Impressive Cloud Formations @ Davidson’s Mill Pond Park

A few weeks ago we went to Davidson’s Mill Pond Park to take a walk through the woods. On the way to the path going through woods we noticed the cloud formations were very large & impressive. So I shot a series of multi-image cloud panoramas and some single image cloud views with my OM-D Mk1 with a 7.5mm Fisheye lens. Even with a 7.5mm Fisheye lens with a FOV 180 degrees I had to shoot multiple image panoramas to get the cloud formations in the shots. Because I was using a FishEye lens I had to de-fish the images with the Adaptive Wide Angle Filter in Photoshop before being able to blend the images for the panoramas. The Featured Image was a 3 Image Panorama taken with the OM-D 1 with the 7.5mm lens.

6 Image Panorama, 7.5mm Fisheye Lens, Images DeFished in Photoshop Before making Panorama Image
Clouds, 2 Image Panorama, 7.5mm Fisheye Lens, Olympus OM-D1
Clouds, 3 Image Panorama, 7.5mm Fisheye Lens (De-Fished Image), Olympus OM-D1
Clouds, 4 Vertical Image Panorama, 7.5mm Fisheye Lens (De-Fished Image), Olympus OM-D1
Clouds, 3 Image Panorama, 7.5mm Fisheye Lens (De-Fished Image), Olympus OM-D1
Clouds, 4 Vertical Image Panorama, 7.5mm Fisheye Lens (De-Fished Image), Olympus OM-D1
Clouds, 3 Vertical Image Panorama, 7.5mm Fisheye Lens (De-Fished Images), Olympus OM-D1
Clouds, 8 Image Panorama, 7.5mm Fisheye Lens (De-Fished Images), Olympus OM-D1
Clouds, 4 Vertical Image Panorama, 7.5mm Fisheye Lens (De-Fished Images), Olympus OM-D1
Clouds, 5 Image Panorama, 7.5mm Fisheye Lens (De-Fished Images), Olympus OM-D1

Golf Course Multi-Image iPhone Cloud Panoramas

Another series of cloud panoramas looking across to the golf driving range. In our community we have a par 72, 18 hole championship golf course on 104 acres with 900 mature trees, one small and two large lakes. I never liked golf, but it looks nice to photograph with the clouds!

Cloud Panorama, iP11 Pro, 4.3mm lens, (Full Frame Equivalent Field of View 26mm) 2 Image Panorama
Clouds 7 Image Golf Course Panorama, IP11 Pro 6mm lens, Full Frame Field of View Equivalent 52mm
Clouds 9 Image Panorama, IP11 Pro, 6mm Lens- Full Frame Equivalent Field of View 52mm
Clouds, 4 Image Panorama, IP11 Pro, 4.3mm Lens- Full Frame Equivalent Field of View 26mm
Clouds 6 Vertical Image Panorama, IP11 Pro, 6mm Lens- Full Frame Equivalent Field of View 52mm
Clouds, 2 Vertical Image Image Panorama, IP11 Pro, 6mm Lens- Full Frame Equivalent Field of View 52mm
Clouds, 14 Image Panorama, IP11 Pro, 6mm Lens- Full Frame Equivalent Field of View 52mm
Clouds, 16 Image Panorama, IP11 Pro, 6mm Lens- Full Frame Equivalent Field of View 52mm
Clouds, 44 Image Double Stack Panorama, IP11 Pro, 6mm Lens- Full Frame Equivalent Field of View 52mm, Digital Zoom 197 %, 92mm Full Frame Field of View

Hole In The Clouds

As we were taking a walk in our community I noticed the dense clouds above us. In one area of the thick cloud cover there was a circular opening in the Dark Cloud cover. I thought it looked interesting so I took a series of images with my iPhone 11 Pro. The Featured Image was taken with the 6mm lens with a digital zoom added (216 percent) for a Full Frame Equivalent Image taken @ 111 mm. Usually I do not use the digital zoom feature on the iPhone, but wanted a full image featuring the “Hole”. I did not take out the “Noise” in the Featured Image since I thought it added some to the “Dark Mood” of the image. I then shot a 2 image vertical panorama to get more of the clouds above since below would have some buildings that I did not want. Then I backed off and shot a series of wider views of the Dark Clouds.

2 Image vertical Pano, iP11 Pro, 6mm Lens with 216 percent Digital Zoom added in iP11 Pro, Full Frame Equiv. ~111mm
Single Horizontal Image, iP 11 Pro, 6mm Lens, Full Frame Camera Equivalent 52mm
Single Vertical Image, iP 11 Pro, 6mm Lens, Full Frame Camera Equivalent 52mm

iPhone Cloudscapes

While taking a walk in our community, we noticed very low huge cloud formations. They were quite impressive, so I shot a series of images with my iPhone 11 Pro. Most were panoramas shot with multiple images to be assembled in Photoshop for the final image. I do not usually use the pano feature in the iPhone because it distorts the left & right ends of the image giving a “bowing distortion” in the middle. Most images were shot with the 6mm lens with digital zoom added in the iPhone. I never really used the digital zoom feature much before, but it actually worked out quite well, especially for clouds.

The featured image is a single shot with the 6mm lens with 318% Digital Zoom added on the phone. I was photographing from a distance because if I got closer the trees blocked more of the bottom of the clouds and I only could photograph the small top cloud section.

Clouds_#15_6mm_55mm_106 dig zoom

Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 4.3mm lens, 195% Digital Zoom Added, 3 Image Blend in Photoshop

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Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 6mm lens, 168% Digital Zoom Added, 4 image Panorama, Blended in Photoshop

Clouds_#9_3img_6mm_134mm digitl zoom_v1

Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 6mm lens with 260% Digital Zoom added, 3 image Panorama, Blended in Photoshop

Clouds ip11_Pro_6mm_318percent Digital zoom

Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 6mm lens with 318% Digital Zoom added, 3 image Panorama, Blended in Photoshop

Clouds_iP_11_Pro_52mm_2x digital zoom_16x9_

Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 6mm lens with 213% Digital Zoom added, 5 image Panorama, Blended in Photoshop

Clouds 3_iP11_Pro_6mm +213_digial zoom_

Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 6mm lens with 214% Digital Zoom added, 5 image Panorama, Blended in Photoshop

Vermont Cloudscape Panorama

This is a 4 image Cloudscape Panorama from a previous trip to Vermont. Images were shot @ 47mm with a Canon 24-105mm lens. I did not want to shoot wider because of buildings below & blank sky above which distracted from the main cloud formations.

Cloud Reflections In Wet Sidewalk – iPhone 11

It stopped raining so I was walking on the sidewalk outside my home and noticed some interesting reflections of the clouds above in the wet sidewalk below. The clouds also looked a little like ice on the sidewalk. They finally opened some of the parks here in NJ, but are limiting the amount of people they let in. So I was looking for something to post here and thought these might be interesting. The featured image was the first image I photographed in this series with the 6mm lens (Full Frame equivalent 52mm) & using the 4:3 format. The rest of the images are panoramas shot with the same lens but with the 16×9 format and different numbers of images shot for each panorama. I do not like the distortion you get using the iPhone pano feature because of the extremely small lenses, so I shoot a series of multiple single images for each panorama and assemble them in Photoshop. Using the 16×9 format instead of the standard 4:3 format on the iPhone 11 Pro, gave me a longer image to start with so I did not need as many images to work with. But because of the extremely small 6mm lens I tend to shoot more images for the series to help minimize distortion. Overall they aligned nicely and only needed a few tweaks after Photoshop aligned and blended them.

_Sidewalk_Clouds Reflection 5_img_1v2_6x9_iP11_Pro 6mm

5 image panorama, 6mm lens, 16 x 9 format, iPhone 11 Pro

_Sidewalk_Clouds Reflection 4_img_iP11_Pro 6mm

4 image panorama- 16 x 9 format, 6mm lens, iPhone 11 Pro

_Sidewalk_Clouds Reflection 5_img_16x9_format_iP11_Pro 6mm

7 image panorama- 16 x 9 format, 6mm lens, iPhone 11 Pro

 

_Sidewalk_Clouds Reflection 7_img_vert_iP11_Pro 6mm

4 image panorama- 16 x 9 format, 6mm lens, iPhone 11 Pro

Bailey Tract – J.N. Ding Darling NWR

Most people that go to J.N. Ding Darling NWR do not know of, or go to the Bailey Tract in Sanibels’ Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. The tract is on Tarpon Bay Rd., not in the main Refuge and Wildlife Drive. The major feature of the Bailey Tract  is a series of impoundments and dikes built years ago to attract waterfowl, including ducks, grebes, coots and moorhens. It still does, but as part of the J.N. “Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge it also creates a perfect place for hikers and bikers to see them. It’s a great place to take a peaceful walk or hike on its 100 acre grounds. We just took a leisurely walk though one afternoon when we were in Sanibel. We did not see a lot of Wildlife, but that was probably because it was in the afternoon when things quiet down. It seems like it is not visited much like the main Refuge. So you can feel quite alone here. It was rare to see another person walking the trails as you walk through. Also there are no staff here. I was traveling light with just an Olympus OM1 with a 14 – 140mm lens. We were just enjoying the beautiful day and a nice walk.

Information Signs along the way to help visitors ID or give information for what they might see.

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2 image panorama @ 14mm, m43 format

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2 image panorama @ 14mm, m43 format  (very slight overlapping of images)

 

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3 horizontal images stacked @14mm – m43 Olympus

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Single Image @ 41mm

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Bailey Landscape – 2 image panorama @14mm

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2 image Panorama @ 14mm

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Single Image @ 28mm

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Lizard @ 140mm

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Small Pond with Alligator Submerged @ 48mm

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Same as above 14mm view

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Landscape w/ hidden Alligator @ 32mm  (2 img pano) –  above this plant in the water on left

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Another Lizard @ 140mm

 

Brigantine Cloud Panoramas

I finally had a chance to work on some panoramas I shot last month at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville NJ. The cloud formations on this day were amazing. So I had a lot of choices for working with series panoramas while we were there. Lately I have been using an Olympus m43 Camera with a 14mm – 140mm zoom for landscapes or general info shots and the Canon R with a 400mm DO lens or the Tamron 150-600mm for Wildlife. It is a lot easier to carry a smaller m43 camera with a wide zoom range along with the heavier full frame camera with longer lenses, instead of 2 large camera bodies. The m43 format with a 14-140mm zoom seems a little harder to do multi-image panoramas @14mm but after working with it for quite a while I am getting more usable & predictable panoramas. Sort of a learning curve I guess. Basically I overlap the images more. At 14mm with m43 format it is sort of the equivalent (field of view) of 28mm on a full frame DSLR. All the images here are shot at 14mm but go from 2 to 8 images for each photo panorama. Some were vertical images and some were horizontal images for each image.

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2 – 14mm Horizontal images panorama 

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Panorama- 4 Vertical Images @14mm

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Panorama – 3 vertical images stacked @ 14mm

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3 horizontal images stacked @14mm

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Panorama – 4 horizontal images @14mm

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2 horizontal images stacked @ 14mm

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2 Horizontal images @14mm Stacked

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2 Horizontal images – Atlantic City on left @14mm

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2 Horizontal Images Stacked @ 14mm

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2 Horizontal Images Stacked – Osprey Platform @ 14mm

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2 Horizontal images Stacked @14mm

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2 -Horizontal Images @14mm

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3 – Horizontal Images Stacked @14mm

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2 – 14mm Horizontal Images Stacked 

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7 – 14mm Images stacked

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Two Trees – 3 Images Vertical Stacked 

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Brigantine Landscape- 3 Horizontal Images Stacked @14mm

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Brigantine Landscape w/ Clouds – 2 Horizontal Images @14mm

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Brigantine 3 Vertical Images @14mm

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Brigantine – 2 Horizontal Images @ 14mm

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Brigantine NWR 2 Image panorama 

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Brigantine NWR – 3 Image panorama @14mm

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7 image panorama – 7 – 12mm vertical images combined in Photoshop

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2 Vertical Images @14mm

High Flight Of Snow Geese At Blackwater NWR

We went for 2 days to photograph at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Maryland. Early in the morning, along the Wildlife Drive on the second day we saw a huge flock of Snow Geese flying out under a heavy cloud cover. They were quite high and took a few minutes for the waves of them to pass by. Probably 500 to 700 (or more) passed by in multiple waves.

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14-140mm lens @ 14mm with Olympus OMD Mk1

CloudBurst At Blackwater

I liked these clouds by the lookout platform at Blackwater NWR. It reminded me of a starburst, but with clouds. I decided to leave the top of a small tree as a center point for a visual center to draw your eye. Three images @24mm, combined in Photoshop with layered masks for blending the three images.

 

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