Month: June 2011

@PTGui: Best Getting Even Better!

Making a 360º panorama has always been part science, part art, and part voodoo—with an emphasis on the later. But @PTGui, the software I use to stitch all of the pano photos together into a single panorama, has really become wonderfully powerful and just a delight to use. Now the odds of a pano actually working well are really high!… Continue reading

360º Pano of Carlton Point in Tasmania, Australia

One of the advantages of having a GPS is that I never really feel lost. Instead, I feel better equipped to explore. Especially when following coastal areas, where I can see the edge of the land mass on the GPS, I feel compelled to ask, “I wonder where this road leads?” And when that unsealed road dead ended in a… Continue reading

Well-Hidden and Unassuming

I recently finished reading Eli Pariser‘s The Filter Bubble:  What the Internet is Hiding from You.  I highly, highly recommend this as essential reading.  He provides some intense thinking in every chapter about the serious implications of where the internet is currently taking us.  Brilliantly thought out and well written.  (I should probably write a whole post about his book!)… Continue reading

Australia: Days 13 and 14 — Travel from Sydney to LA

Well, I must confess that I am writing and publishing this post the night before I leave Australia. So, no, mother, I’m not home yet. I haven’t even left Australia. Of all the vacations I’ve ever taken, this one has been the most exhausting and the most rewarding. I am near death! I’m very strange in many ways. One way:… Continue reading

Australia: Day 12 — Blue Sydney & The Birds and Beasts

In a previous post, I mentioned the cool, historic, renovated hotel, built in 1897, at which I’m staying:  Blue Sydney.  The building looks the same on the outside as it always did, a condition of the permit to renovate. The entrance still feels very much like a warehouse, but the rooms are warm and welcoming.  The room in which I’m… Continue reading

Australia: Day 11 — Sydney Opera House

The first set of pictures, of the Opera House, below, were shot yesterday at the end of the day.  The remaining pictures of the Opera House were shot today from the ferry as I rode across the harbor to the zoo, and then some photos of the Opera House from the other side of the harbor. Sydney hosts an artistic… Continue reading

Australia: Day 10 — Sydney 1

We are spending time with friends who are from Sydney.  They have actually volunteered to be our official Sydney Tour Guides.  So today we walked all over the main area of the old city and ended the day down at the Opera House. Regrettably, the oddest thing has happened:  It’s raining, a lot!  I’m repeatedly told it never rains in… Continue reading

Australia: Day 9 — Travel Day: Port Douglas to Sydney

Today was a travel day from Port Douglas to Sydney and featured a leisurely drive down Captain Cook Highway, right along the ocean, from Port Arthur to Cairns, which is the town with the nearest airport.  The drive was spectacular.  Every view, every turn, every sweeping panorama was yet another gorgeous photo-worthy glimpse of paradise.  I love the picture featuring… Continue reading

Australia: Day 8 — The Great Barrier Reef

The day was dedicated to the Great Barrier Reef. Even though the weather was less than ideal, we were off to the reef. The boat ride out from Port Douglas was perhaps about an hour. The ship attached to a large pontoon anchored to the sea floor next to the reef. Fortunately, it didn’t rain while we were all actually… Continue reading