A 360-degree panoramic view over Rotterdam, taken from the northern pylon of the Willemsbrug. Rottedam South and centre can been seen clearly. The Erasmusbrug is in the far back with the Oude Haven almost in the middle.
© 2008 www.rudgr.com.
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Three massive panoramas, 8000 pixels wide!
View from 25 meters high in the RTL Netherlands television crane at the back of the Radio538 Koninginnedag concert area. Koninginnedag (or Queensday) is basically the biggest yearly national party in the Netherlands and the Radio538 hosts a large free festival in Amsterdam which about 200.000 people attend during the course of the day.
The panorama is a stitch of several Canon 5DmkII images to make it one 25 megapixel super panorama. Watch out for more to come.
Click preview for the mega-view!
Or click here to get it as a dual screen wallpaper!
Stage view with Markus Schulz on the decks (21mp).
Another view from the crance (20mp).
About time to add some panoramic images from all over the world, a section that I will be updating more over the coming months.
Most of these have been stitched using the excellent Hugin stitching tool.
View over Nagasaki, Japan, from the Clover Garden elevator. 2004
View over Capetown from Signal Hill Road. 2005
Radio538 Queensday concert panorama. 2009
Granville Island Public Market, Vancouver. 2009
Penstraat Willemstad (Curaçao). 2010
Dutch Olympic Homecoming Haarlem. 2010
I was just working on some of my hi-res panorama’s that I somehow end up taking while on the road. Figured it would be nice to share them as well on the website. They have some nice stories behind them sometimes and they are so much fun when you’ve finally managed to stitch them together (although a free little program called “Hugin” helps a lot!)
Kitzbuheler Alps with Wilder Kaiser in the background
[See location in Google Earth]
While having lost my phone during the day at a photoshoot we figured out it must be lying somewhere in this region so after dinner we used the car to get as close as possible and trace back our route from the day. We were greeted by this incredible sunset in the Kitzbuhler region with the “Wilden Kaiser” mountains as a backdrop and this amazing farmhouse in the last rays os sunshine. I was happy to have brought my Canon G9 just to be sure and boy did I made a good deciscion: what a place to live and to capture on photo! Obviously we didn’t find my cellphone but a little note instead with lipstick writing that the finder had delivered it to the Tourist Office in town. Again, what a place to live!
Thorn, the White Village
[See location in Google Earth]
While on a short three day holiday trip in southern Holland (Limburg) in a most charming little place called Thorn, known for it’s white houses as the “White Village” we had a cosy hotelroom in the middle of the town and from our window we had a fantastic view over a backalley to the right and the spectacularly litmassive Church. With my old Canon G9 I made some vertical photo’s from our window in hope of being able to stitch them back together when home. The result is so typical for the place!
La Bouverie, Southern France
[See location in Google Earth]
With inlaws living in the SouthEast of France I’m very blessed. We love taking the smaller roads up there to go though small villages where it seems that time has stood still. One of our favorite viewpoints is this one, just before heading into La Bouverie. A minuscule village that boasts a great winery where we get our wine in boxes (or as South Africans call it so nicely “Dooswijn”). Again a panorama taken with my trusty G9, a great camera if it weren’t for the clumsy controls and horrible flash settings.
Rome, it has got to be Europe’s most impressive city (yes, it easily beats Paris or London). There’s hardly a place on earth where you feel more bound to the past then here. Everywhere you look or walk there’s history, simply amazing!
So, while Rome in itself is worth the visit, a trip to the Vatican should be on everyones wishlisit as well, never mind the fact wether you are religious or not.
Click here for super-hires.
One of the, literally, highlights of any visit is climbing the dome of St. Peter’s which rises to a total height of 136.57 m (448.06 ft) from the floor of the basilica to the top of the external cross. It is the tallest dome in the world and to reach the outside balcony one has to climb about a zillion steps (it’s actually 320 from the lift but most people walk all the way which is a serious lot more). Parts take you close to the actual stonework of the dome, all small and crooked to walk. Very cramped and no place for claustrophobic people!
But when you finally reach the top (pick a “quiet” day or peroid in the year, it can be incredibly busy) the view is just stunning and definitely worth a title “Favorite Views of the World”. Enjoy!
A couple of years ago, while doing a series on the Pacific Coast Highway from Vancouver to San Diego, I ended up at the spectacularly beautiful Olympic National Park. As it is the most northwestern part of the country I decided to find the most western tip, which logically is also the most western part of the country as well.
Click here for the super hi-res image.
One night at dinner and a nice conversation with some local tourists I was told I just simply had to go and visit Cape Flattery [see in Google Earth] as it is called. So, a day later and a nice drive along forest and bits of coastline I ended up at the border of the Makah Nation Indian reserve. I expected a bit more of an Indian heritage over here but as it turned out it was just a fishing village, slightly run-down but good to find you an oversized cup of coffee and likewise donut.
Cool thing is that this tribe is officially allowed to hunt Whales as part of their heritage. This, obviously, drives conservationists completely mad but I fail to see why this should be a problem. It’s not that they are dragging the Wales by the dozens out of the water.
But, anyway, the road stops and the Cape Flattery Trail begins. A fantastic half hour walk through an amazingly green cold Rain Forest. It’s like walking in the jungle but without the sweltering heat and sounds of very strange birds and animals that you can’t see anyway.
And suddenly you’re there: the most western tip of the US where massive Pacific waves slam into the rockface with a force so brutal the coastline changes constantly. It’s one of those places that is best seen when it’s a bit foggy. Gleaming leaves and damp trees just add to the spectacular views.
And to end this favorite view: a 360 QTVR panorama of Cape Flattery.
As my job as a travel writer/photographer takes me to some incredibly amazing parts of the earth I’ve been playing with the idea to do a sort “best of world views” series. Today part one, which is in no way a ranking but just the first to hit the list. Keep an eye open for more world views soon.
(Click here for super hi-res)
Leaving Italy after a hectic but great 2-day photoshoot for ANWB Wintersport Magazine we decided to leave early and enjoy a scenic drive instead of heading straight for the highway for the 11 hour drive back home to Holland.
Hi-res Dualscreen wallpaper
Just imagine a superb blue-sky day, fresh morning air, the most amazing color of green which stretches to lush mountain bases that reach for greyish white peaks. It doesn’t get any more perfect than that! Add to that a road that winds along straight cliffs and takes you between trees and endless breathtaking views [Google Earth]. Really, the Jaufenpass (which has long been made obsolete by the Brenner Pass) is a great way to kill some time and get your camera rollin’. Good for us because there are now less people using the 2000+ meter crossover.
With 39 kilometers and 20 major turning points is has got to be one of the finest roads in the Alps. If you’re ever near: do spend some time to enjoy it. Oh, and when you do reach the highway again after enjoy the stupidest toll-road payment ever: paying for 200 meters of it. Got to be Italy…
As I’m working on a series of panoramic stitched images from Mt.St.Helens I figured it would be nice to upload a Quicktime Panorama I made when we reached the top. Quite a climb on the winter route with 6 hours of going up and 4 hours going down. Unbelievable experience though as the mountain, that blew in 1980 with a force of 500 Hiroshima atom bombs, is still rumbling and smoke comes out of the crater.
Walking through the snow proved not as easy either as it was getting quite slushy as late in the season (May), fortunately we had some proper boots with us that we had to rent in order to be able to rent crampons. Annoyingly heavy we felt quite stupid having to carry those along but they proved to be good insulation from the wet snow and provided quite a bit of tracking too. Good thing we got them anyway.
This is defintely a route a person should climb, the last bit was a bit tough but boy was it worth the view (and we got lucky it all cleared up nicely).
More info on this trip here on my site. Panoramic images coming soon!
Saturday the 26th was the kickoff for the new Dance4Life season (which is two-yearly). An almost blue sky and the Rotterdam Willemsbrug were the setting for the start. Goal was to make a live and dancing Dance4Life logo on the bridge. Just enough kids showed up despite the May holiday being a little bit of bad-timing. But hey, it was a nice sunny day which was closed in style by DJ Don Diablo.
View full album here (120 photo’s).
