Away with the Birds

  

The Coast (Hoody Beach)

 
For Photo Friday’s Challenge the coast
I thought this panorama of the Hooded Plover nesting areas on the Venus Bay beach would give me a great comparison between autostitch and microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor). I had taken a set of very conventional overlapping photos as I panned along the beach, starting on the right and going to left (this upsets a lot of panorama joiners by the way). Both dutifully stitched the image without complaint. The Autostitched version (below and also straighten & cropped above) is nice and seamless. It also has that “true to what I saw” perspective that wide angle camera shots don’t give. The ICE version wasn’t bad either but it does have a few little jagging joins when you look in detail. I experimented with the perspective projection and  found it gave a wonderful deep view of the beach (it is a beautiful long sweeping part of the coast). This is really enhanced if you have a look at this panorama as a photosynth (at the bottom of this post)
Autostitch
Microsoft ICE
Photosynth created by Microsoft ICE
Sorry only those with microsoft windows will be able to view this synth and get the live 3D modelling effect. [Correction Mac users should be able to view this via silverlight please leave a comment if you find that works]

Three

Hooded Plovers [Thinornis rubricolliss]

These little guys are having a tough time breeding on the Victorian coast at the moment. But you can follow them on twitter & facebook.

This time of year, breeding season, you normally only see pairs.

For PhotoFriday's Topic Three

about to nest

Enjoying the last of the day

 
A pair of hooded plovers [Thinornis rubricollis], possible one of less than 100 nesting pairs left on the Victorian Coast.