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This is a big gigapan I shot on Saturday evening. It's a huge Gigapan and took 16 hours to stitch. 47 images wide X 23 images tall totaling 1081 images.
I missed some of the balloons on the first pass so I backed the unit up and reshot a section. The lighter background in the sky was caused when I readjusted the exposure during shooting. The sun was setting fast and light was fading. EDS Credit Union Plano Balloon Festival - Plano, Texas - September 19 - 21, 2008 http://www.planoballoonfest.org/fest-facts.html Enjoy the "Lofty Visions" as 70 magnificent, colorful, hot air balloons fill the skies over Plano Friday at 6:00pm, Saturday at 7:00am and 6:00pm, and Sunday at 7:00am and 6:00pm (weather permitting). Fun for all ages, are the Special Shapes that attend the festival. This year, the special shapes include: High Jack, Miss Daisy, Pandy the Panda, Oggy the Dragon, and Woodrow C. Greenleaf. |
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Sunday Oct. 4th 2009 http://www.balloonfiesta.com/
The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is considered to be the most photographed event in the world. If you zoom in on the crowd you will see a lot of those photographs being taken. |
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http://GigapanMagazine.org
vol 1 issue 2 Contributors: W. Lance Roth, Kristina Shiroma and Katy Jensen Here is the interior of the Balloon Inflation Facility, (BIF) as we prepare to launch dual plastic balloons. We are using plastic today because the latex balloons break prematurely in the cold temperatures of an Antarctic winter. The plastic balloons are able to carry their payloads high enough to gather the data that we need. The payloads are radiosondes that are carried by the balloons to altitudes of 10,000-11,000 meters above sea level. There they collect data such as humidity, temperature, pressure, wind direction and wind speed, and they send the information down to a radio receiver at the Pole. In the winter months, information from South Pole’s daily weather balloons is sent back to the United States to be used in forecasting weather worldwide. In the summer, the meteorologists launch balloons twice daily to collect the same type of weather information to support the planes flying over Antarctica as well as provide information for worldwide weather forecasting. During the summer you would see round, white latex weather balloons flying above the South Pole. There are two payloads today. In addition to the meteorologist’s radiosonde, the balloons will carry a separate sonde for the scientists from the South Pole’s Atmospheric Research Observatory (ARO). They send up their weekly balloons to measure ozone levels in the stratosphere. Their sondes collect and transmit data that will be used to study changes in the ozone hole which develops over the South Pole with the return of the sun each year. As September and sunrise approach, ARO will also be increasing the frequency of their balloon launches. There are a few hints in this photograph that tell you that you are somewhere very cold. Have a look around and see what you can find. The 24 images of this panorama were photographed with a Nikon D80 and stitched with Autopano Pro. |
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In 1987 the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco turned 50 years old.
The Golden Gate Bridge was closed to traffic in the morning so pedestrians would have a chance to stroll across the bridge as they did 50 years before when the bridge first opened to the public. What ended up happening was an unexpected amount of people showing up. No strolling took place. This panorama was taken to show the vast amount of people that showed up that morning. Note, if you look at the areas in front of the first tower you'll notice the bridge is pretty level. This isn't normal. The road usually bows upward, but the weight of the people on the bridge caused the road to flatten out. Nobody was in danger as the bridge wasn't about to collapse. This panorama was obviously taken before digital cameras and way before Gigapan was a glimmer in the eyes of NASA. Unfortunately I used a slow shutter speed (1/125) on my Nikon FE (50mm lens) to capture the people as they moved along, hence the blurry faces. However, the picture definitely shows the chaos and the massive crowd that came to celebrate. Needless to say I don't think they'll be doing this in 2012 when the bridge hits its 75th anniversary. |
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