Loving harbor view...
This story is actually my earlier BrandenburgerTor anecdote all over again only now I had accomplices. In short, how three people can frustrate many tourists by just doing what they love...
The Galata Tower is a medieval stone tower in the Galata district of Istanbul, Turkey. It's one of the city's most striking landmarks, as a high, cone-capped cylindrical construction. It dominates the skyline and gives you an impressive panoramic view of Old Istanbul, the Golden Horn and of course the Bosphorus Strait. The nine-story tower is a huge 66.9234 meters tall and just a 'measly' 62.59 meters without the ornament on top.
At the top of the Galata Kulesi (the Turkish name for the tower) there is a observation rotunda (at a height of 51.65 meters). They call it the observation deck, but it's actually a small fenced ledge circling the tower. The ledge is so small, that every morning the first visitor determines if the other tourists circle the tower clockwise or anti clockwise. And don't even think you can change it. You will literally cross paths with many angry tourist (as they were told on the tour bus it will leave in ten minutes... grrrrrr...)
So, this being said, I challenged myself to do a 180+ degree pano. Just as photographic firm of Sébah & Joaillier did in 1880 (yes, that's correct 1880!!!) of Constantinople from the same tower. Oké, that's before the more than wonderful PS Tool "Photo Merge" was invented, but still they did a magnificent job. This pano is now preserved and archived in the World Digital Library of the Library of Congress of the United States Congress and on Wiki;-)
However, a 180+ pano takes time to make, right! About 15 minutes at least; including an overlap of about 70% between photos to adjust for the curvature and distortion, as it's not a completely level pano.
I presume the number of visitors in 1880 were by far smaller than nowadays and also had more time. Even wonderful photo merge - sadly enough - doesn't help in this department either. And to cricle the tower after each one or two shots for another mini-series just isn't a real option. The chances you always end-up at the same position are way beyond the " μ " range (a factor 10-6).
Luckily I wasn't alone in this -awful - sensation of being push along like toothpaste being push out of the tube. A lovely couple, or I should say, a loving couple wanted some time to enjoy the view while holding each other lovingly tight. But there was no way the other bus tourist would let them. Push, push and push. Cause they only had ten minutes to lift-off for the next stop (in Paris, Rome, Madrid or Narvik for that matter).
In noticing both each other's problems, we nonverbally struck a deal. Or a pact, so you may. We was to do as if we're doing a photo shoot!! The couple become famous (and got increasing rights to stay in one place), I had more than enough reasons to stay in one place and the bus load would certainly need more than 5 minutes to figure out who those celebs were.
And for about 5.22.149 minutes this plan worked phenomenally. The shit load in front even started taking pictures of the couple (famous or not). But as the tower is cylindrical, only a view of them noticed our fun. Soon enough complaints and protests were traveling up the line. Predominantly about the bus leaving in 4 minutes.
We could ignore those complaints for a couple of minutes more. But me turning away from the couple with every shot a took (and I took 37) didn't help our case either. So, where's a dustcart crew when you need them; in Berlin they're there and ready to help you at a moment's notice!!
All-in-all we had stopped the tourist paste for little over 9 minutes. Beyond that we would not have made off the Galata Ttower alive. And if we did, we would for certain been driven over by the chauffeur of the bus and had become road kill.
In the lift down I definitely got some angry looks. Looks that plainly stated that I had ruined the Istanbul highlight, as if this was the only sight they were allowed to see by the bus driver. After all their next stop was Paris, Rome, Madrid or Narvik...
Technical stuff
This pano is made-up of 37 individual photos. Of course hand-held. A tripod simply doesn't fit on the Ledge of the Galata Tower.
The initial merge was done by PS and afterwards I manually fixed a couple of problems. I sharpened the pano by using the High Pass filter set at 10. After that I desaturated the whole ensemble by adding a black-and-white layer. Furthermore a added some contrast and curvature; in layers of course.
The actual photo is 13431 x 3942 pixels. Mid-size wall paper! I rezised the PS file (268MB) it to a reasonable 1500x502 at 72dpi (767Kb).
Sorry for the copyright watermarks, however, Flickr is being bombarded by people copying photos and making them their own. Grrrrr
For now, I wish you all seasonal greetings and cheers,
AJ
Loving harbor view...
This story is actually my earlier BrandenburgerTor anecdote all over again only now I had accomplices. In short, how three people can frustrate many tourists by just doing what they love...
The Galata Tower is a medieval stone tower in the Galata district of Istanbul, Turkey. It's one of the city's most striking landmarks, as a high, cone-capped cylindrical construction. It dominates the skyline and gives you an impressive panoramic view of Old Istanbul, the Golden Horn and of course the Bosphorus Strait. The nine-story tower is a huge 66.9234 meters tall and just a 'measly' 62.59 meters without the ornament on top.
At the top of the Galata Kulesi (the Turkish name for the tower) there is a observation rotunda (at a height of 51.65 meters). They call it the observation deck, but it's actually a small fenced ledge circling the tower. The ledge is so small, that every morning the first visitor determines if the other tourists circle the tower clockwise or anti clockwise. And don't even think you can change it. You will literally cross paths with many angry tourist (as they were told on the tour bus it will leave in ten minutes... grrrrrr...)
So, this being said, I challenged myself to do a 180+ degree pano. Just as photographic firm of Sébah & Joaillier did in 1880 (yes, that's correct 1880!!!) of Constantinople from the same tower. Oké, that's before the more than wonderful PS Tool "Photo Merge" was invented, but still they did a magnificent job. This pano is now preserved and archived in the World Digital Library of the Library of Congress of the United States Congress and on Wiki;-)
However, a 180+ pano takes time to make, right! About 15 minutes at least; including an overlap of about 70% between photos to adjust for the curvature and distortion, as it's not a completely level pano.
I presume the number of visitors in 1880 were by far smaller than nowadays and also had more time. Even wonderful photo merge - sadly enough - doesn't help in this department either. And to cricle the tower after each one or two shots for another mini-series just isn't a real option. The chances you always end-up at the same position are way beyond the " μ " range (a factor 10-6).
Luckily I wasn't alone in this -awful - sensation of being push along like toothpaste being push out of the tube. A lovely couple, or I should say, a loving couple wanted some time to enjoy the view while holding each other lovingly tight. But there was no way the other bus tourist would let them. Push, push and push. Cause they only had ten minutes to lift-off for the next stop (in Paris, Rome, Madrid or Narvik for that matter).
In noticing both each other's problems, we nonverbally struck a deal. Or a pact, so you may. We was to do as if we're doing a photo shoot!! The couple become famous (and got increasing rights to stay in one place), I had more than enough reasons to stay in one place and the bus load would certainly need more than 5 minutes to figure out who those celebs were.
And for about 5.22.149 minutes this plan worked phenomenally. The shit load in front even started taking pictures of the couple (famous or not). But as the tower is cylindrical, only a view of them noticed our fun. Soon enough complaints and protests were traveling up the line. Predominantly about the bus leaving in 4 minutes.
We could ignore those complaints for a couple of minutes more. But me turning away from the couple with every shot a took (and I took 37) didn't help our case either. So, where's a dustcart crew when you need them; in Berlin they're there and ready to help you at a moment's notice!!
All-in-all we had stopped the tourist paste for little over 9 minutes. Beyond that we would not have made off the Galata Ttower alive. And if we did, we would for certain been driven over by the chauffeur of the bus and had become road kill.
In the lift down I definitely got some angry looks. Looks that plainly stated that I had ruined the Istanbul highlight, as if this was the only sight they were allowed to see by the bus driver. After all their next stop was Paris, Rome, Madrid or Narvik...
Technical stuff
This pano is made-up of 37 individual photos. Of course hand-held. A tripod simply doesn't fit on the Ledge of the Galata Tower.
The initial merge was done by PS and afterwards I manually fixed a couple of problems. I sharpened the pano by using the High Pass filter set at 10. After that I desaturated the whole ensemble by adding a black-and-white layer. Furthermore a added some contrast and curvature; in layers of course.
The actual photo is 13431 x 3942 pixels. Mid-size wall paper! I rezised the PS file (268MB) it to a reasonable 1500x502 at 72dpi (767Kb).
Sorry for the copyright watermarks, however, Flickr is being bombarded by people copying photos and making them their own. Grrrrr
For now, I wish you all seasonal greetings and cheers,
AJ