Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

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Let me show you the view from the beach at Kaikoura.



The Seaward Kaikoura range on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island has the steepest peak to sea level gradient of any mountain range (or so my Kiwi friends tell me).

Looking south towards the Mediterranean, over the snow-dusted Pyrenees.

From a London to Barcelona flight.
over the France/Spain border
November 2007

Take a look at the image full size to see all the climbers on just one small section of El Capitan...

Yosemite, California
September 2007

While up in Seattle, marypcb, elimloth and I took a trip across Puget Sound to the Olympic Peninsula. The weather was glorious, and we drove through the coastal ranges to Port Angeles before turning inland to the Olympics National Park and the long climb up Hurricane Ridge. It's a beautiful drive, up from sea level to almost a mile up. We took a stroll along one of the high trails, and saw this dead tree, stark white against a deep blue sky.



Absolutely beautiful.

Hurricane Ridge, Washington
September 2007

Tall peaks loom over Springdale, the small town at the gateway to Zion Canyon.

Zion, Utah
May 2007 

Sometimes the evening light flattens everything, layering grey upon grey upon blue.

Sometimes you have a camera with you when it happens.

Santa Monica Mountains, California
May 2007

Returning from a photosafari trip to the Grand Canyon, our helicopter landed to to refuel at a depot in the middle of the desert. Someone turned to look to the east, and with a shout of "The Light!", nine helicopters-worth of photographers turned and started shooting.

The horizon was lit in yellow, with a range of mountains rising over the dark twilight scrub, reflecting the setting sun and shining against the pearl of the evening sky.



See the full size image here. It's a 4MB download...

I've used the latest version of ArcSoft's Panorama Maker software (which they demonstrated at PMA to considerable acclaim) to stitch together a panorama from a set of images of the mountains. It uses a graph cut algorithm, so the stitching is much smoother than with earlier panorama tools.

The amazing blue waters of Lake Pukaki and the Southern Alps, from the road to Aoraki.

New Zealand
December 2004

So, do you know how high Mount Qomolangma is?

( Answer behind the cut )