Roz Wound Up

Gigapanning With Tom

Above: A short video made inside the main dome area of the Como Conservatory, while my friend Tom used his Gigapan. (Tom thought I was taking a still photograph when I pointed my camera at him—boy he can hold that smile well!) See it on YouTube if the embedded version doesn't work. You can view Tom's panorama of this area of the Como Conservatory here.

Last week I went over to Como Conservatory with my friend Tom. The goal was to find areas for taking  detailed Gigapan panoramas. In our short 90-minute outing he was able to shoot three panoramas while I occupied myself taking short little videos, chatting, generally being obnoxious, and also sketching. (You can see my Como Town sketch and a link to Tom's panorama of the same site here.)

It's Thanksgiving Day today in the U.S. and it's the perfect time to reflect on great friendships—people who let you participate in their life, their creativity, and oh, yeah, don't mind if you're lippy and obnoxious.

Below: Another short video made at the Como Conservatory, while Tom created a Gigapan of the Koi pond area. See my video of the Koi Pond on YouTube if the embedded version doesn't work.

To iPhone or Not To iPhone

Above: Tom holds his iPhone and shows how he marked the location of his favorite Cinnamon Bun stand at the Minnesota State Fair using one of the map apps available for this phone. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Something happened to the world that I knew in August. Almost everyone I knew went iPhone crazy—or so it seemed. A group of 4 other women with whom I correspond regularly as a group, started breaking out in iPhones like a rash. I admit it is awfully fun to get short videos of them out and about on their travels, but I wondered about all the chatter about apps. There seems to be an ap (or is that ap? I'd know if I had an iPhone) for everything. Frankly it amused me (and continues to amuse me no end) but it also seems dangerous. A lot of time seemed to be going into the selection and learning and application of these apps. These are all sensible, hard-working, highly productive women so I wasn't worried about them, but I did worry about what black hole I might get sucked into if I were to buy an iPhone.

A Great Honeymoon Journal and Some Tech Stuff

You have to go and look at Urban Sketchers (I know it's in my blog roll and maybe you already go and see it regularly, but if you don't, you have to go and see it right away) and check out the travel journal post by Lapin. You want to scroll down through the rows of page spreads to the end of the post and find the entire book in a flip-through variation using Flashbook at Issuu. (That's the techy-bit.) I've seen people do their web posted journals with Flashbook so that you can "turn the pages," but this links to a site where you can find lots of publications and post your own. So check that out.

But look through Lapin's honeymoon notebook because there is great fun stuff in there. (You can also get to the Honeymoon notebook by going to Lapin's blog, posted 14/07/09; maybe you should bookmark that site too!)

Gigapan-tastic: Roz Gets Gigapanned and Take a Virtual Visit to Axman

Above: a "static" view inside the St. Paul Ax-Man store, ©2009 Tom Nelson. Use the link below to Nelson's gigapan site to view the full interactive image!

Yesterday photographer Tom Nelson came over and gigapanned part of my studio. If you wonder what type of environment I work in, what surrounds me when I talk to you on the phone, or what type of brushes and easel I use (the image is that detailed) you can now check it out at Tom's gigapan site.

Gigapan—An Adventure in Panoramas!

Thursday I spent time with photographer Tom Nelson who is working with the "Gigapan" device and software to create stunning, highly detailed panoramas. The above, sixty second video from my little "still" camera shows the device, attached to one of his cameras, in action: automatically moving the camera to take the necessary shots to create the panorama. Shots are then stitched together with proprietary software. (If the embedded video doesn't show up see it here on You Tube.)

[Note: yes, he gets cut off in mid-sentence. I tried to trim this, but hey, it just made it worse. This is video-making of the low-tech kind, just laugh!]

Tom has posted some of his panoramas on the Gigapan site. See the Kurth Grain Elevator in gorgeous detail (I forgot how many megapixels this is, but it is huge, close to a trillion I think!) You can move about in the image and even take snapshots of interesting bits that will serve as bookmarks for later viewers.

For the complete list of Tom's panoramas go here.

Tom assured me that even my little Optios could be hooked up to the Gigapan and it could take the necessary shots. (If you're thinking of getting this device and software note that computers must have an Intel processor, so for Mac folks that's only the new Macs.)

Help Roz Help You

Left: A 3-1/4 x 4-3/8 inch journal made with Gutenberg paper. This journal is perfect for putting in your pocket, ready for mixed media visual journaling (Gutenberg is great for wet and dry media). Read on to learn how to acquire this tiny gem made by Roz.

Today marks eight months of daily posting on my blog. I want to write about Ruskin today. Trouble is my memory isn’t want it used to be (steel trap to sieve). I remember mentioning Ruskin in another post. I look in my blog notebook topics list and see that he wasn’t a topic over the 272 posts I’ve done so far. But he was mentioned, I know it. I even remember someone writing in and saying she bought one of his books on my recommendation. Sigh, probably mentioned him in a post on books on art.

Still, I want to write about Ruskin and I don’t want to repeat myself. Sure would be nice if I had one of those little search gizmos that could search my posts. That’s where you come in. I’ve looked and looked and the only search widgets I’ve been able to find are ones which not only search my blog posts but ALSO the web. I don’t want that. People can search the web using Google, or whatever, whenever. But when they come to my blog I want them to be able to search just my blog, find out what I have to say about what they searched for, and then get going to their next destination. That’s it.