Taking a Wider View...

I have been experimenting with panorama photography recently, taking multiple images while turning the camera around, and "stitching" them together in Photoshop to make one big picture. These are my first efforts. They leave a bit to be desired, as I don't have a nodal slide, and a couple of them were shot handheld....

(Blogger has cropped these images, so you need to click on them to see the full width of the pictures)
This is the Western Skies Scenic Byway between Panora and Stuart in Guthrie County.
It's a composite of twelve images.

Next up is the magnificent High Trestle Trail Bridge between Woodward and Madrid, taken from the road bridge on Highway 210. This is a "first draft" for a picture that I'm planning. I shot it handheld, as I just wanted to get a feel for the scene, and didn't bring a tripod. The light was tricky too, as I was shooting into the sun. Fifteen shots went into making this composite.

Next time you're on the Highway 210 bridge, don't forget to look to the north too. This eight-image composite shows the beautiful S-curve of the Des Moines River. Again handheld, I think I'll revisit this shot as well.

Hypobloggia

Only two posts in the last two months! It has been quite a time! To catch up, here are a few of the things that happened, with pictures :)

It all started on the 3rd of August, when my brother Colm, and my daughter Aisling showed up on our doorstep. Apparently, I was the only person on the planet who was unaware of the visit!
Here they are with Maggie:

Maggie, Laura, and Becky did a triathlon

We took our visitors to the Iowa State Fair. They got to line up to see the Butter Cow, eat incredibly unhealthy food, and admire some very expensive agricultural machinery.

We also went to the Adel Sweetcorn Festival. There wasn't much in the was of exciting machinery, but the food was better.

There was the Magic Sample Sunday at Prairieland Herbs.

There were two other visits of family from Ireland (these I did know about), completing what will go down in history as III11(The Irish Invasion of Iowa '11). My wonderful niece, Claire, called in on her way to Australia, and my parents came over too.

Some more random pics: The epitome of Iowa - corn and sky.

And pretty wildflowers.

Oh, and I did a fun photography workshop!

High Trestle Trail Bridge

It wasn't until Labour Day that we finally got a chance to go out n to the High Trestle Trail Bridge between Madrid and Woodward. It was a beautiful evening, there were lots of people having a good time, and the bridge was truly amazing. My pictures don't really do it justice....

"...The Bombs Bursting In The Air"

Again this year we were treated to a fabulous fireworks display at Brian and Becky's farm in Panora, Iowa. The most excellent show was put on by Danny Moss, a licenced pyrotechnician.

More from the Ansco

Some corn cribs that we saw on our drive on Saturday. These were taken on the Ansco, on T-Max 100. I did a little Photoshopping on some of these images - straightening, dust spotting and cropping. 

This is Donna's lovely corn crib.