Pritzker Pavilion on a cold winter's day

This is from the same cold morning on the 13th as all of the other photos. The sky was a clear magic blue. Next time I need to use a tripod and plan out the edges better.

The old neighborhood

We got a chance to visit the old neighborhood where I lived before we got married. I took the opportunity to do some street photography. Here's a fairly nice panorama of Broadway just south of Belmont in Chicago.



I really like the color of the sky in this one. I hope someday I can get a panorama of the skyline with that color.

Trump Tower

Here's a rectilinear vertical panorama of the Trump Tower under construction in Chicago, Illinois. This is a set of 4 frames that I took on the 7th of this month. I hope to re-shoot this under better lighting conditions before construction is completed.

Marina City

Here's a view of Marina City in Chicago... 9 frames stitched with Hugin.

Yet another Chicago River Panorama

I think I'm getting better at these... but you should be the judge.



I stopped on the way home, with the right ISO and White Balance this time. This is one of a few series I did. I missed part of the bridge, I'll plan it better next time.

Michigan Avenue Panorama

Here's another of the panorama scenes I shot Friday night after our Holiday party. I've learned a few things in the process.

• Try to plan out the entire frame before starting to shoot
• Always be patient, and let the camera stop vibrating before shooting
• Make sure to turn off Auto-ISO if you have a Nikon D40
• Always take more than exposure of each frame (came in handy!)
• Consider locking the exposure (another one didn't work because if this)
• The fieldwork can be pretty quickly done, if you get a system going.

So, here's the output after stitching with Hugin and cropping a bit:





As you can see, I left the "unexposed" area white. It's an artistic decision that I'm happy with at the moment. I always delete the merged TIFF file because they tend to be disk hogs, and I'm already cramped on my laptop as it is. Re-rendering isn't hard because I keep all of the .PTO files from Hugin (they are tiny - 42k in this case)

Panoramas are fun, and I'm starting to get a feel for how to do them right. Hope you enjoy them as well.

Michigan Avenue Bridge

Here's a picture I finished stitching together this morning, before my day went to hell in a handbasket.






It's composed of 10 frames, stitched together with Hugin, an free software package. It's a lot of fun doing them. This one worked out pretty well, except I didn't realize I had a bit of a gap on the right side.

It snowed here... and I went to find a snowthrower... the one I purchase lasted long enough to clear 30 feet of sidewalk before smoke started spewing forth. It's nice that Home Depot is good with returns. 8)

So.. now it's off to shovel snow.. and take some photos. 8)