panorama

iO6 Panorama Feature on iPhone 5 first photo example St. Petersburg Florida

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Before I went to bed last Thursday, I set the alarm on my iPhone 4 for 2:55am.  This was not because I have a new paper route or decided to follow in my grandfather's footsteps and be a milkman, but because I want to insure I was able to get one of the first preorders in for the new iPhone 5 that here on the coast would be first available at 3am Friday morning.  So I rumbled out of bed and began refreshing the iPhone 5 page on apple.com.  Another reason to be one of the first was that I had already secured in my buy-back price for my 2-yeard old iPhone 4 on the great site gazelle.com for a whopping $146!  That's right, it basically meant that the new iPhone 5 would only be $54 out of pocket, if I could get one before October 1st.  

Well, my early rising paid off as my iPhone 5 (white, 16GB, AT&T) was delivered on the first available date (Friday the 21st).  It took almost four hours to sync all my backup data to it, so I did not have much opportunity to test the new iOS 6 panorama feature until yesterday (Saturday).  I was walking Kiki around Crescent Lake Park, a common Saturday evening activity and with the wide open views from the lakeside, I had my first chance to test the panorama function.

I saw a video of how it works so I knew you do not take five or six separate shots in a row, but rather turn the panorama feature on and then glide the camera over the area you want to photograph.  There are visual guides to keep your framing on track, and I must admit I was rather wobbly in my first attempt as you can see in the unedited image above.  

Still, there was a large portion of the image that was usable.  I cropped out the left, right and bottom edges and found a decent remaining image.  The exposure was a little off and there was a lot of noise in the sky, but overall I thought the new panorama feature in iOS 6 on first impression seems to be very usable.  I look forward to trying it again with a more steady hand and in different light.  

Have you made any panoramas with iOS 6 yet?  Post your examples in the comments below.

The St. Petersburg Pier Night Light Reflection Florida fine art images

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Click for larger version of The Pier night light reflections available for fine art print or commercial license - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 4.3 sec tripod mounted with cable release 

The Pier of St. Petersburg, Florida presents at this time a unique opportunity for local photographers.  It is by far the city's most recognizable landmark, but it is scheduled for demolition in one year's time.  A part of me does not necessarily believe in the end it will be razed because what is slated to replace it, a structure called "The Lens," is so preposterously fantastic I cannot imagine such a thing existing just off the modest St. Pete waterfront.

The odd shutter time of 4.3 seconds for this shot is due to shooting in bulb mode.  I took a test shot and then based on feel kept the shutter open how long I thought it would need.  A more scientific way would have been to use a stopwatch, but for exposures of only about 4 seconds a rough estimate counting in your head is good enough.

Thunderstorm approaching St. Petersburg Stormy Sky

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Click image for larger 2000px version - 4-shot panorama stitched together in Photoshop CS5This is almost a real-time weather report panorama image as just a few minutes ago this massive thunderstorm was approaching St. Petersburg, Florida from the east.  In the time it took me to stitch it together and edit it in Photoshop it has began its pouring of a deluge of rain and striking of thunderbolts.  The rain is much needed here and hopefully the storm will pass quickly so Kiki and I can still go to the dog park as usual in the evening and I can play in the weekly ultimate frisbee pickup game even later in the evening!

Making a panorama image like this is not difficult in Photoshop CS5.  Using an 80-200mm lens, setting my exposure in manual mode, then locking in the focus, I took the four shots handheld using the gridlines in my Nikon D300's viewfinder to lineup the overlap needed between each shot.  Then using the Photomerge feature in CS5 it was just a matter of choosing spherical in the settings and letting my MacBook Pro's CPU do the heavy lifting.

Wide Panorama of Pass-A-Grille Beach St. Petersburg Florida Fine Art Photography

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Click for 2000px version - 5 shot panorama of Pass-A-Grille Beach St. Petersburg Florida available for commercial license & fine art printOn the same stormy evening I photographed the kiteboarder out on Pass-A-Grille Beach I made this 5-shot panorama of the beach as empty as you will ever see it.  This shot was made handheld which is surprisingly not hard to keep aligned if you have a grid view inside your DSLR's viewfinder.  I put the lower third of the gridline in the viewfinder straight on the horizon allowing me to make the shot without the tripod.  What I had to watch for was leaving enough overlap (about 1/3 of a frame) so that Photoshop could work its stitching magic with its Photomerge automation.

Pass-A-Grille Beach is one of my favorite spots in all of Tampa Bay as it represents the very tip of the main Gulf Blvd beaches in Pinellas County.  It definitely has a "land's end" feel to it, especially at a time like this after a storm at twilight.

Safety Harbor Pier HDR & Panorama Clearwater Florida

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The view from under the Safety Harbor Pier - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDR handheld

Due to a very low tide, I found myself with the opportunity to go under the Safety Harbor Pier.  I did not go to Safety Harbor with the express purpose of photographing it, but I of course did have my DSLR with me, but not my tripod.  The sun was still high in the sky and as you can see from the shadows starting to make its way toward the west.  A single exposure shot would not capture much of the detail under the pier itself.  However, since there was still quite a bit of available light I dared for a 5-exposure handheld HDR shot.  I highly recommend using a tripod for HDR no matter what the light, but as you can see, in a pinch, and with enough light, even a 5-exposure shot can be handheld and still produce a sharp image.

Click for large 2000px version - Safety Harbor Pier and Tampa Bay panorama - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/400th 5-frame panoramaLacking my tripod did not stop me from also making a 5-frame panorama of Tampa Bay and the Safety Harbor Pier.  I used the gridlines in my viewfinder to keep each shot level with the horizon as I set the exposure to f/11 in aperture priority mode and rotated to make the five shots that I would later stitch together in Photoshop CS5 using the Photomerge function.

Safety Harbor Pier HDR image - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDR handheldOnce again no tripod on hand, but I felt confident to be able to handhold this shot for five quick frames (using my Nikon D300's 6-frames per second burst mode) given the light available.  My composition choice came from putting the horizon in the lower third of the frame and having the pier form a leading line toward the center.

Downtown St. Petersburg Waterfront Panorama Print in The Hangar Restaurant

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Jason standing next to his 16 foot wide and 5 foot tall panorama print in The Hangar Restaurant St. Petersburg 

After seeing some of my downtown St. Petersburg panorama prints in ARC Printing, the owner of The Hangar, Steve Westphal, contacted me about getting a large print for wall display.  The final size came out to be 16'x5' made up of four 4'x5' panels.  This is the largest print of one of my photographs by square area made to date.  The image itself is a 6-shot panorama of the St. Petersburg downtown waterfront featuring The Pier, the new Dali Museum, Progress Energy Park and Albert Whitted Airport (where The Hangar is located).

The Hangar located at Albert Whitted Airport 540 1st St SE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701It is always great to see one's work in print, especially on such a large scale.  Have lunch at The Hangar and see the print up close!

Thanks again to Mike of ARC Printing for his help in producing a very tricky print.  I highly recommend other photographers use ARC Printing for their large scale prints as they produce a high quality product and Mike has the best customer service I have ever experienced.  Visit the official ARC website for location and ask for Mike and tell them that Jason sent you!

Panorama Tampa at Twilight Views from a Parking Garage

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Downtown Tampa Panorama at Twilight Bird's Eye View - click for 1200px image - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 5 sec 3-frame panorama tripod mounted with cable release

It is hard to pry me out of St. Petersburg.  Thankfully, a new client hired me to make some images of Tampa for their new website giving me the opportunity to cross the Howard Frankland Bridge with my DSLR and tripod in tow.  Of all the photographs I took that afternoon and evening, in this post a selection of images taken all from the same spot atop a parking garage are featured.  I had never been to the top of this parking garage before.  I just stumbled upon it as I was searching for bird's eye vantage points of downtown Tampa.  It was a little hard to get into, as I had to risk walking up the narrow entrance ramp before I found an actual parking level that had elevators to the top.  I later found out the actual entrance is inside a building on the other side.  After walking the last three flights to the roof (the elevator I was in did not go to the top) carrying all my gear, I was glad I as always was properly attired with the best footwear possible.

University of Tampa from above at dusk with light trails - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/16 ISO 200 5 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseIt was a very unique feeling being alone on the top of that garage.  There were only two cars left parked on the far side from me.  It was after 5:30pm and everyone had already gone home for the day.  I felt like I was in a secret spot with a view of all downtown Tampa.  All this added up to a feeling of peace.  My Nikon D300 was on my Induro CT214 tripod, so I had no weight on my body from gear.  I could move about freely looking for shots.  At first there was too much light to make the light trail shots I wanted to, so I passed the time by observing and wondering.

Blue Skyscraper to Blue Infinity with Moon - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1.6 sec tripod mounted with cable release - lens correction in Photoshop CS5 to straighten buildingBehind where I knew I wanted to do most of my shooting stood a tall blue skyscraper trying to reach to the Moon.  I thought it interesting how the color of the building nearly blended in perfectly with the twilight sky.  I debated for awhile on which to include in this post, the lens corrected image you see above (building is straight) or the non-corrected one with the building bending inward appearing to reach for the heavens.  

Sykes Building Downtown Tampa Twilight - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/16 ISO 200 10 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseI really enjoyed being alone atop that parking garage waiting for the evening to transition from dusk to twilight.