Week 29: 360 Panorama

Photos of the week

Week 29 Assignment: 360 Panorama

I am a little late with my post this week mainly because I have been trying to figure out how to create a 360 Panorama. The original 360 panorama I had in mind is not what you see above, I came upon this by chance in my research. It is a 360 panorama, but a different kind called a Planet Panorama. The original I had in mind was more of a movie, or VR (Virtual Reality) panorama which you can scroll on the image, left or right continuously, to see the full view of the panorama. I will get back to one of those in another week.

I have to say, the Planet Panoramas are some of the most unique images I have created in some time and I plan on doing more. They were not too difficult to create. You still start with creating a normal panorama, with multiple images, but you need to go a full 360 degrees. You then stitch them together as usual, in Photoshop or some other image software. Then the trick to create the planet pano is to squish it into a square format, flip it upside down, and apply a "distort/polar coordinates" filter to it in Photoshop.

The possibilities are endless in the many mini planets you can create of your own. The first two I created are above: The first is of an almost empty parking lot and after I created it, I realized I need to have all sky at the top or it does the stretch of the trees. The second, is my world in my own backyard, I hope I don't fall off.

Coming Next:

Week 30 Assignment: Clones!

Week 28: Sports - Tennis

Photos of the Week

Week 28 Assignment: Sports - Tennis

This week was another week of Sports Photography and another new sport, tennis. Tennis is another sport that I enjoy playing myself and I wanted to give taking action shots of it a shot. This was the last event I shot for the Senior NW Games and it was a great experience.

The first shot is my favorite because I love the capture of getting both players going for the ball at the same time during the fast action where it is usually communicated who goes for which shot. The key to the shot and any action sports shot involving balls is to get the ball in the shot. As with all of my selections of this weeks photos the balls make the shot and if they are looking at it or if it is being squished by the racket, even better.

Coming Next:

Week 29 Assignment: 360 Panoramas

Week 27: Wildlife Photography

Photos of the Week

Week 27 Assignment: Wildlife Photography

I had an opportunity this week to do some wildlife photography in my own backyard. We have a family of Raccoons in one of our trees, a mother and three babies. The little nest they made in the tree just happened to be the same height as the roof of our house and quite close. I was able to situate myself on the corner of the roof of the house and probably only 15 feet away from the raccoons. They were feeding and playing for quite some time, which allowed me to take many photos and even some video (which I may post later) of their activities. The raccoon can do a lot of damage and be quite dangerous, but they sure are cute. Heather was confronted with them yesterday in the backyard, which scared her a bit, but the raccoons didn't seem to be scared of her at all and came very close to her (she says too close). If they only killed moles, they could solve a different problem in our backyard.

Coming Next:

Week 28 Assignment: Sports Photography-Tennis

Week 26: Where's Sue...

Photos of the Week

Week 26 Assignment: Where's Sue..

Everyone knows "Where's Waldo", so my friend Sue, who was visiting Seattle for a week, had a great idea to take photos around Pike Place Market in a Where's Waldo type fashion. Sue made a great Waldo as she blended into the market scenes. The scenes include many of the key elements of the market, which include the flying fish market, tons of seafood, flowers, produce, and street performers. A slice of Seattle with a touch of Sue hidden in.

Coming Next:

Week 27 Assignment: Wildlife Photography