David's Visual Arts - St. Kitts Panoramas

In November 2007 our MySQL Training Team met again - this time in St. Kitts in the Caribbean. Although we had meetings most days, there was still time to wander the grounds and beaches of our hotel at lunch time - and we also had a group outing on a catamaran to visit the nearby sister island, Nevis, one afternoon. The biggest challenge here was to keep that tropical moisture from condensing inside my lenses, which spent much of the trip in my overly-air-conditioned room! The "fog" on some pictures came from this.

15 vertical shots taken while standing on the rail of my balcony, then stitched into this composite.
Didn't get an ocean view room, but this is more interesting anyway.
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This is a composite of just three vertical shots taken of the "view" entrance of the hotel.
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When leaving the ocean side entrance, this is the first thing we encounter. Composite of 4 vertical shots.
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View of hotel entrance from the pool area

Looking back at the hotel from the poolside restaurant, we see this. Composite of 5 vertical shots.
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Continuing on to the beach, we finally come to the sand - and the inevitable beach vendors. Composite of 8 vertical shots.
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This is the view from the water's edge. Composite of 6 horizontal shots taking in over 180 degrees of view angle.
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Here we are boarding a small catamaran for an afternoon trip to St. Kitts' sister island of Nevis. Composite of 5 vertical shots.
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While on board, I attempted to capture a composite of our team relaxing - but I hadn't considered the pitch yaw and roll of the catamaran and how that would affect the horizon (as well as the parallax of my handheld shots). I optimized this composite of 6 vertical shots in favor of the images of the people - so some of the other elements may be a bit surreal...
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This is the first of many sunset shots (a composite of 7 vertical shots). All of these were taken while the catamaran was under weigh (and under power) and moving rapidly back to St. Kitts. With the horizon as a reference (and shooting that subject at a great distance), I was able to overcome some of the parallax problems of shooting panoramic composites.
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Patience in waiting for the sunset to "bloom" paid off, as these shots attest. The boat was still moving rapidly back to port. Composite of 6 horizontal shots.
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As the sunset waned, I tried this one composite using my most telephoto lens. Considering the low light, it came out pretty well. Composite of 5 horizontal shots.
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