The Civils Side of Life

This time last month I had just started a most enjoyable 2 week break in Brittany, France with my family. With my Aunt & Uncle having the enviable job of spending several months each year as reps for holiday camp, we got to spend our time in the Yelloh! Village Camping in Bénodet – Le Port de Plaisance.

Bénodet is situated on the mouth of the river Odet, with a large sweeping beach. With a strong sense of tradition this town is everything you can imagine about Brittany. We spent many an evening strolling along the river into the town, soaking in the relaxed and friendly surroundings. It was impossible not to unwind and let yourself forget all the deadlines and hectic lifestyle that we take as the norm in our daily work lives.

Although we had a couple of days of changable weather we were lucky enough to have the majority of our break basking in glorious sunshine and clear blue skies. Yes, one of us forgot to apply the correct dosage of sun cream but to save any embarrasment I shall not be naming him, he knows who he is.

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Just a quick post to add to my slowly expanding set of GigaPans.

I intend to give you a more in depth account of my more significant and/or interesting GigaPans. However from time-to-time I will give you a quick look at other panoramas that I have taken. You can always check out the GigaPan website to keep up-to-date with the latest creations.

The GigaPan website has been created to enable people and communities to come together through images that have so much detail that they themselves are the objects of exploration. Create yourself an account and you can upload images, over 50 MegaPixels, of your own. The real aim is to create massive images, with the robotic mount now available for a range of cameras you can take 1000′s of images and combine them to produce panoramas of a GigaPixel (1000 MegaPixels) and more. Since I purchased the original robotic mount at the start of the year I’ve slowly got used to the new style of photography and some of the quirks of stitching the large number of images into one panorama.

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Following the success of my first GigaPan using the robotic mount I took the opportunity of a visit to Coventry to try a bigger and larger panorama. On a bright and brisk Sunday during January 2009 we took a walk over to Coventry Cathedral with an aim to take a 360 degree panorama of the old ruins.   

The Capture

After seeking permission to take more than a couple of ‘tourist’ photos, I looked for a decent location to set up. With a surprising moment of foresight I realised that by simply setting myself up in the centre of the structure the the height of the spire would mean a huge amount of sky across the majority of the panorama. With this in mind I judged the best place to match the height of the spire to the height of the east window. The other factor I had to contend with was the Sun. With a clear sky I had to do my best to avoid any direct sunlight to try and minimise the variation of light levels within the overall image. 

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