The result was the best panorama I’ve put together so far (click to enlarge) and a mediocre Soundslides project.

The panorama is a roughly-150-degree view of the pond near Wentworth Farm. In between shooting photos I grabbed a bunch of natural sound – nothing too interesting: footsteps on grass and mud, a plane overhead, the sound of rushing water – and compiled it into this slideshow.

I must say I don’t like the way Soundslides displays photo sequences taken on the burst setting as much as I have with similar slideshows I’ve made with iMovie, but for stories that really make use of captions and feature the standard three-minute, 18 frame formula, Soundslides is still far superior.

Click to play - James tuning Ted's Guitar.

I added a Zoom H2 Handy Recorder to my arsenal recently, and I’ve been bothering my two engineering-major roommates, Sean and James, about how to use it effectively.

For the unfamiliar, the Zoom offers me the chance to produce radio packages and audio slideshows rich in natural sound, like the one I produced during my stint at Poynter:

[For the record, this piece was produced with a superior Marantz recorder, but you get the idea]

I’ve been reading up on sound reporting and getting some training at WMUA Amherst, so hopefully in the near future I’ll be able to produce some packages where sound really drives the story. I’ll be posting stuff as I play around with the recorder; In the meantime, enjoy the clip of James playing guitar.

As a side note, if anyone could tell me why my WPaudio plug-in that used to auto-generate an mp3 player isn’t working, that’d be cool.

Today I made my second attempt at making a panorama image using Photomerge, this time with tripod and adjustable lens at hand, and the result was a lot better. Not great, or even that good really, but better (click to enlarge image).

This image consists of 17 frames I shot with my Canon Rebel xsi and its standard EF-S 18-55mm zoom lens. It was taken near the Wentworth Farm Conservation Area in Amherst, Mass.

View Larger Map

One thing I’d point out to neophyte photographers like myself is that when you create panoramas using Photomerge, each frame becomes a separate layer in the Photoshop file. If you shrink the image down (because you probably don’t need a 13,000-pixel-wide image), it can cause hairline fractures in the image. I had to clean them out of this one before exporting it, and it seems like I missed a few. I should have read this tutorial more thoroughly, because it explains why and how to prevent it:

If you downsize before you flatten your file you will probably encounter hairline cracks appearing in your image after reducing the image size. The solution to this problem is to either flatten the file or stamp the visible content to a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + Alt and then type the letter E) before you reduce the size of the image.

The more you know…

The folks over at MassLive have a pretty cool user-generated map of snowfall in the Pioneer Valley going on as I write this post, allowing local residents to post their observations about weather conditions on an embedded Google map.

I hopped on to post my own findings when I ventured six feet out my front door to take a measurement. A paltry two inches of slush, but enough to cancel most of the classes on campus today.

I proselytize frequently on the value of Google Maps for local news organizations, and this is a great example of how to use a map to inform and engage your community. It’s also pretty useful information, considering most weather reports are based on measurements in a select few areas of a region, whereas this map has real measurements made by real people in real time. It’s certainly not an all-inclusive weather report, but it’s a good resource to plan your regional commute by.

My parents' home in Haskell, N.J.

The above image (click to enlarge) was my first attempt, and is admittedly pretty crappy. I’m visiting my family in New Jersey, so I don’t have my tripod, and the lens I’m using has a fixed focal length that won’t let me get a wider shot of the house unless I want to trample the neighbors’ flowers. That’s why this image, composed of 7 different frames, has a bunch of missing pieces.

The Adobe Web site has a tutorial on how to use this feature. The most important things to consider when shooting, says Adobe, are:

• Overlap images sufficiently

Images should overlap by approximately 40%. If the overlap is less, Photomerge may not be able to automatically assemble the panorama. However, keep in mind that the images shouldn’t overlap too much. If images overlap by 70% or more, Photomerge may not be able to blend the images. Try to keep the individual photos at least somewhat distinct from each other.

• Use one focal length

If you use a zoom lens, don’t change the focal length (zoom in or out) while taking your pictures.

• Keep the camera level

Although Photomerge can process slight rotations between pictures, a tilt of more than a few degrees can result in errors when the panorama is assembled. Using a tripod with a rotating head helps maintain camera alignment and viewpoint.

• Stay in the same position

Try not to change your position as you take a series of photographs, so that the pictures are from the same viewpoint. Using the optical viewfinder with the camera held close to the eye helps keep the viewpoint consistent. Or try using a tripod to keep the camera in the same place.

I’m going to keep playing with this feature and report back on what I learn by failing miserably at it.

The images used in this post were taken with my Canon EOS Rebel xsi using a Canon EF 85mm* 50mm f/1.8 lens

*Correction appended. Thanks, Matt.

In other news, my photo a day project is in full swing. It’s a healthy dose of the interesting and the insufferably mundane.

I mentioned earlier today that I wanted a version of Pandora that would stream only Bruce Springsteen songs. This came mostly from a distaste for what Pandora considers artists similar to Bruce; in short, my “Bruce Springsteen” channel played too much goddamn Bon Jovi.

Someone on Facebook suggested I go old school and just pull up a bunch of Bruce videos on YouTube, and it got me thinking: Is there a way to continually stream YouTube videos based on keywords? Turns out there is, and it’s called infinitube. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have an embed feature, so I just plugged the “springsteen” keyword results into an iframe and made a quick and dirty BruceSpringstream.

Being someone with no natural sense of direction or mathematical savvy, I like maps both as a navigation tool and as a tool for data visualization. I also think they’re playing an ever-increasing role in local news coverage.

Because context is important, and readers of a local site should be able to scan headlines, announcements and videos by the town. And by the neighborhood. And by the street.

The utility of using a map to present information on a local site is pretty broad. You can use it to tell people about special events in their area, where to vote and how to get there.

I’ve become interested in Flickr and as I develop my photo-a-day project throughout 2010, I’ve been trying to keep up with geotagging them.
Why?

Recently, I’ve been reading up on different ways to organize text, photo and video, particularly with maps.

At The Collegian, our Arts & Living section approached me with the possibility of doing a downtown shopping guide for the Web. They asked me for input on how to present it, and I thought about a post I’d read recently that mentioned iMapFlickr, which uses the Flickr API to create customizable, embeddable photomaps.

Why not take photos of the locations, write a brief review (or link to a full review [or both]) and let readers browse shops by street?

It’s a possibility worth playing with, so I tested it out by mapping a few of my Flickr photos.

You’ll notice I haven’t traveled too much since I started storing all my photos on Flickr; it’s pretty much a jump between New York/New Jersey and western Mass. Still, it gives you an idea of how a photomap can let you visualize locations geographically.

This was really, really easy to put together. Assuming you’ve already geo-tagged your photos, you can pop in your Flickr username, choose the set that you want and, hey presto, you’ve got a map. The service allows for some minor tweaks to the color scheme, size and layout, but like most third party services, it won’t exactly match your site’s template.

There are actually quite a few map-based photo organizing applications out there, and another interesting one is Geoslideshow, though this app is in its beta stages, and I’ve just requested an invite to try it out.

I’m always looking for new ways to organize content geographically, so if you’ve heard of something that might better fit my needs, let me know.

Three frames shot consecutively with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi; starring Schniggles the dog; Don’t give me that look; I didn’t name the thing.