Home is where the con is

[tfabris]

Norwescon was great! Photos and video from the convention are here. Huge thanks to Bethany Allen for ensuring that the Filk track was given the attention it needed and deserved. We all had a marvelous time, and were kept busy for the entire con. The music was fantastic across the board. I enjoyed all of the concerts on Saturday very much. I'm also very proud of the concert that Vixy and I performed on Saturday, I think we had a great set-list, and the audience feedback was fantastic, especially to the new songs in the set. Thank you, everyone. It was also great to spend a con in my home town for once. This is the first year I've lived in Seattle, and it's nice to be able to hop in the car for a few minutes and show up at the con. The only difficulties we had involved logistical things like parking. That poor hotel simply doesn't have enough rooms or enough parking to support a convention of that size. Otherwise, it's a great hotel for a general con. Next up, it's Bethany's house filk on May 13th, followed by Baycon on Memorial Day weekend. Can't wait! GeekHackFilk.com

Comments

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much! It was great seeing you guys again, and we're looking forward to having D work on the album with us.

Regarding the panoramas, it's all done in software, with quite a bit of tricky fiddling both as you're taking the picture and as you're stitching the pictures. Some cameras, like the Canon cameras, have what's called a "stitch assist" feature to make the taking part easier. But my current camera doesn't have the feature and I actually prefer to just do it raw and do all the necessary fiddling by hand.

I use three different software packages to do the stitching, depending on what's needed. Paint Shop Pro for basic image editing, and Autostitch and Panorama factory for the stitching task itself.

Sometimes, depending on how I've done it, you can't easily avoid visible seams. The one of the Saturday night circle, you can see a seam on my songbook, for example. Others, there's some blurring and ghosting from people moving between snaps.

[pondside.livejournal.com]

My new camera (not in use this weekend due to brain failure - mine not its) is a Canon Eos 6.3 mpx. I'll have to talk with Rick W who has the same one and... gasp read the fine manual. Perhaps I can do this too. I know that for our "crisis" webs we had 360 panorama global scrolling so that the ERT members could plan an assault on an area in case of inmate riot or earthquake or hostage taking etc... Those used a very special tripod and mondo expensive software.

The slightly less expensive alternatives are always welcome.

See you again soon I hope. I was hoping Andrea could attend Pondfilk but if she was asking in case it corresponded with the early May visit I guess we are SOL.

hugs

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

The advantage to those tripod-mirror-dome setups is: No fiddling. One snap, no stitching, just image warping. No chance for someone to have moved between exposures, for example.

I'm sure Andrea would love to attend Pondfilk if she can swing the airfare this summer.