wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: My Equinox Weekend
G. Donald Bain 2005-Apr-16 15:19:00
Bryant,
Thanks for sharing these experiences. A day (weekend) in the life of a
panographer...
Today is Cal Day, the campus open house at UC Berkeley. I am giving a
one hour presentation on "The World Wide Panorama". Of course!
The hardest part is deciding which of the panoramas to show, there is
only time for about six from each of our five events. You will be
pleased to hear that your fruit stand pano is one of those I selected
to represent Marketplace.
Don
On Apr 16, 2005, at 2:55 AM, bryant_arnett wrote:
>
>
> Hi.
>
> It has been an incredible few weeks following the happenings here in
> the group and making my way through all of the submissions. It really
> does take hours to go through them all. It is an incredible
> collection! Congratulations to all of the participants and thanks to
> the organizers. I'm very proud to be a part of it. I captured a few
> more QTVRs over the event weekend, and one of them I liked enough to
> make it a runner up. I finally stitched a bunch of them together
> quickly and present them here along with the story of my weekend.
>
> My Equinox adventure began on Friday the 18th when I was about to
> drive out of town for the weekend. I had no idea what I was going to
> shoot here in the LA area, and the idea of going up to Ventura, an
> area I know very little about, made the subject of my panorama even
> more in question. I decided to just let the picture find me.
>
> The plan was to drive up to Ventura to a Presbyterian Church men's
> retreat for a time of meditation, prayer, and golf. It was raining in
> southern California and on the way out of town I noticed this strange
> outdoor market in the rain. It was a market of cast iron outdoor lawn
> ornaments, so I guess the rain didn't matter much. There was an
> umbrella sticking in one of the cast iron tables, and I figured it
> might offer a little protection from the rain, so I parked my car,
> asked the owner for permission, quickly ran under the umbrella, stuck
> up my tripod and started shooting. I was wrong about the umbrella
> offering protection. The wind was blowing!
>
> http://unrealaudio.net/bryant/bryant_images/cast_iron_marketplace.htm
>
> So then I headed up the coast toward Ventura. On Saturday morning,
> after a bit of the prayer and meditation business I mentioned earlier,
> the other guys decided the weather was clear enough for some golf. I
> had never golfed before, and I figured the rain might come back (and
> besides I really wanted to go shoot a world wide panorama) so instead
> I grabbed my camera and tripod and headed out. First, I visited the
> antique district and realized there is not much to see unless you are
> actually inside the stores. With my standard tripod the parallax error
> is just too much to contend with in close quarters, so I decided to
> keep looking for something else outdoors with a bit of distance to it.
>
> As I was walking down the street, I was suddenly greeted head on by a
> couple of hundred people on a peace march toward an anti-war rally. I
> quickly set up my tripod and started clicking away. I discovered
> something else about my limited setup. Without a wide angle lens, it's
> hard to get people's whole body, especially when they are in motion
> and close to you. It's also hard to see the whole bunch of people when
> you are on the same sidewalk with them. So here is a quick stitch of
> some slightly truncated war protesters.
>
> http://unrealaudio.net/bryant/bryant_images/ventura_peace_march.htm
>
> After walking up the street with them for a while, I decided to drop
> into a local saloon for a beverage. While I was there, the bartender
> was asking me what I was shooting. I told him about the WWP, and then
> proceeded to make a very poor handheld shot from the beer's eye view?.
>
> http://unrealaudio.net/bryant/bryant_images/beverage.htm
>
> There is some seriously bad parallax error in that one... Iguess I was
> trying to do my best Jack Torrance impression (from Kubrick's The
> Shining).
>
> So from there I wandered down the street and wasted some time trying
> to get a shot of the front of the Mission San Buenaventura (the light
> was great for the first few shots then fell into a dark overcast, and
> I did it handheld and besides, I discovered later that Don already had
> that one covered, too!). So then I hopped in the car and headed down
> to the pier for a while. The sun was starting to come out and it was
> turning out to be a beautiful day.
>
> http://unrealaudio.net/bryant/bryant_images/venturapier.htm
>
> Hmm? I guess I was really getting away from the Marketplace theme.
> Well, I figured I had at least one good shot in the can with the cast
> iron market in the rain, so the following day, after a fish and chips
> lunch at Andrea's Seafood Restaurant at Ventura Harbor with some of
> the guys from the retreat (they patiently waited while I took this
> shot of the scuba diving school, it didn't turn out very well)?
>
> http://unrealaudio.net/bryant/bryant_images/venturaharbor.htm
>
> I headed home. It was getting late in the day when I was cruising down
> highway 118. One of the guys had suggested I keep my eye out for a
> fruit stand he had spotted on the way in.
>
> After driving for a while, as the sun was getting low in the sky, I
> came upon the Petersen Ranch Fruit Stand. What an amazing place! The
> owner said he didn't mind if I took a picture, as long as I mailed him
> a copy. At first I tried to explain that it could only really be
> viewed on a computer, and I would give him a link, but he didn't seem
> to like that idea, so I promised him a print and started setting up.
>
> Two major problems presented themselves. First and most obvious was
> the lighting. The sun was low and the fruit was in complete shade.
> Second, a huge crowd of people showed up to buy fruit and completely
> surrounded me and my tripod for several minutes. You don't realize how
> quickly the light changes at this time of day, even over the course of
> just a few minutes, until you are shooting a panorama! I ended up
> getting two complete sets of pictures with two completely different
> exposure settings. Then, since another huge crowd was approaching, I
> packed up and completely forgot to get the "straight down" shot.
> Ooops.
>
> The next week turned out to be a painful and educational experience in
> stitching different exposure images with really bad parallax error.
> Finally, it was done just in time for the deadline. Despite the
> difficulty I had in putting it together, I was happy with the final
> product. There are still a bunch of things I would fix if I had more
> time! This week I made a print of the image and this weekend I plan to
> visit the Petersen Ranch Fruit Stand again, this time with my wife and
> kids, to deliver the picture and get some more strawberries.
>
> Here it is?
>
> http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp305/html/BryantArnett.html
>
> The main thing I learned is that parallax error is destroying me. I
> decided it was time to do something so I took some measurements and
> had a bracket made by a sheet metal shop for my tripod that fits my
> camera perfectly. I just picked it up today and I can't believe the
> difference it has made. Now I think I can finally make some images in
> smaller spaces. I just did a quick test in my kitchen, and the
> stitching is already SO MUCH EASIER.
>
> Well, anyway, thanks for letting me share my story. Looking forward to
> the Solstice? H2O
>
>
> Bryant
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> The World-Wide Panorama
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