pano 3" was stitched together I liked the path snaking it's way through the right side of the photo. Cropping it down to follow the rule of thirds would have left out a lot of the sky. Though 3c isn't that bad, as the trail is still in frame, but those clouds are awful.


Red Rock Canyon Pano 3b by Alex Glanville, on Flickr


Red Rock Canyon Pano 3c by Alex Glanville, on Flickr

These aren't the best photos and I was not trying to take good photos. I was experimenting with panoramas. The subject matter is not interesting, the clouds in "Pano 3" are not balanced and other things. "Pano 1" is probably my most favorite one of the four but there is some fisheye-level distortion that I can't get rid of and the lack of foliage in the foreground is off-putting, even if cropped at a proper Rule of Thirds.


Red Rock Canyon Pano 1b by Alex Glanville, on Flickr

I didn't not go out last night like I had intended because the sky had no clouds and the sun would have been in the shot. I am making arrangements to go out Sunday or Monday morning to try a properly done panorama that will leave me with enough room to crop and edit in post but I certainly plan to get it correct in camera and not rely on post-edit crops.

Bird-watching telescope + iPhone = fun.


IMG_3890 by Thomas Dickerson, on Flickr


IMG_3891 by Thomas Dickerson, on Flickr

Really cool! I remember doing something similar with binoculars during a baseball game; speaking of I have tickets to a game in September \o/

Now, my question is. Was this really with a telescope or with a tripod mounted monocular? Or a bird/range spotting scope or something of that nature? My use with telescopes during the day is limited to the one I used in college ~4 years ago but the thing we were looking at was upside down. Since the picture provided by your optics is right side up as evidenced by your reflection in the eye-piece, I suspect this isn't a telescope?

Actually, how did you get that second photo?

Sunset From my Instagram.

Yeah, it was a bird-spotting scope. I'm not actually sure what caused the weird reflection on the second photo - it was possibly the brass around the edge of the scope lens?

I wasn't exactly sure where to post this photo but I decided it wasn't quite a candid photo so it's here. I got myself photographed from an array of 60 cameras and then 3D printed into an 8" figure. I originally ordered a 6" figure but when I learned the height was head-to-toe and not the final height of the model I spent a bit more on the next taller model. So, because I'm kneeling my 6" figure would have been 4" high. Since I wanted a 6" figure I purchased the 8" so I could have a 6" tall figure. Roughly every inch on the figure is 0.77' of myself. Not sure what the ratio would be.

50mm f/1.4. I wasn't paying attention so it was taken at ISO800 which I should have noticed when the shutter speed was so high. Oh well!


Mini Me by Alex Glanville, on Flickr

The detail on that figure is amazing; I'd be curious to know what kind of 3D printing process they're using, not to mention the vision algorithms (SfM, presumably) that go into making the 3D model from the cameras' images.

1:9.24.

Based off my limited 3D printing knowledge, I thought they'd print it then have either a robot or a person paint the figure, since it was going to take a month from data capture to shipping. But upon closer inspection I just don't believe that to be the case. Not only is there tremendous detail in the print but also the paint job and thus I'm pretty sure this was printed in color. A friend of mine found extruder lines or w/e. When I get a chance I'll take some super close ups for you guys.

I didn't think that gif would be so large but I stand by it.


The View by Alex Glanville, on Flickr

I love how easy it is for you to take photographs of yourself with a mini model. eliminates the need for a tripod and timer. now you can literally have the pleasure of photographing yourself.
I need to look into this.

You need to do this next time you go fishing comic: http://imgur.com/gallery/o8V7p

Downy Woodpecker by Nikky, on Flickr

Space: The Final Frontier by Alex Glanville, on Flickr

Getting ready for Friday and Saturday where I'll be out star gazing and attempting to photograph the Milky Way during the New Moon. I kinda wish I had brought out my telescope as a prop instead of another camera but oh well. I still love this photo though.

Been doing some bird photography in Costa Rica!


A toucan....


Rufous tailed hummingbird...


And a "wild turkey" with some weird lighting


I'm hoping to get some better pictures of hummingbirds, heading to cloud forest now, but I will definitely be getting a lot of monkeys!

Holy cow, that last one is really good! There's a bit of weird noise but I'm sure that can be corrected.

I caused that noise while editing I think I'm gonna redo everything starting from the original.

I'm a fan of the first two but not the last one; that halo affect is really off-putting. Did you max out the clarity?