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I wandered around Helsinki for a few days before and after our ride on the icebreaker to the North Pole. Lost in Helsinki one fine morning, I wandered into the Helsinki Central Railway Station. where I was surprised by how few people were trying to catch a train.
The station is huge, with a surprising modern look that speaks very well for the design and maintenance of a transportation facility that was opened in 1911. The design by Eliel Saarinen has certainly stood up well to the test of time. The trains of three rail lines leave here for neighboring cities and for long-haul routes to destinations such as St. Petersburg, Paris, Monte Carlo or Madrid. Oddly there are trains to Russia and to Sweden, but there are no trains to Norway. New arrivals in Helsinki can link to the city's metro system by an underground walkway. Thisw seemed like a very comfortable place to wait for a train. Even with the help of digital cameras and my GPS, I am seldom so certain of the time I snapped a panorama as I am for this one. The 11 frames were photographed with a Nikon D80 and stitched with Autopano Pro. |
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The hillside opposite the Lafayette, CA Bart Station has become a moving memorial to the U. S. troops killed in Iraq. One cross is added for each American death.
The missing frames are due to backing up the GigaPan unit to retake frames to remove cars. I may have removed too many frames when loading to the stitcher. |
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NSF: McMurdo Station (77°51'S, 166°40'E), the main U.S. station in Antarctica, is a coastal station on the volcanic hills at the southern tip of Ross Island, about 3,864 km (2,415 miles) south of Christchurch, New Zealand, and 1,360 km (850 miles) north of the South Pole. The original station was built in 1955 to 1956 for the International Geophysical Year. Today's station is the primary logistics facility for supply of inland stations and remote field camps, and is also the waste management center for much of the U.S. Antarctic Program. Year-round and summer science projects are supported at McMurdo. Its summer population reaches 1100; the winter population of McTown is about 150.
The station has a harbor, landing strips on the sea ice and shelf ice, and a helicopter pad. The station's 85 or so buildings range in size from a small radio shack to large, three-story structures. Repair facilities, dormitories, administrative buildings, a firehouse, power plant, water distillation plant, wharf, stores, clubs, warehouses, a science support center, and the first-class, 4,320 square-meter Crary Lab are linked by above-ground water, sewer, telephone, and power lines. The mean annual temperature is -18°C (0°F). Temperatures may reach 8°C (46°F) in summer and -50°C (-58°F) in winter. The average wind is 12 knots, but winds have exceeded 100 knots. Panorama stitched out of 600 pictures taken with Canon SX10. Vigneting reduced before stitching with VR1.7 http://vignetting.republika.pl/ Post-processed in PhotoShop. Stitcher notes: GigaPan Stitcher version 1.0.0732 (Windows) Panorama size: 3338 megapixels (104132 x 32064) Input images: 600 (40 coluns by 15 rows) Field of view: 100.6 degrees wide by 31.0 degrees high (top=3.1, bottom=-27.9) Settings: use larger blending region Original image properties: Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX10 IS Image size: 3648 x 2736 (10.0 megapixels) Capture time: 2010-01-25 14:14:32 – 2010-01-25 15:09:02 Aperture: f/5.7 Exposure time: 0.002 ISO: 80 Focal length (35 mm equiv.): 565.2 mm White balance: Fixed Exposure mode: Manual Horizontal overlap: 17.3 to 49.5 percent Vertical overlap: 19.8 to 47.4 percent Computer stats: 1023.48 MB RAM. 2 CPUs Total time 8:18:14 (50 seconds per picture) Alignment: 6:03:23, Projection: 11:44, Blending: 2:03:08 (Preview finished in 6:39:32) |
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360 Degree view of the Ottawa CTV Channel 13 - Cable 7 Newsroom taken in October 2004 at the Merivale Road CJOH Studios. http://www.WINaFreeRESP.com $20,000 in RESPs to be given away by Heritage Education Funds!
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A very very windy spot and quite a struggle to hold the tripod steady! And perhaps on this occasion a good example of when Anti Shake / IS can work well with a tripod! But near this spot was once a Roman Signal station, and when you see the huge view that encompasses a long stretch of Hadrian's Wall, then it is easy to see what an important point it was. |
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The Michigan Central Depot was opened in 1913. The building was designed in the Beaux Art neoclassical style by architects Warren and Wetmore, and engineers Reed and Stern. The last train departed January 5, 1988 and the building was permanently closed. The decay began and the building has since been stripped to the bone by vandals. It is now a shell of its former self.
To see more photos and 360 panaramas go to http://freep.com/article/20090426/MULTI/90424089 and http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=C4&Dato=20090425&Kategori=NEWS&Lopenr=904250807&Ref=PH |
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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 scheduled, after a very brief stay on 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. Although the snow-carved ridges look soft and fluffy, 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 huge drifts and moving the snow to the End of the World. By the end of summer, the little mountains of snow should be gone and the Antarctic Plateau by the station should be flat once again. |
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On 11/18/1999 Texas A&M, Home of the 12th Man, lost 12 Aggies when the bonfire they were building collapsed at 2:42 in the morning. This memorial was erected in their honor. Each portal tells a story about each person. Also when you stand in each portal, you are facing in the direction of that persons hometown. This is a 360 degree view. GIG'EM AGS |
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This was taken 1/2 way up Observation Hill.
http://www.antarctiken.com |
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Gotanda Station is on the Yamanote Line between Shinagawa and Shibuya. It's also the terminus for the Tokyu Ikegami line (to Ikegami and Kamata) and connects to the Toei Asakusa subway line.
Gotanda is also the closest station to where Sonia and I lived in 2005. My first successful 360-degree panorama. |