Highway 1 VR Sunset

March 2, 2008

If the VR Viewer does not load you may need to upgrade your Flash Player to see it. If it loads this message will go away and you'll be able to drag the image to change your point of view. You can upgrade by visiting http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer. I hate pages that make me upgrade too, that's why you can still at least see an image, but really it's worth the effort!

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March 2, 2008

Sunset over the beach in Cambria, CA

If you have Flash installed in your browser, click and drag on the image once it loads, you should get a pleasant surprise.

This image has been quite a few days in the making. I had the good fortune to be in Cambria (north on the coast, 'bout half way to Monterey) last week around sunset and I just happened to have my new panoramic tripod head with me. Seeing as how I don't have a good fish-eye for my digital camera, I used my widest lens available. To get the whole image it took 36 shots. Of course, the difference shooting into the sun, and away was more than a single exposure setting could handle. So I had to take three separate exposures and combine them into a High Dynamic Range Image.

From that point, I just had to see how far I could push my computer. Rather than scale the images down I wanted to see just how big I could make the image. In the end the 108 images combined into a two gigabyte, 240 megapixel image. I figure it would print nicely at around twelve feet wide. I spared your internet connection the full size image. But as I mentioned above, users with Flash should be able to experience a nice point of view. I can tell you the VR interface gives the closest experience to actually standing there taking the photo I can imagine.

Enjoy, and please let me know if you experience any difficulties with the new interface.

www.ImagesOfSantaBarbara.com

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Feedback for Highway 1 VR Sunset:

Mary Ann McKeogh	March 4, 2008 10:49 am
WOW
This is fantastic. It is so real that I almost got dizzy. It worked really well. Thanks for sharing. Mary Ann

Bill Heller	March 4, 2008 1:24 pm
RE: WOW
Thanks Mary Ann! I was actually thinking of you when I was working on one of the first panoramas. I was back at Our Lady of Mount Carmel again right in the courtyard by the statue of the Virgin Mary, and I was thinking you'd really like the shot. That is when I found out you have to be REALLY fast (or have a fisheye lens) if you want to make the panoramas look good. It was sunset, and the light changed so quickly that it caused problems stitching the images together. I'll make it work there, but it will probably take another try. It is actually surprising how few places are really pretty in all directions. On first glance it seems like it would be easy to frame a shot like this since it is just 360°. But it takes quite a bit of planning. Even the sky can make an image like this look mediocre. At mid-day with no clouds half the image is just basically solid blue. That is why I go for the sunset shots with the challenging lighting. But hey, if it was not a challenge, what's the point? As always I appreciate your kind feedback! -Bill

anaPaipita	March 25, 2008 2:02 pm
Amazing!
You have been doing a fantastic work with your VR photos, I enjoyed them very much!

Robin in Tennessee	April 15, 2008 4:59 pm
I AM THERE!
Bill, if I could get ahold of you, I'd hug your neck! When I was a traveling nurse 4 years ago I was working in Oakland, CA. I e-mailed a cousin (from WV) of mine and guess where she and her husband were? CAMBRIA - I spent Superbowl Sunday looking at a sunset just like this one from the living room window (and deck) of the house on the ocean they had rented for 5 weeks. Where have you been all my life - where has your web site been? Oh my goodness, you'll never know what this picture means to me, especially after the day I've had (I'm now a director of nursing in a long term care facility) and to come home and find this-words can't describe! I was actually looking for perennial bulbs to plant in zone 7 and found your shot of a flower. Good Lord, this beats that flower! I couldn't look at it long without putting some background music on, the same song I was listening to when I drove down to the beach to take pictures of the sea lions...."Try And Love Again" by the Eagles. Thank you soooo much for this shot! I've been wanting to get a Circuit camera and take 360 panoramics like the ones I've gathered from WV of old coal miners, New River Gorge Bridge, the town I got my marriage license in - Fayetteville. WV is beautiful, but it doesn't hold a candle to the California coast! While there, I drove up the PCH to Mendocino... breath-taking! Got any pics of that precious little town? Again, thank you, you've made my day, month, year! Bless you, from Tennessee!

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	NOTE: No automated emails are sent from this system and all submissions are securely reviewed offline prior to posting on the site. ^† Your email address is optional. If you do provide it, it will not be displayed on the site and it will never be given out to anyone. -Bill Heller

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Highway 1 VR Sunset

Sunset over the beach in Cambria, CA