Photography – Page 33 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

Panorama

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Received my Nodal Ninja pano head on Friday. Stayed up much too late last night sorting things out. This is the 10 shot stitched 360 panorama of my front entryway. Click to see larger version.

360 pano

This is 8 shots around the 360 horizon combined with one shot up (zenith) and one shot down (nadir). You can see the tripod squished along the bottom of the image.

Taking this into another program I was able to generate this 3D interactive panorama. Click your mouse into the image and hold it. Then move the mouse around to scroll through the scene:

Click here for the full sized version

I’m having way too much fun!

Jeweled Spider

Gasteracantha Cancriformis aka the crab spider, spiny-backed orbweaver, spiny orbweaver spider, crab-like orbweaver spider, crab-like spiny orbweaver spider, jewel spider, spiny-bellied orbweaver, jewel box spider or smiley face spider

When I bought my first DSLR (The Sony A100) I got a good photo of a Jeweled Spider in my backyard using a 50mm non-macro lens with some macro lens add-ons. It came out pretty well. The original blog post from 2009 is here if you want to check it out.

This past weekend I spotted a Jeweled spider in the front yard but this one was not the orange color I came to expect. This one was white with black spots. These shots are with my A850 and the 100mm Macro lens. Click the images below to see the full sized, much more frightening versions:

Jeweled Spider

Tora Tora Tora!

Wings Over Houston Air Show recreation of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Click any image to see larger version.

Tora Tora Tora!

Photographer As Road Hazard

Houston Pavillions

Standing in the middle of Fannin near Dallas looking straight up at the crosswalk of the Houston Pavillions. Shot with the A850 and the Sony 16mm fisheye. Had to move quick, the light at the intersection doesn’t stay red for long.

Ballunar Festival

I always seem to miss the annual Ballunar Liftoff Festival held each year down at the Johnson Space Center but this year I heard about it in time to get down there for a look see. I was really only interested in the balloon glow which is where they use the burners to illuminate all the hot air balloons they have gathered for the festival. And this only happens the first night of the festival.

I wanted to set up the tripod and use the Sigma 12-24mm wide angle lens and shoot a few shots. Cynthia and I arrived just as this was underway and I did manage to get a few shots. The “glow” only lasted about 30 minutes and then it was over. We didn’t hang around after that, opting instead to head back to Houston.

Ballunar Festival

Backyard Birding Report Oct. 25th, 2009

Crow

A murder of very large, very loud and very clever crows have taken up station at the end of the block. Apparently there’s a pecan tree down there yielding some nuts. The crows are flying to the top of the neighbor’s house and attempting to crack the nuts using their beaks. When this fails they let the nut roll down the roof and into the street to be crushed by oncoming cars. It’s quite a site to see. At one point there were about 7 or 8 crows lining the peak of the roof and all had pecans they were working on. One by one they let skitter to the street below. I can only imagine what it sounds like inside the house.

Westchase Park

Out here on the west side of Houston, most of the developers seem to lack any sense of style or creativity. One ugly uninspired office park after another lines Beltway 8 from I-45 South to I-45 North with a smattering of cheesy chain restaurants and extended stay motels sprinkled in for extra yawn appeal. It is fairly bleak and only inspires you to press a little harder on the accelerator to move on through. The one and only reason to intentionally go near the beltway (other than using it to flee the west side) was the Cinemark Tinseltown movie theater but even that became a place to avoid and was eventually closed down.

Recently I noticed that the Tinseltown had been demolished and construction had started up for a new building. Swamplot reported that they had received a demolition permit in January of 2008 so it wasn’t a total surprise. I didn’t pay much attention as it was going up but over the last few weeks I did see that it was nearing completion. From what I can tell, it’s called the Westchase Park and it looks like it is nearly ready for its first tenant.

Westchase Park

There’s a water feature in the front of the building that sports a metallic sculpture which sort of reminds me of the contraption from the movie “Contact.” It’s by far the most interesting piece of architecture I have seen out here on the west beltway.

The building itself is glass and chrome and glints in the daylight. I was kind of hoping the sculpture was a corporate logo of some kind and that this was going to be to world headquarters of some up and coming conglomerate or something. Alas, it is simply a business park and will soon be selling office space to those looking to setup shop in the Westchase District.

On the plus side, it looks pretty cool at night.

Westchase Park