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Essex Marshes on New Year's Day

I went to spend New Year’s Eve with a group of friends, one of whom lived in Maldon, Essex. The morning (afternoon) after, as we weren’t far from the coast, some of us decided to visit the Essex Marshes. While it was quite overcast and grey, it still made a pleasant location for a walk along the coast, even with the low tide exposing the vast mud flats and beached boats.

Defender
Not going to be defending much during low tide

Grasses growing on wrecked boats
The decaying hulls of discarded boats provide the shelter and nutrients for grasses to grow (and for dogs to explore)

Grass-boat
A boat-shaped patch of grass and a mast are all that remain of a small fishing boat left to the elements

Red boat with perfect reflection

Boat named Great Escape

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An Insight Into Photostitching


The first step in creating a photostitch is to take the photographs. For this photostitch (The River Cam in the Mist at Magic Hour), I wanted to create as large an image as possible, so set my camera to maximum zoom – this would lead to more photographs being required to cover the subject matter. I then fixed the camera’s shutter speed, aperture, focus, and white balance, to ensure that all photos in the series look as similar as possible in colour and exposure. A row of photos was taken along the top of a mental grid, and then the next row down etc. until the whole scene had been covered. Photostitching requires overlap between each column and row of photos, so that the images can be lined up accurately.

Insight into the photostitch

The next step uses software to calculate how the images overlap, and to find control points that appear in more than one photograph. Depending on the output options, the resulting image(s) may still have very visible seams where the source photos overlap – this is most often due to vignetting, where the corners of a photograph are dimmer than the centre. While it is sometimes possible to get a near-perfect image straight from the software, I tend to choose to output a multi-layered Photoshop file, and then carefully blend between the layers so that no seams are visible; this is what can take many hours, even after creating control points and working in the photostitch software.

Insight into the photostitch

I think you’ll find that the results are well worth it though. 23 photos and 5+ hours later, here’s the 81 megapixel image.

Clare Bridge in the mist at Magic Hour
Move your mouse over the image to see a crop of the full-resolution image.

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Misty Magic Hour

Seeing that it was still foggy at midday when I headed out for some Christmas Shopping, I took my camera with the intention of getting some photos of Cambridge in the mist. Sure enough, as I reached the peak of Garret Hostel Lane bridge, the following pictoresque sight awaited me; along with several other people taking photos.

This first photo is my favourite – it’s a composite of 23 photos, seamlessly stitched together (taking over 5 hours) to create an 81 megapixel image.

Clare Bridge in the mist at Magic Hour
The River Cam in the mist at Magic Hour

Punting under Clare Bridge in the mist
Punting under Clare Bridge in the mist

Clare Bridge at dusk
Clare Bridge at dusk

Looking towards St. John's from Garret Hostel Lane
Looking towards St. John’s from Garret Hostel Lane

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Bright Frosty Morning

On a bright and frosty December morning on my way to work, I was able to enjoy some prime time taking photos in the wintry wonderland of St. John’s College Backs. I’ve taken many photos of the St. John’s Backs in the snow, but this is the first time I was able to catch a slightly wintry view in bright sunshine, rather than overcast snow-clouds.

Frosty Leaves
Frosty leaves

Ripples formed by droplets from melting frost
Ripples formed in the Cam as melting frost dripped from branches overhead

Frosty grass on the banks of the River Cam
Frosty grass on the banks of the River Cam

Frost
Close-up of frost on a stone bridge

St. John's New Court refracted in droplets
As the sun melted the frost on tree branches, water droplets formed pretty refractions of St. John’s New Court

Panorama of St. John's Backs
A 71 megapixel panorama of St. John’s Backs on this bright frosty morning

More photographs from this wintry set are available on CantabPhotos

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Sweden

I travelled to Sweden for a few days to attend a Rock’n’Roll Dance Camp/Workshop. We didn’t see much of Sweden, as the CURnR team members were there primarily to receive world-class training, but the 90 minute drive to Stockholm airport provided some beautiful scenery. Our trainers, Wim & Griet from Belgium, showed why they were at the top of the World Championship rankings.

Mist forming over fields at dusk
Mist forming over fields at dusk

Stunning sunset over lake in Sweden
Stunning sunset over lake

Islands on lake in Sweden
Islands on lake

Wim & Griet's Acro Rock'n'Roll
Wim & Griet’s Acro Rock’n’Roll

Wim & Griet's Acro Rock'n'Roll
Wim & Griet’s Acro Rock’n’Roll

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London (again)

Another trip down to London, this time to show a visiting friend the sights.

Interesting character on the Tube
Interesting character on the Tube

Packed shop window in Chinatown
Packed shop window in Chinatown

Quaint cottage in St. James Park
Quaint cottage in St. James Park

Sunset over the Thames
Sunset over the Thames

Bungee bouncing and Stormtroopers
Bungee bouncing and Stormtroopers

London Eye, Parliament, Big Ben at night
London Eye, Parliament, Big Ben at night

St. Paul's Cathedral, the Gherkin, and the City at night
St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Gherkin, and the City at night

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London's South Bank

I was at the Waterloo IMAX for a conference hosted by my company, and during the lunch break, had a wander out to Waterloo Bridge and the South Bank.

London Eye and Antony Gormley statue
London Eye and Antony Gormley statue

Antony Gormley statues on the roof of the South Bank Centre
Antony Gormley statues on the roof of the South Bank Centre

London Eye, Parliament, and Big Ben
London Eye, Parliament, and Big Ben

Tolerated Grafitti under the South Bank Centre
Tolerated Grafitti under the South Bank Centre

The Invisible Man - Street Performer
The Invisible Man – Street Performer

The Blues - Street Performer
The Blues – Street Performer

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Costa Rica – Panoramas

I spent a few hours over Easter putting together some of the photo stitches that I took in Costa Rica. There are two stubborn ones which I’m not having much joy with (very wide angle both horizontally and vertically, so the resulting photo looks very fish-eyed). Here are five of the panoramas which came out great.

You can scroll around the panorama in the Java Applet linked below. You can drag the view around with your mouse, or use your keyboard’s arrow keys. Pressing – or + lets you zoom out or in, although the images are displayed at 1:1 resolution already.

Arenal Volcano: Panoramic view of the very-active Arenal Volcano, taken from the Lost Iguana hotel, to the east of the volcano. Lava flows can be seen on the left hand side of the volcano. 28 megapixels.

Arenal Volcano
Click to view panorama

Irazu Volcano: Panoramic view of the two craters at the top of Irazu Volcano, the highest active (but dormant) volcano in Costa Rica, at 3,432m above sea level. The main crater on the left contains a green crater lake. 78 megapixels.

Irazu Volcano
Click to view panorama

Poas Volcano: Panoramic view of the crater lake in Poas Volcano (2,708m). The lake normally appears bright turquoise when conditions are clear (rarely). You can see yellow puffs of sulphur to the right of the lake. 23 megapixels.

Poas Volcano
Click to view panorama

Sunset from Finca Rosa Blanca, Santa Barbara: Viewed from a coffee plantation in the hills. 72 megapixels.

Sunset
Click to view panorama

Rainforest of La Paz Waterfall Gardens: Panoramic view of the rainforest around the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, near Vara Blanca. 17 megapixels.

Rainforest from La Paz Waterfall Gardens
Click to view panorama