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O’ahu, Hawai’i

Marcus — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:22:04 +0000

Final stop: O’ahu. Waikiki is just a tourist trap, but fortunately O’ahu has more to offer than crowded beaches, shops and Asian food. Here’s proof:

looking eastwards from Pali Overlook, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

Moli'i Pond seen from Kualoa Ranch, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

Chinaman's Hat (Mokolii) seen from Kualoa Regional Park, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

Kualoa Regional Park, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

Hanauma Bay, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

Waikiki seen from Diamond Head, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

Diamond Head crater, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

eastward view outside Diamond Head, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

dusk over Waikiki, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

morning view of Waikiki, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

downtown Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i (panorama)

Maui, Hawai’i

Marcus — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:19:53 +0000

After a week on the Big Island, we headed over to Maui. Here are some panoramic highlights…

Kihei beach, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

sunrise over Haleakala crater, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama, DRI)

Science City, Haleakala summit, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

Haleakala Crater, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

Iao Valley, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

Iao Needle, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

creek in Iao Valley, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

somewhere on the Road to Hana, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

loop trail on the Road to Hana, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

Keanae peninsula, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

Honokalani Black Sand Beach in Waianapanapa State Park, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

Kipahulu Area, Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

Kipahulu Area, Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawai'i (vertorama)

La Perouse Bay, Maui, Hawai'i (panorama)

my favorite focal lengths

Marcus — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:32:50 +0000

I have been meaning to something like this for quite a while, plotting the distribution of the focal lengths used in the pictures I shoot, to see which portions of the zoom range get the most action. Here is the graph for our recent vacation on Hawai’i, obtained using the Lightroom 4 beta and Jeffrey Friedl’s Focal Length Sort:

Distribution of focal lengths used during three weeks in Hawai'i. Blue bars include shots that were stitched into panoramas, green bars represent only single-frame images.

Only the shots that I kept out of the 3,180 total were used to make the figure.

Interestingly, the short focal lengths see the most use, with the minimum possible length dominating the statistics, even more so when including the shots comprising the 205 panoramas. I guess that’s not unusual, since most of these are pictures of landscape (after all, it’s Hawai’i). However, I was obviously to lazy (or too hurried) to even once switch to the 14mm pancake lens that I lugged around with me.
There were a couple of situations (<1.5% of the pictures) where I likely could have used a longer lens, but had to settle for the 55mm long end of my 18-55mm zoom.

Big Island, Hawai’i

Marcus — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:19:46 +0000

I am still catching up to getting some order into the pictures I took during our last vacation on Hawai’i. And that was back in September! Anyway, here are some of the better panoramas from our first stop, Big Island. Click through for the large version at flickr, with a short description.

scenic point on Hwy 19, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

Pololu Valley lookout, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

halfway down Pololu Valley, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

Pololu Valley, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

Pololu Valley, Big Island, Hawai'i (vertorama)

Rainbow Falls, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

cove in Onomea Bay, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

off Hawai'i Belt Road, Kau, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

Halema'uma'u Crater in Kilauea Caldera, Volcanoes National Park, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

cinder cone off Saddle Road, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

clouds rolling in, Mauna Kea Access Road, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

central Big Island seen from Mauna Kea Visitor Center, Hawai'i (panorama)

seeing double at Mauna Kea Visitor Center, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

W.M. Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea summit, Big Island, Hawai'i

cinder cones and observatories, Mauna Kea summit, Big Island, Hawai'i

Lake Waiau, Mauna Kea summit, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

Kealakekua Bay, Big Island, Hawai'i (panorama)

ECOC in Torino

Marcus — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 19:04:04 +0000

This year’s ECOC conference took place in Torino, Italy. Time to see a couple folks that I hadn’t seen in a while, as well as a great city. Here are some images from various exploration tours through Torino…

Lingotto Center roof access

This is the access ramp by which one can reach the roof of the Lingotto Center. Back when this was a car factory, the finished cars came down here after taking a test drive on the roof track.

ECOC 2010 conference rooms

The main conference "rooms." Basically, they built four huge cubicles inside an even huger hall, put some chairs and a beamer in each cubicle and called it the conference venue. Very reminiscent of ECOC 2008 in Brussels, which sucked about as much. Since the cubicle walls didn't go all the way up to the ceiling, sound traveled marvelously between the rooms, inspiring many a nerdy joke about signal-to-noise ratios, crosstalk levels, and the like. They tried to improve things by installing some sort of fabric to close the gaps (just right of the center info wall), but failed miserably.

statue on Piazza Castello

Since the Palazzo Madama was being given a makeover, they put this ghastly IKEA ad on the outside of the scaffolding. It slightly impaired the historic feeling one might have otherwise had standing at this very location (even more impairing was the apartment high-rise right across the street).

Mole Antonelliana across the Giardino Reale

One of the city’s landmarks, the Mole houses a museum (not very interesting) and a glass-wall elevator going up to a platform with a panoramic view of the city (very interesting). Unfortunately, both require an entrance fee.

YOTOT(MC): Mole Antonelliana western view (panorama)

Of course I went up on the Mole, making some use of the great pre-sunset light and shooting panoramas.
This is the view into the direction of the Palazzo Reale, which can be seen to the left of the Giardino Reale, the Royal Garden. In the background one can even see the Alps (doesn’t happen too often, I was told).

YOTOT(MC): Mole Antonelliana shadow

My contribution to the "Your own shadow on the flickr ground" group.

YOTOT(MC): Mole Antonelliana northern-ish view (panorama)

Another panorama from the top of Mole Antonelliana in sunset light. The mountains in the background are still the Alps.

balustrade at Reggia di Venaria Reale

The ECOC conference gala dinner took place at Reggia di Venaria Reale. This is a balustrade along its main court.
Personally, I didn’t enjoy the dinner so much. Food was good, but it started late due to some organizational mishap, went on for way too long (next day was a conference day), and it was way, way to loud inside the hall to have a conversation without yelling.

fountains at Reggia di Venaria Reale

Just before we went inside to have dinner, they turned on the fountains which "danced" to some music. Not the Bellagio, but pretty cool.
The funniest thing, though, was all these supposedly smart people trying to take pictures of it with their handheld mobile phone cameras. I mean I had trouble getting a shake-free picture at ISO800 with a nearly APS-C-sized sensor. Fortunately, one Japanese woman was kind enough to make this shot a bit more interesting…

Ponte Umberto I (panorama)

Ponte Umberto I across the river Po in Torino. We were on our way to Monte dei Cappuccini (visible near the left edge of the picture) and had to hurry a bit as the sun was already setting…

no sense of direction

Two soon-to-be ex-colleagues of mine exploring Torino during ECOC 2010. There were particularly many sightseeing options at this intersection, but we actually knew where we were going…

bull's head drinking fountain

A drinking fountain at the top of Monte dei Cappuccini in Torino.

Gran Madre di Dio (vertorama)

Torino’s Pantheon look-alike, the Gran Madre di Dio church offers a nice view over the river Po into the city. We had about 2 minutes inside before they threw us out because they were closing for the day…

Piazza San Carlo at night

Coming back from a walk through Torino during the ECOC 2010 conference.

Torino arcade

This is just one of the arcades along Piazza San Carlo in Torino. Taken quite shortly after this photo.

¡Viva México!

Marcus — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 11:02:51 +0000

It’s been a while since we returned from México and I wanted to post some of the pictures I took there much earlier. But I’ve been busy and thus it took me quite a while to get them all on flickr (and also write a little something about each of them). Now that they are complete, I’ve put them all together here again for your viewing pleasure.

Click on the images to see a full-size version.

During our stay in Mexico this July, Julia managed to get up early enough for sunrise once, I did twice. We were both there for this one. (The one I got up for alone wasn't that spectacular.) The rain clouds that were with us every now and then managed to create this crazy diffuse glow that basked everything in an orange haze. Absolutely awesome. From the looks of it, it was raining heavily about a mile or so north of us while we were clear to take an early morning swim (at least Julia did...)

Mexico does not only have very purrty sunrises, but also some very nice sunsets, as evidenced by this panoramic view of the beach belonging to the conference resort. We were actually a wee bit late for the actual setting of the sun (we had to find a golf cart that would take us from the resort / pool area down to the beach), but this afterglow was at least equally photogenic...

Here is another shot from the day we went to the beach to see the sun rise over the Caribbean. In the foreground is one of the hotel pools, in the background the sea. Heavy clouds are rolling in...

On a quite rainy day, we decided to take the ferry to the island of Cozumel to do some snorkeling and general frolicking. Unfortunately, we missed our ferry by about 5 minutes or so and had to wait almost 2 hours for the next one. We spent that trying not to get too wet. If you ever want to go snorkeling on Cozumel, here's two tips for you, free of charge: - Don't take a tour in the boats that take off right at the ferry pier. They just drive you around near the port area where you'll share the water with three or four other groups of people who had the same idea. - Put on sunblock, even if it's cloudy. Or leave on your shirt in the water. I had the worst sunburn ever, even though the sun never really came out. So, put on sunblock.

JSOVT(MB) is back with a Mexican edition. After the conference we moved from the resort in Playa del Carmen to a more affordable hotel in the Cancún hotel row. Initially, we had a terrible room with a view of the construction site next door where they were building a huge new hotel. After some complaining we eventually got a quieter room on the other side of the hotel (we also got some money back after we complained some more to opodo). Anyway, after getting there in the early afternoon, we took a stroll along the beach and found these cabanas which are just perfect for spending the day at the beach. Even though Julia's more lying than sitting, I guess the image qualifies for a JSOVT(MB)...

Another shot from our first beach stroll in Cancún. The sun had already started setting on the other side of the hotel row and the beach was quite shadowy. Would have been a perfect moment to set up the external flash. Only that I don't own one and Julia's generally a bit too impatient for these things...

Me lying in a hammock on the beach in front of the Le Meridien hotel in Cancún.

You can't really go to the Yucatán peninsula without visiting Chichén Itzá, one of the (new) seven wonders of the world. After a lengthy (but pleasant) bus ride from Cancún we were fortunate to have heavily overcast weather with occasional drops of rain, since it is usually unbearably hot in July this far inland. Recent digging revealed previously hidden terraces right in front of the great pyramid, an area that is fenced off. Along this fence line are the only positions from which you can take pictures of the pyramid without also having a whole bunch of people in the picture. So I did.

I'll admit the hotel isn't that spectacular and may not necessarily warrant being posted in my photostream, but I did get up terribly early to shoot the sunrise during which this picture was taken. It is the elderly hotel in which we stayed during our visit to Cancún. What you don't see is the construction site of a huge hotel on the other side of the building. Initially, we had a room towards the construction, which was terribly loud very early in the morning. But after some complaining we got a better one on the other side. So at least we could sleep late (unless I got up early to shoot the sunrise).

Unlike just a few years ago, most of the ruins at the Chichén Itzá site are off-limits for tourists nowadays. You used to be able to climb right to the top of the pyramid if you were fit enough to do that (probably not an easy feat in the jungle heat there). Today most of the ruins are fenced off and may not be entered. But here and there are a few pillars and walls, remnants of old temples, that are more accessible. Can you find Julia in the picture?

The first few iguanas we saw in Tulum, MX were awesome, novel, and interesting. Had to photograph each one of them. But when we noticed that hundreds of them made their home in the old Mayan ruins, the novelty quickly gave way to mere recognizance of their existence... Anyway, every now and then one of them would let me get very close for a portrait shot before slowly running away another meter or so. Mr. Iguana here is one of the bigger ones.

This is a part of the Mayan ruins in Tulum, which was the only Mayan city to be located at a coast (instead of deep within the jungle). The structures seen here helped the Mayas figure out when the various seasons started – depending on where their shadows fell. The thing in the center is supposed to have been the temple. Even though we were there pretty early and it was only partly sunny, temperatures soon climbed beyond 30°C with around 120% (felt) humidity. I couldn't drink the water we brought as fast as I was sweating it out.

This is what we saw coming into Mexico from Atlanta. Forebodings of a rainy week. Awesome clouds, though, at least from above. I always feel kinda guilty when pulling out my camera on a plane, since carriers are so picky with electronic equipment being turned on in flight. But I'm proud to say that no plane has crashed yet because of me turning my camera on. Most of the time pictures taken from a plane suck anyways. Especially mine. But this one is pretty okay, just couldn't miss the chance to contribute more to the "Cloudporn" group...

View from behind the main temple in the Mayan ruins of Tulum. It is supposedly the only Mayan city that was built right at the coast (instead of somewhere in the jungle), and I can understand why. Spectacular view. I assume the stairs are not of Mayan origin, though. Unfortunately, you can't see in the picture how hot it was on that day...

pictures from Paris

Marcus — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:00:08 +0000

Here are some pictures from our recent weekend trip to Paris. We had a great time (although my legs still hurt two days after we were back from all the walking around) and were very lucky with the weather. I can only recommend a trip there for anyone who has not seen it yet. You need more than a day and a half, though, too see it all…

Arc de Triomphe (panorama)

looking down Avenue des Champs-Élysées in the direction of Palais du Louvre (center)…

Arc de Triomphe (panorama) v2

This is another version of the Arc de Triomphe panorama, using the same set of photos, in which the individual shots were stitched together differently to give a more realistic perspective.
I think I like this one better, but with this method the panoramas cannot become too wide since the distortions increase significantly the further one goes to the left and right. That is why the Tour Eiffel is missing in this one…

La Défense (panorama)

This is another one taken from the Arc de Triomphe, this time looking in the opposite direction, down the Avenue de la Grand Armée towards La Défense.

La Tour Eiffel

inside La Tour Eiffel

This was taken going up the stairs inside the southern "leg" of the tower, somewhere below the lowest platform. At night, the whole tower is bathed in yellowish sodium light, inside and out. The round things in the center of the picture are the lamps, illuminating upwards away from me.

JSOVT(MB): La Tour Eiffel

We didn’t have a JSOVT(MB) for quite a while I guess, even though Julia’s been sitting everywhere. Heh. Well, here’s one that fits nicely into the Eiffel Tower series that I got going here. It was actually Julia’s idea to do this, it being her series and all.

Okay, so this was taken on the first platform of the Eiffel tower. We took the stairs up to the second platform, from where you have to take the elevator to the very top. However, after waiting in line for this elevator for about half an hour we were told that our tickets were only good for the stairs and thus the second platform, and we would have to buy "extension tickets" to go all the way up. This would have meant getting in that line again after buying the tickets and after a whole day’s walking through Paris we were too tired at 11pm to do that. So I guess we have to come back to Paris one day to finish the Eiffel Tower…

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (panorama)

There is nothing very amazing about this panorama and the only reason that I post it is the amount of work that went into it. It’s the little brother of the Arc de Triomphe that lives between the Louvre and the Tuileries. When we were at the place, there were at least three times as many people there as you can see in this picture. I shot the panorama with a lot of overlap between pictures and was able to remove a lot of the folks in post, as they were moving around. Lots of cutting, though, which took its time.

We didn’t visit the Louvre on this trip, since had we done so we wouldn’t have had time for much else, but it’s gonna happen one day. It’s only a 3-hour train ride…

YOTOT(MC) goes Hamburg

Marcus — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:02:55 +0000

Letztens waren wir zu der Hochzeit einer Schulfreundin von Julia nach Hamburg eingeladen. Und wenn man schon mal quer durch Schlahand fliegt, dann bleibt man auch gerne mal länger, um sich die Ecken anzuschauen, die man noch nicht kennt. Nunja, zumindest einer von uns beiden. Und da das gute Wetter dieses Jahr scheinbar nördlich der Mainlinie zu finden ist, verbrachten wir drei herrlich sonnige Tage bei den Hamburgern (nicht die essbare Art), so mit Hafenrundfahrt, Stadtrundfahrt und dem ganzen Schnackschnick.

Es gehörte natürlich zum Pflichtprogramm, mal auf das Hamburger Wahrzeichen zu klettern und in luftiger Höhe ein paar YOTOT(MC)* Bilder zu knipsen. Übrigens, wenn man die 400-irgendwas Stufen des Michel auf sich nimmt, kann man die halbe Stunde Wartezeit am Fahrstuhl überspringen – billiger wird der Spaß dadurch zwar nicht, aber im Vergleich zu manch anderen Kirchen sind die Treppen geradezu kommod. Wenn man sich dann erstmal durch die Horden von Gleichgesinnten zu den Plätzen mit Aussicht durchgekämpft hat, muss man nur noch seine Kamera durch die Gitter stecken und kann ein paar erstklassige Panoramen schießen, mit fantastischem Blick über den Hafen auf der einen Seite und die Innenstadt auf der anderen. Bis man weggedrängelt wird…

Hier nun, ohne noch mehr Gelaber, die Bilder:

YOTOT(MC): Saint Michaelis, south-ish view (panorama)

YOTOT(MC): Saint Michaelis, west-ish view (panorama)

YOTOT(MC): Saint Michaelis, north-ish view (panorama)

YOTOT(MC): Saint Michaelis, east-ish view (panorama)

More tk.

* Yaisog on Top of Things (Mostly Churches)

Bob Dylan zu Besuch

Marcus — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:58:39 +0000

Hier sind ein paar Bilder vom Wochenende, an dem uns Cici Hodenmaier, a.k.a. Bob Dylan besucht hat…

Two for the price of one and a world premiere: JSOVT(MB) and CSOVT(MS) in a single shot. When Bob Dylan visited us recently here in Karlsruhe, I finally had the chance to combine the two "sitting on" series, and took it.
Them two are sitting on the steps of a statue in front of the Karlsruhe castle.

Here’s another duet with Bob Dylan and Julia…

When my old buddy (actually I’m the old one, by a couple of years) Cici Hodenmaier visited us recently in our new home in the southwest, I finally had the chance to shoot a couple of frames for the now world-famous series Cici Sitting On Various Things (Mostly Stairs), or CSOVT(MS) for short.
On a not particularly sunny Sunday, I dragged him off our couch to go see the Turmberg (tower hill) east of Karlsruhe. The Turmberg is home to a medieval castle ruin, or what remains of it. Actually, the tower in the background is already all that remains of it. But, as not unusual with towers, one can climb them to take terrific panoramic shots. So expect something new for my other famous series, YOTOT(MC), soon. On a clear day, one can see most of the Rhine valley that separates Germany from France in that region.
Good to have had Cici around for old times’ sake. Oh, the memories.

Pictures from Pisa

Marcus — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:42:09 +0000

Damals im Februar war’s, glaube ich. Da durfte ich für zwei Tage nach Pisa zu einem Meeting über eins der verschiedenen Projekte, die bei uns an der Uni so laufen. Gastgeber war die Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, der Lehrstuhl von Enrico Forestieri, dem Meister der Fehlerwahrscheinlichkeiten in der Optik. Vom Forestieri hab’ ich zwar nix gesehen, aber dafür war ich ein bisschen in der recht übersichtlichen Altstadt von Pisa unterwegs. Viel mehr als den Schiefen Turm, auf dem Galilei rumgeturnt ist, und dem Dom daneben gibt es für Touristen aber nicht zu sehen. Das führt dann dazu, dass die Letzteren neben dem Turm aus Bussen quellen, sich für eine Stunde “Pisa anschauen,” und dann in die nächste Stadt gekarrt werden…

One of the columns next to the entrance of the Pisa Cathedral, looking upwards.

I tried to get some bokeh-action going here and had to use quite a long focal, so this is only the upper half. Interestingly, I saw pretty much the same picture (maybe less bokeh-y) in a Pisa travel guide – I guess I’m always taking only the same boring pictures that everyone else is.

The stairway leading up to the topmost platform on the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Here’s a view downward from near the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa…

This is the Cathedral of Pisa seen from the top of the leaning tower of Pisa, stitched from three portrait shots. It probably wasn’t worth paying €15 to go up there for 30 minutes, but there’s nothing else to do in Pisa, and I had the whole morning to explore the town before the meeting I came to Pisa for started…