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This panorama is taken just north of the I-70 and east of KS183 on the north side of Hays, Kansas. Can you count the oil pumpjacks? |
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The Tertiary Ogallala Formation is best known as the host rock for one of the largest freshwater aquifers on Earth. In Ellis County, Kansas the Ogallala is exposed at the surface and forms resistant hill-capping exposures such as the ones seen in this Gigapan.
My largest Gigapan yet at 2.45 gigapixels, this monster is stitched from 726 individual photos and took over 40 minutes to shoot. If the Gigapan robot were able to interrupt the shooting sequence and allow me to move the camera arbitrartily to capture transient phenomena (and then resume the panorama where I interrupted it) I'd have been able to capture a pair of wild turkeys in flight and a herd of cattle that wandered into the field. Not that there's a lack of things to see in this one, but being able to capture transient phenomena such as these would make this image significantly more interesting and educational. |
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Caenen Castle Caenen Castle (pronounced Kay-nen) was built in 1907 by Belgium immigrant Remigius (Remi) Achille Caenen. Remi and his wife Mary had dreamed of designing a house to resemble a European castle, Chateau Chavaniac, the birthplace of General Marquis de la Fayette. Sadly, Mary would not live to see their dream home. She died suddenly in 1901. Although Remi was deeply saddened by her death and never remarried, he continued planning the home for their children. In 1905, Remi began constructing the 14-room house, handquarrying the limestone from his land. When the house was finished two years later, Remi lived in it with his nine children for 11 years. He built a smaller house nearby and lived there until his death at age 95 in 1949. Remi’s daughter, Emma, and her husband Pete Renner occupied the house for several years followed by Mege and Josephine Caenen. After all of Remi’s children had moved out, the home was leased for 25 years to Dr. Elstone, who used the building to operate the Monrovia Rest Home. After Remi’s death, the castle was sold. Over the years, the building served as a restaurant, a private residence, a nightclub and a haunted house. In 2003, the house was purchased by Chef Renée Kelly and was renovated. On July 15, 2004, it officially opened as Renée Kelly’s at Caenen Castle, a private event venue and catering business. The castle celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2007 and now is on the Kansas Historic Register. |
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Alfalfa field with a stream running through the middle of it. Hill of Dakota Sandstone on the left. Old farm with windmill on the right. At the right side of this 24 minute pan I had to adjust the exposure to keep up with the fading light. |
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Utilitiy and street construction will start soon. |
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Mushroom Rock is an iconic natural feature on the Great Plains of western Kansas. The Fremont Trail passed north of here and many visitors have left their mark. A wider view of Mushroom rock can be found at: http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=2592 |
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For my two hundredth GigaPan I wanted to revisit the site where I shot my third and my hundredth. This one is shot with the teleconverter lens on the Canon S5 IS for a whopping 18x magnification. So let's see what interesting things you can find in super-spy mode! |
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This panorama was an attempt to stitch a 1500 shot (125x12) 360 degree panorama. It took 4 days to stitch, and I fear that the stitch didn't go as well as I originally hoped. That I didn't break the 4 gigapixel barrier suggests the resulting GigaPan is not as large as I was expecting. This may, in part, be due to the fact that I accidentally kicked the tripod and may have caused one image to misalign (without correcting it). We'll have to see what it all looks like once it's up on the site. |
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Sometimes it's just nice to setup the robot and walk away while it shoots for seventy minutes. |
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One of the nicest looking houses in town, IMHO. I really covet that turret room and I love the wraparound porch. If only I had a big enough family and income to afford it... |