wwp@yahoogroups.com:
shooting Redwood National Park in VR
G. Donald Bain 2004-Jun-25 18:05:00
The new GeoImages server is up and running!
It's a dual 2ghz G5 X-Serve, lightning fast, with lots of
expandability. Unfortunately, it is still on a single 10-Base-T
ethernet, but that will be fixed eventually. I am fumbling around
setting it up, lots of technical stuff new to me, but at least as an
http server I seem to have it running fine.
Here's the story of my World Heritage weekend panorama shoot. I have
put a few full-screens on the new server as a test.
WARNING: these files range from 804k to 1.2mb
I got off work early on Friday and enjoyed a long drive north from
Berkeley through the Sonoma and Mendocino vineyards and into the
redwood forest along the Eel River.
Saturday morning was cold and foggy, normal for the northern California
coast in summer, and it stayed that way for the rest of the trip.
Luckily, the diffuse lighting was ideal for photographing forests.
I drove directly to Bald Hills Ridge, up in the clouds, very dramatic,
and I think I got three good panoramas in the first hour. In the
afternoon I went a long hike up Lost Man Creek.
Lady Bird Johnson Grove -
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/preview_Solstice/LBJGroveFernsFS.mov
rhododendron in bloom -
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/preview_Solstice/BaldHillsRedwoodsFS.mov
On Sunday I drove the Howland Hill Road, a one-lane unpaved road
through old-growth forest, basically unchanged since stagecoach days.
Again a long hike in the afternoon. By this time I had a dozen
panoramas -- all subtle variations on a theme of huge gray trees
growing from a dense green understory of ferns. A beautiful evening
drive through incomparable Prairie Creek State Park, then I camped that
night on Gold Bluffs Beach.
Howland Hill Road -
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/preview_Solstice/HowlandHillRdTreesFS.mov
on the trail -
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/preview_Solstice/BoyScoutTreeTrailFS.mov
Newton Drury Parkway at Prairie Creek -
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/preview_Solstice/NewtonDrurySoroptFS.mov
Monday morning I photographed Fern Canyon, amazing vertical walls
covered densely with ferns. In the climax of the trip I encountered a
herd of Roosevelt elk, cows and calves, grazing nearby. This is
especially challenging for VR photography - who goes out to photograph
wildlife with a wide angle lens? I very slowly and quietly made my way
in amongst them and managed to get a complete circle of photos before
they moved away. Then I encountered two bulls, which cannot be safely
approached. But I got another pano with them not too far away.
Fern Canyon -
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/preview_Solstice/FernCanyonMiddleFS.mov
elk on Gold Bluffs Beach -
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/preview_Solstice/GoldBluffsElkThreeFS.mov
Altogether a rewarding trip. I hope the panoramas show the beauty and
majesty I experienced, so others may share.
Don
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