CamPhone Tuesday – Panoramic shots from Lighthouse Mountain

Panoramic shots from Lighthouse Mountain, originally uploaded by anthonli.

During the weekend, I went exploring around Vung Tau. And went up the only mountain that I’ve yet to climb. The Vung Tau Lighthouse.
On the way up, I was rewarded with a lovely panorama of the city beneath.
It was an opportunity to try out the 360Pano app that I just recently purchased on my iPhone 3GS. I found that it actually blends better than VideoPano that I recently used and the live blending looks amazing. Also, the ability to blend pictures in portrait mode allows for a panorama with more depth.
The downside is that the pictures are always slanted because the accelerometer in my iPhone is not properly calibrated. This caused me to buy the straightener app to straighten the photo. [sigh]
All in all, it quite a good app to use.

People Monday – Taking a shot

Taking a shot, originally uploaded by anthonli.

This photo can probably go onto tomorrow’s post as it was taken with my iPhone 3GS. I’m beginning to use it a lot more than my Lumix LX3 or even my DSLR.
This is possibly the best of my 4 attempts that night. There are severe limitations to the camera on the iPhone in situations like this. The automatic high ISO used and despite that, the long shutter speed.
But this shot combined a few precious lessons of photography:
1 – Use whatever comes on hand to stabilise the camera (the snooker table rim)
2 – Sometimes you just have to be rude (by putting your camera on the table when someone is playing)
3 – A grainy shot due to high ISO is better than not taking a shot and missing the opportunity.

Related Articles

• What kind of camera should new photographers start with? (notratched.net)