Tag Archives: panorama

Strange Little Isolated Tree

Sometimes you just don’t have the right gear with you.  I had gone to Juanita Bay after work and was only carrying one camera with the 500mm on it.  Looking down in to the water to one side of me, I was quite taken by a stump in the water that had a new growth of a small tree coming from the top of it.  It was too far away to get a decent shot with the phone so the 500mm was the only option.  I took a sequence of shots to stitch together later on.  I quite like the separation that you get with using such a long lens for a shot like this.  I wonder how large the tree will ultimately grow to be given the limitations of its home!

What A Difference A Few Minutes Makes

Paine Field is getting rather full of spare 777X airframes.  They are getting stored in all sorts of locations and a recent spot for them is alongside the main assembly building at the north end of the field.  I was using the long lens and so, rather than change lenses, I shot a few images to make a pano.  It was a little dull but more of a record shot.  A few minutes passed by the the clouds behind me had moved on and the light on the airframes had improved significantly.  I reshot the scene before it changed again.  Looking at the two shots, it is hard to believe that they were only a few minutes apart.  What an impact a change in lighting can bring to a shot.

Various Ways To Stitch A Panorama

Lightroom has three methods for stitching the panoramas together.  I tend to use one but for some shots, a different style is beneficial.  I was flipping through some shots of an HH-101 Caesar helicopter that I took at RIAT in 2019.  I also had a Danish AW101 that I had shot in pano format.  The Danish airframe had not been shot as well as it could have been and I did not have sufficient coverage.  I decided to try different versions of the stitching to see which one gave the best result.  Some result in a more natural look while others look more fish eyed.  I can also stitch in Photoshop which gives me more capability for filling in gaps but, with the tricky areas being the rotors, that wasn’t going to work well since the AI is not going to work that out.  Stitching also allows some warping to fill edge gaps but this can mess with the alignment of the main part of the image.  I tried a couple of versions and they are compared here.

Aircraft carrier

I was flicking through some old shots that weren’t well keyworded and was surprised to find some shots from a San Diego visit which included some warships.  I had some shots of an aircraft carrier including a few for a panorama that I had never compiled.  Why not correct that?  Here it is, the USS Ronal Reagan.

Seattle From Elliott Bay

The ferry ride back to Seattle was later in the afternoon.  We were asked to stay on the car deck in our vehicles but we could walk around the deck if we wanted.  Everyone around us was wearing masks – as was I – so I was happy to get out of the car in the fresh air and look at the city coming towards us (just depends on your frame of reference physics geeks).  Here are some shots of the skyline from the boat as we got closer to the terminal.

Four 777Xs On the Ramp

The 777X initial airframe has already made it on the blog when it was parked on the ramp and when it undertook some taxi trials.  It has since had the dodgy engines removed and I assume some more trustworthy examples are on their way.  First flight will not be this year, though, based on what I am reading in the press.  While the start of flying has not been achieved, production has continued.  The initial customer aircraft have also now shown up.  I understand that Lufthansa will be receiving at least one of these jets.  The flight line now has four jets parked up – two in house colors and two all white.  Hope we will see them up and active before too long!  I hear a fifth came out with Emirates’ wing tips just after I took this!  I have another primer one since which is below.

Tankers at Sunrise

Boeing started delivering KC-46s to the USAF as I covered in this post.  However, it didn’t take too long before the Air Force found various items of tooling in the aircraft that shouldn’t have been there and stopped taking delivery.  Consequently, rather than delivering the backlog, it has continued to build.  Paine Field had well over a dozen aircraft in various locations when we were there including three over by the Heritage Flight Foundation’s hangars.  Here three were illuminated nicely by the sun as it rose across the field so a pano seemed in order.

Little Bear Creek

We have a park very close to the house with Little Bear Creek running through it.  There is a circular trail through the park but I had previously only been on one half of the trail.  I finally took a walk around the whole thing and was pleasantly surprised to see that you have a nice view over the creek at a couple of locations.  I only had the phone with me, but I got some shots and also put together a pano of the scene.  I will have to stroll here more often.