One-Year Ago (08-September-2012)

Gone to see Europe. Semester at Sea. Fall 2012 Semester Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 16: Stonehenge.

While traveling, I have been testing different camera gear. In part to see if I can get high quality images with new lighter weight travel kits. The Nikon 1 V1 camera with the 30-110 mm VR lens (10 MP) is much lighter than the Nikon D800 and 50 mm f/1.4G lens. I took ten vertical images of Stonehenge with the N1V1 at 110 mm and combined them using the Photoshop CS6 panorama feature. The ultimate image ended up being 16850 x 5400 pixels. I spent some time using “content aware” to remove the people in the image. The other image is cropped from a single image taken with the D800 and 50 mm f/1.4 lens. In this case, I didn’t take the time to remove the tourists from image. Let me know which you think is best, but I am afraid that I will continue to carry a heavier kit.

Summer Morning at Stonehenge. Composite Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 and 30-110 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 110 mm, f/11, 1/200 sec). Composite of 10 vertical images processed using Photoshop CS6 (David J. Mathre)
Summer Morning at Stonehenge. Composite Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 and 30-110 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 110 mm, f/11, 1/200 sec). Composite of 10 vertical images processed using Photoshop CS6 (David J. Mathre)
Summer Morning at Stonehenge. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600 sec). (David J. Mathre)
Summer Morning at Stonehenge. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600 sec). (David J. Mathre)

Author: David Mathre

I am a scientist by training (Eckerd College, BSc; Caltech, Ph.D.). I worked for 27 years as a Chemist in the Pharmaceutical Industry developing processes to manufacture medicines for human and animal health. I now spend my time as a photographer and world traveler. My interests include the natural world, wildlife, landscapes, sky, and seascapes, travel, and astrophotography. I look for unique ways of viewing the world and presenting my images. I have traveled to over 55 countries in six continents, often on Semester at Sea voyages. While at home in New Jersey, I spend time on home renovation and expansion of a wildflower garden/meadow.

2 thoughts on “One-Year Ago (08-September-2012)”

  1. Hey Dave:
    Happy & HEALTHY New Year to you.

    Well, i like the detail better in number two and while eliminating the people is probably the right thing to do and being anal-retentive i would do the same…however, i think that the people give a terrific perspective that is not present in the first photo. Maybe just keep a few people. (make sure that you don’t content-aware erase parts of families, creating widows and orphans) 🙂

    1. Likewise David, Happy & Healthy New Year to you and yours.

      I think some of the difference has to do with the D800 using a higher bit depth (14 vs 12). When we got to Stonehenge, we had to wait nearly an hour before it opened for tourists — although there was a group of photographers in earlier that were just leaving. It would have been neat to get the early morning light and the fog.

      DJM

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