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An earlier GigaPan of Sam Houston Statue can be seen here: http://share.gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?id=9906
This should be entitled something like, "Continuation of Engle's Transportation Series, Past and Future," or a better one would be simply, "One Lucky Shot." Just playing around with taking hand-held photos using the SX110 and just accidentally caught two trains on either side of Sam Houston Statue. It is only 9 images, but the panorama looks cool and happened on a hot day in Houston, Texas. Using the robot, I do not believe I could have captured a moment like what we see above: 9 photos in less than a minute [left to right]. This is a reason to always try to carry a camera for those unexpected moments in time we call great panoramas. |
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My goal for Monday, June 29th, was to spend the entire morning and most of the afternoon taking hand-held GigaPans of the entire collection of the fifteen current MetroRail Stations along the Redline corridor from downtown at the furthest north station located at University of Houston extending south to the maintenance area station located past the South Loop. The hand-held option was due to the extreme temperature that Houston has been suffering through for a number of weeks and yesterday was so hot that it seemed like Houston was in the hottest days of August, but here it is only late June. I have just celebrated my first anniversary on gigapan.org and I really want to use the robot, but because of the oppressive heat and the un-cooperative clouds (too many and too much at times and at other times, patchwork clouds that don't allow for constant exposure), I will have to wait a few more weeks until we see robot weather. Yesterdayt my plans were is to collect all the MetroRail GigaPans and U/L them all at one time in a series, but a few of them are *very* nice, and instead of U/L all at one time in sequential order, I will U/L a few at a time beginning with this 360-degree panorama of a very special place to me - the Houston Astrodome, the eighth wonder of the world, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliant_Astrodome. On a personal note, the reason that the Astrodome is so special to me is because of the good times that came our way because of the oil-field industry and the participation often in the Offshore Technology Conference held here in Reliant Park on an annual basis. When the Astrodome was the centerpiece of OTC, rigs surrounded it and each year during this time, it was a time of festivity. Now, OTC is very technical and more people attend than ever before, but sadly, the Astrodome no longer plays the part it once majestically did. The METRO Rail Redline Stations are identified in the following list: 1.) UH-Downtown 2.) Preston 3.) Main Street Square 4.) Bell 5.) Downtown Transit Center 6.) McGowan 7.) Ensemble/HCC 8.) Wheeler 9.) Museum District 10.) Hermann Park/Rice U 11.) Memorial Hermann Hospital/Houston Zoo 12.) Dryden/TMC 13.) TMC Transit Center 14.) Smith Lands 15.) Reliant Park 16.) Fannin South Ref: http://www.ridemetro.org/schedulesmaps/railsched.aspx |
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If you go to http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=26828, and scroll down to comments, you will see how this played an important part the taking of the GigaPan, Crown Jewels of Houston Architecture. |
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To the north of McGown is the Downtown Transit Center station and to the south is Ensemble/HCC station.
As this neighboorhood does not have strong appeal to me, I'm not sure why anyone would use this station except to walk across the street and buy a Cadillac automobile. |
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In this 360-degree panorama, we see a northbound train at the southbound station and past the reflection pool, we can see the northbound station where we saw the two Hare Krishna Dudes: http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=27716. Because of the nature on the reflection pools and the Houston skyscrapers, we see a dark nature of peace, rest and solitude along the Redline tracks. |
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It is really nice to have a station here for Rice University, but it is not used that much because the students and faculty have their cars and for people that want to go to Hermann Park, the station to the north would be best for the museums and the next station to the south, is best for the zoo access.
The METRO Rail Redline Stations are identified in the following list: 1.) UH-Downtown 2.) Preston 3.) Main Street Square 4.) Bell 5.) Downtown Transit Center 6.) McGowan 7.) Ensemble/HCC 8.) Wheeler 9.) Museum District 10.) Hermann Park/Rice U 11.) Memorial Hermann Hospital/Houston Zoo 12.) Dryden/TMC 13.) TMC Transit Center 14.) Smith Lands 15.) Reliant Park 16.) Fannin South Ref: http://www.ridemetro.org/schedulesmaps/railsched.aspx |
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Taken using a Nikkor 70-200 mm 2.8 lens and hand-held. Included are a bunch of nice kids on a scavenger hunt conducted around Hermann Park who just happened to be there when I was there. |
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The Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metrorail station, northside, looking east. Taken on the afternoon of 11 October 2008. Camera: Ricoh GX-100.
3 rows x 9 columns. PP in PhotoShop CS3: Curves (white and black point), smart sharpen (130 @ 1.1), and a pass with Noise Ninja. |
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Hand-held panorama using a SX110 in portrait mode.
This bus station is on the other side of the Shriners Hospital as seen in: http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=21682 This is the Texas Medical Center Station and is where a new-service bus called Quickline dropped me off; however, the buses we see in this stitched panorama are not Quickline buses, morning service ended with the bus I was on and as a result, I took one of these regular babies back home. |