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Gold Harbour is a beautiful sight even without the help of this well-placed rainbow. The name probably came from the iron pyrite, also known as fools' gold, that is found in the rocks here.This is a place of considerable geologic upheaval where the Cumberland Bay Formation rocks meet the Sandebugten Formation rocks. As a result, there are some wild rock formations by the Gold Head cliffs on the left of this panorama. More recently, the glaciers are retreating at a remarkable pace. I was a surprised by how much the glaciers have diminished since my guidebooks were published. |
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Los Angeles, as seen from Rancho Palos Verdes. This panoramic vista spans from Malibu to Long Beach, with both Getty museums, LAX, Century City, Hollywood Sign, Griffith Park's Observatory, Downtown LA, Mount Wilson, the Galaxy's Soccer Stadium, beach city piers, Port of Long Beach, and a whole lot more in between. (Version B: 510 GB) |
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Views of the Brooklyn Bridge, downtown NYC, Statue of Liberty and Pier 17.
Brooklyn Heights Promenade is a favorite spot among locals and tourists. More panorama and pictures on http://www.newyork-city.fr and http://www.gigapixel.fr Shot using: Canon 40d , 300mm f/8 Hand-held photography 203 Images stitched in Autopano Pro 121793x12320 pixels |
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Carl Anton Larson established Grytviken as the first whaling station on South Georgia in 1904. It was a wise choice for such an enterprise because there was a remarkable abundance of whales in the waters around South Georgia. Harvesting was profitable with whales rendered into oil for foods, cosmetics, medicines and chemical products, including explosives. Flexible baleen was the plastic of its day, and whale bones and meat were separated, boiled and ground into fertilizer. Six other whaling stations were established over the next 8 years, and there were permits for 2 more that were never built.
Twenty years later, whales were becoming scarcer around South Georgia, and so whaling ships ventured into the Southern Ocean. Floating factory ships replaced the whaling stations. Whale catchers, faster modern craft with radar, fired explosive-tipped harpoons that killed their prey, and then towed the carcasses to the floating factories The whaling stations were used for storage and for repairing whaling vessels. But it takes a long time to grow a great whale. The whaling stopped when there were not enough whales to make whaling profitable anymore. Whaling was an honorable profession in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Alas, whaling has taught us that we can hunt even the largest animals on Earth to the brink of extinction. Armed now with that knowledge, what valid reason can there be for a whaling ship to work the Southern Ocean the 21st Century? |
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Here is South Pole's first passenger plane of the summer 2009-10. It is a Basler, which is a converted DC-3. The vanguard of the summer crew arrived on this sturdy little aircraft, along with some small cargo and some most-welcome fresh fruit and eggs.
We actually saw two earlier planes which stopped by for fuel on their way across Antarctica from Rothera to McMurdo. The layover for the Basler on that day was a short one. The Twin Otter, which followed about an hour behind, lingered awhile for some engine repairs, and so we had some unexpected late-winter guests. This Basler however, brings replacements for the winter crew, and so marks the end of our winter 2009 at the South Pole. It took off, as acheduled, after a very brief stay in the ground. If you look at other panoramas of the South Pole runway from this landing at Destination Alpha, you will see how the winds have changed the landscape this winter. We certainly have much larger drifts of snow than I found when I arrived in October 2008. There are also a lot of sustrugi which give you a clue about the direction of the prevailing wind. Walking in the dark this winter was sometimes a problem, as the sustrugi seemed to grow and shift position overnight. They may look soft and fluffy, but they do not provide a soft landing in a fall. The heavy equipment operators will be busy this summer, as they have the task of paring down these drifts and moving the snow to the End of the World. By the end of summer, the drifts should be gone and the landscape by the station should be smooth and flat once again. |
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View of one area within Cedar Pass located near Old Northeast Road and Badlands Loop Road
GPS COORDINATES: 43° 45' 36.66" N 101° 56' 15.32" W PANORAMA DETAILS: Created from 40 - 14.6 megapixel images Format: 10 columns wide, 4 rows deep Capture Date: September 30, 2009 GIGAPAN SIZE: 47803 X 8463 pixels (149 x 28 inches) EQUIPMENT: Canon PowerShot SD990 IS and GigaPan. TECHNICAL: 133mm focal length, f/5.8, 1/160 sec., 80 ISO. FIELD OF VIEW: 167.5 degrees wide by 30 degrees high. TIME TO STITCH: 3:40 |
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No1, of 4 so far, in series on Kruger National Park. To see series search for "kpseries".
The Kruger National Park is the largest game reserve in South Africa. The park lies in the east of South Africa, in the eastern parts of Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces. It is one of the largest national parks in the world, with an area of almost 20,000 km2. The park is approximately 360 km long, and has an average width of 65 km. At its widest point, the park is 90 km wide from east to west. Several rivers run through the park from west to east. An impala is a medium-sized African antelope. The name impala comes from the Zulu language. They are found in savannas and thick bushveld in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, northern Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, southern Angola, north-eastern South Africa and Uganda. Impala are among the dominant species in many savannas. They can adapt to different environment by being grazers in some areas and browsers in others. When frightened or startled the whole impala herd starts leaping about in order to confuse their predator. They can jump distances more than 10 meters (33 ft) and 3 meters (9 ft) high. Leopards, cheetah, Nile crocodiles, lions, spotted hyenas and wild dogs prey on impala. Impala can reach running speeds of around 80 to 90 km/h (50-55 mph). -----Wikipedia-- We spent 2 hours at this water hole, gigapan on the roof of the Isuzu Trooper next to the sun roof. To dangerous to climb out of car because of lions, elephant, crocodiles, hippos and rhino's. Gigapan format is 411 megapixels, 128 images (16 x 8) Focal length 565.2 mm Canon Powershot Sx10 IS |
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Here is the last plane of the summer season of 2008-2009 at the South Pole. It is a Hercules LC-130, fondly called a "skier" or a "Herc" by the folks at the Pole. The LC-130's are the work horses of Antarctica, bringing fuel, supplies and mail to Pole. This plane will fly off in just a few minutes with the last half dozen folks left over from our summer crew, leaving only the winter crew members behind.
You can't help but notice all the cloudy material in this photograph. Some of it is water vapor produced by the power plant. But most of the cloud is from the plane. With temperatures in the -50's F, contrails have become a big problem. Late in October or early in November, we will see our next plane. Until then, there is no mail, no fuel delivery or supplies and no new people. Now we get to work to winterize the station and then, with everything put away, we will wait for sunset and 6 months of darkness. It is going to be a very interesting winter. The 23 images of this panorama were photographed with a Nikon D80 and stitched with Autopano Pro. |
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This is my first attempt at a Gigapan, my Epic 100 only arrived today UPS from Portland OR. This the view looking due south out over my front garden towards the coast of France. Visibility not good! The black sections were where I experienced a battery problem, hopefully just a teething problem. |
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Lone British skiier Mark Langridge arrives at the South Pole. Starting from Hercules Inlet on the Antarctic coast 49 days ago, Mark has made an extraordinary journey across 700 miles the southern continent's white and blue landscape.
A South Pole guide escorts him to the tourist camp, where he will be the sole occupant for a while. A plane will arrive in a few days to take Mark back to Patriot Hills for the 1st leg of his journey homeward. You can see that Mark got here on a rather foggy day. The South Pole telescopes that are usually prominent in the arrival panoramas are rather obscured in today's fog. Those of us who watch for incoming skiers had some difficulty spotting him on the horizon as he approached his destination. We were very happy to finally see him. Mark, welcome to the South Pole! The 14 images of this panorama were photographed with a Nikon D80 and stitched with Autopano Pro. |