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Blog Photo of the Day Photography UK

Beeston Castle Panorama

Photo of the Day

The hill occupied by Beeston Castle rises up strangely from the middle of the flat Cheshire plain. For as far as you can see, this and the other small hill occupied by Peckforton Castle nearby are the only elevated points. The rest is as flat as England ever seems to get.

A panoramic shot seemed to be the only sensible way to try to capture the vista from on top of the hill. Blessed with an almost perfectly clear day, who knows how many English counties I could see over the tops of those ruins.

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Beeston Castle Panorama

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Blog Czech Republic Photo of the Day Photography

Prague Evening Panorama

Photo of the Day

Prague’s innumerable spires pierce the sky in this evening panorama shot not too far from Prague Castle (St. Vitus Cathedral, inside the walls of the castle, is visible on the left side of this image). I love how the warm lights blasting the city’s more famous buildings makes them stand out dramatically against the dusky blue of the rest of the houses.

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Prague Evening Panorama

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Blog Photo of the Day Photography UK Wales

Penmon Point Lighthouse Panorama

Photo of the Day

Penmon Point, at the eastern end of the Isle of Anglesey isn’t exactly the hottest of places on a January morning before sunrise, but I couldn’t help but be warmed by the sight of this lighthouse just off the shore. A beautiful sight.

Panoramic shots that include the sea can sometimes be difficult to stitch together – by the time you have moved your camera for your next shot, the waves have shifted and twisted the water’s appearance to make seamless joins a bit tricky. Extending the exposure time can help and it did for this photo. Visibly turbulent seas can be a handful when joining shots, so sometimes it’s better to have things looking a bit more smooth. Even more importantly for this shot though, the long exposure’s smoothing adds to the atmosphere of the image.

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Penmon Point Lighthouse Panorama

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Blog Morocco Photo of the Day Photography

Djamaa El Fna Panorama

Photo of the Day

Marrakach Morocco’s Djamaa El Fna is, simply put, wild. At any point in the bustling square at the heart of the city, you might find snake charmers, open-air dentists, food hawkers selling all manner of culinary oddities, carnival games, musicians and dancers, monkey handlers, brightly-costumed water vendors, wizened story tellers, boxers smacking each other, and who knows what else.

While it’s an interesting site during the day, it really comes alive in the early evening when the food stalls are set up, the hungry crowds roll in and smoke starts rising off grills and barbecues. It can be a bit of a sensory overload with those smokes wafting intense cooking smells, the musicians competing for audiences’ attention, a glut of interesting sights, and the masses of people pushing up against each other, but the best strategy, as with the nearby souks, is just to get lost in it all.

And after you’ve done that, sometimes it’s good to retire someplace a little out of the way to see the bigger picture. Rooftop bars surround the square and provide a bird’s eye view of the semi-controlled chaos below. Buy yourself a beverage and take it all in. That’s what I did and shot this panorama while I sipped a cool drink.

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Djamaa El Fna, Marrakech

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Blog England Photo of the Day Photography

Godrevy Point Panorama

Photo of the Day

I was recently inspired by a client of mine to gather together a number of my panoramic images and now I have a bunch in handy web-size format, I thought I would share some of them. For the next little while, we’ll have a bit of a panorama-rama.

The first installment comes from Godrevy Pont in Cornwall where I caught a few young lads’ fun as the sun started its descent. The cold waters didn’t deter them from using the rocks as diving boards into the ocean and its their frolicking that makes this photo for me.

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Godrevy Point Panorama

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Blog Croatia Photo of the Day Photography

Plitvice Panorama

Photo of the Day

Happy 2011 everyone!

We finished 2010 with plenty of shots from Croatia’s wondrous Plitvice National Park and I have another batch of lovely waterfalls to share, so let’s get on with it.

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Plitvice Waterfall Panorama

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Blog Croatia Photo of the Day Photography

Dubrovnik from Above

As promised, here’s a glimpse of what’s in store for visitors to Croatia. This panoramic view comes from near the station of the newly-rebuilt cable car that now whisks visitors up to the mountains above the city of Dubrovnik. Destroyed during the Yugoslavian civil war, the cable car has re-opened and now provides easy access to this majestic view of Dubrovnik’s old town.

At the station at the top, one hall features photos of the cable car’s original construction, shots of it after it had been destroyed and images of its recent re-construction. One worker there revealed his sadness at what had occurred during the war. He was 15 when it all happened, so these memories became a big part of his formative years. When asked if he considered Croatian’s friends with the Serbs that had carried out the attacks on Dubrovnik, he said, “We are neighbours. I don’t hate them, but I will never forget,” revealing the scars of a complex and awful period in the region’s history.

Dubrovnik’s scars are no longer exceptionally obvious on the ground. – you have to do a bit of searching to see the remnants of that recent war. But from this high up, you can forget about all that and just revel in the glorious view.

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Dubrovnik from Above Panorama

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Blog England Photo of the Day Photography

Photo of the Day: Golitha Falls

Golitha Falls

Today’s image is another from Cornwall, specifically, a perfect spot called Golitha Falls.

As tranquil as could be, this perfect forest full of gnarled, moss-covered trees at the edge of Bodmin Moor is home to a babbling stretch of the river Fowey. It’s a short walk, but every view along the way is picture perfect.

This shot, though it may not look it, is actually a panoramic stitch of about 15 images. I actually expected it to come out more horizontal than vertical, but this crop worked best of all. The scene really did sweep around me, but the resulting panorama doesn’t necessarily capture that. That’s not to say I’m unhappy with the shot. Far from it!

To get it, I did have to perch somewhat precariously on the edge of a rock, but the risk proved worthwhile.

Overcast days are good for shots like these. With less light on the scene, it’s easier to get a longer shutter speed to blur the motion of the water and you also avoid any nasty hot spots on the ground.

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Blog Photography

13-Gigapixel Panoramic Photo

Upping the ante in the game of world’s largest photo, Gerard Maynard, together with software developer Kolor has created this 13-gigpixel panoramic photo of Harlem.

The panorama is composed of 2045 individual photographs taken with a Nikon D2X and a 300mm lens. The resulting image is 279,689 by 46,901 pixels. At 300 dpi, that will make the image over 77-feet wide which could be handy if they wanted to decorate the side of a blimp.