Panorama Florence

August 2015 was the second time I visited Florence.
The panorama consists of 17 images shot with a Canon 70D,Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens at 55mm.

Click here to open the panorama in a separate window.

Panorama WWII Memorial in Washington

Here is a large panorama of the World War II Memorial in Washington. It was a very sunny day!

Click here for the panorama

Panorama Lincoln Memorial

Here is a panorama I made inside the Lincoln Memorial in April 2015. This is the first HTML5 panorama which is also viewable on an iPhone or iPad.

Click here to see the panorama

Panorama Meteora Roussanou Monastery

Click on the picture above or here to see the view from the terrace of the Roussano Monastery.

Panorama Dubai Ibn Battuta Mall China Court

The Ibn Battuta Mall has a wonderful China Court. A full size Chinese sailing vessel can be seen, and of course the wonderful decorations inspired by Chinese temples. You can also see the Tony Romas Restaurant where we had spare ribs, Dubai style.
The panorama was shot ‘guerilla style’ (no tripod, rotate on your left foot), so parts of the panorama are not so sharp as I wanted them to be. Click here to see a larger version of the panorama.

Click here for a HTML5 version of the panorama.

The Making of the House Sonneveld Panorama

House Sonneveld is located in Rotterdam and is built in the Nieuwe Bouwen style in 1933. It looks very modern, even for today's standards. Since 2001 it is a museum house and you can visit it.

I visited this museum house during Wiki Loves Art/NL. During this photo contest the collections of a large number of Dutch museums could be photographed. Each photographer made his/her photos available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence. This way the photos could be used by others like Wikimedia Commons. The 10 best photos would get a prize.

Let me tell you how I made this panorama. I was shooting all objects the organizers wanted me to. Besides this museum I also visited the Tropenmuseum and later on the Verzetsmuseum. I was thinking that in order to win a prize the photo had to stand out from the crowd (one way to stand out is to give the largest number of photos to the project…click here to see my 314 photos which made me the top contributor :-).

When I entered the living room I decided to make a panorama so you could see all the objects in their surroundings. I assumed no-one else would submit a panorama. Click on the photo below to see the individual photos:


Normally the camera is put on a tripod with a panorama head to ensure the photos align with each other. However, the usage of a tripod is forbidden, so I took the photos ‘guerilla style’. This means you take the photos while rotating your body around a foot (in my case the left foot). It was a very sunny day and the orange blinds were down on the windows of the right side. You can see the orange cast on the individual photos.

All photos were shot in RAW, so colour correcting them in post production was easy. Autopano Pro was used to stitch the photos together. I was not sure to include or exclude the door on the left side of the panorama. In the end I submitted the photo with the door included, because it was my way to lead the viewer into the panorama.

When I won the seventh prize (see here and here), I was extremely happy, of course. I smiled when read the jury’s comment (translated from Dutch):

“Photo does good justice to the subject, beautiful panorama, disturbing is the composition on the left: the open door. The composition is better when the door is omitted". I am very glad they still awarded me with a prize!

Home Base of the Photo Course

The photo course I am attending is held at Fotogram. I visited this address for the first time for a panorama course. Here you can see the front entrance of the building.

Belvedere Lookout Panorama in Moorea, French Polynesia

One of the main attractions on the island of Moore, French Polynesia is the Belvedere Lookout. From this lookout you have a wonderful view of (from left to right) Opunohu Bay, Mount Rotui and Cook's Bay.

Click on the interactive panorama to see a much larger view. Remember: click on the last button in the tool bar below the panorama to view the panorama full-screen

Guerilla Panorama of Westermarkt, Amsterdam

Normally you do the following when shooting a panorama:

1. find a good spot to place your tripod
2. place your panorama head on the tripod
3. level the tripod so you will get a straight panorama
4. mount your camera on the panorama head
5. shoot the panorama pictures

Sometimes you cannot do all those steps. It takes too much time or the people around you will start asking questions.
I experienced this first hand when taking this panorama of Westermarkt, Amsterdam

During the panorama course the teacher explained it is also possible to take the pictures without the tripod and panorama head. During postprocessing you correct for not holding your camera horizontal.

So he gave us an assignment to take pictures for a panorama free-style in the neighbourhood of the Westerkerk.

I found a good spot on the corner of the Westermarkt (note the 'V' on the panorama) and started to take pictures. One of the guys from the benches came to me. He asked me to stop taking pictures because they did not want to be recognizable on the photo. Before I could say something the teacher helped me out: he said we were learning to take pictures so chances are very slim that anything recognizable would be seen on the picture. Besides, persons would be about 5 millimeters tall on a computer screen, because we were learning to take 360 degree panoramas. So they should not expect any problems...

The guy left us alone, and I could finish this panorama - 'guerilla style': take the pictures and go away before more persons start asking questions.

So: don't tell anyone that you can click on the thumbnail to see a larger panorama where you can identify the guys on the bench and you can see that the other students have not even begun to take pictures!

La Lonja de la Seda

On our trip to Valencia we visited La Lonja de la Seda. It is a late Gothic style building. One of the highlights is a trading hall called Hall of Columns.
We made sure we were there just before they opened. The panorama is taken 10 minutes after the hall opened. The hall is nice and empty and you can see the other tourists in the background.
Make sure you click on the full screen button in the panorama viewer to view the panorama full screen and zoom in on the detailed markings on the columns.
Click here to see the panorama.

Question: Who is the cute girl sitting in the window on the right of the panorama?

Panorama of Chania, Kreta

This is one of my earliest panoramas. It is made with a Canon G3 in landscape.

Large Panorama of Amsterdam Dam Square

Another assignment on the panorama crash course was to make a panorama in a busy environment - Dam Square!
Even though the pigeons were trying to ruin the panorama, the pictures turned out quite good. Click here to view the interactive panorama.

A Really Nice and Large Panorama of the Amsterdam Fietsflat

During a crash course in panorama photography we got an assignment to make a panorama of the view on top of the Amsterdam fietsflat. It is a tricky place to take panorama pictures, because the deck plates move up and down when someone walks over them!
Click here to see the interactive panorama.

When you look closely in the panorama, you will see some strange things!

Impressive view of Manava Suite Resort Tahiti Pool (Panorama)

The Manava Suite Resort Tahiti opened its doors in 2008.
Among its hidden secrets is the largest infinity pool of French Polynesia, and the breathtaking view of Moorea. Click here for an interactive panorama.

Publishing my panoramas

I won a price with the panorama above in the Dutch wiki loves art/NL competition. The photo has been released to the Wikimedia Commons.


Publishing my panoramas on Flickr is not satisfactory because the panorama is scaled down. This is an experiment with Zoomify to publish interactive panoramas.

(http://www.tinyurl.com/winningpano)

Zoomify Express

I am evaluating to use Zoomify Express to put my panoramas on the web.
The free version works like a charm. The cheapest paid version Zoomify Express offers full screen browsing through your panorama!