Maggie’s Motivational Pic Thread v2.0 - - New Rules - See Post #1

It's getting to be that time of year.

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Are you doing this with a calibrated tripod and software to stitch them together? Care you share your technique?

I have always been impressed with Peter Lik's work using a 1940's vintage film camera.
I have a good CF tripod by Gitzo that has a main shaft that's easy to plumb. On that I've got a simple 3-D head. One of these days I'll buy something like a Nodal Ninja. To reduce parallax, you want the entrance pupil of the lens aligned with the axis of rotation of the tripod/head combo. My setup gets pretty close due to the way my tripod mount is located.

So rather than a calibrated head, I overcompensate by rotating shot-to-shot and row-to-row by less than the maximum allowable amount. So I throw out billions of perfectly good pixels. This also helps with parallax avoidance.

You'll need to get to know your exposure metering foibles. Once you go beyond about a 90 degree panorama angle, shot-to-shot brightness and contrast variation can turn what was a beautiful lighting situation in your eye/mind into a boring, drab landscape. I tend to slightly underexpose, then make the difference up in post processing. Shadow/highlight and brightness/contrast controls are your friends.

I stitch using Photoshop. I'm still using CS-5. Good luck!
 
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It's getting to be that time of year.

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And to think that there is always someone in the military's camouflage department thinking up new patterns when nature has been setting the example for us all along.

During WWII, while on a bivouac at Ft. Hood, someone put a rattlesnake in my Father's sleeping bag. He didn't get to far into the sleeping bag before he heard the rattle.

There was only one man laughing in the group. My Father figured that he was the culprit and beat the shit out of him.

The next day they were both standing in front of the 1SG, who asked; "Why did you beat this man up?"

My Dad responded that the turd-ball put a rattlesnake in his sleeping bag.

The 1SG responded; "I would have done the same thing. Now both of you get out of my sight."

Edit: Nowadays, my Father would have been court-martialed and the other soldier counseled.
 
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A suspected Covid-19 male patient is lying in bed in the hospital, wearing an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. A young student female nurse appears and gives him a partial sponge bath.

"Nurse," he mumbles from behind the mask, "are my testicles black?"

Embarrassed, the young nurse replies, "I don't know, Sir. I'm only here to wash your upper body and feet."

He struggles to ask again, "Nurse, please check for me. Are my testicles black?"

Concerned that he might elevate his blood pressure and heart rate from worrying about his testicles, she overcomes her embarrassment and pulls back the covers.

She raises his gown, holds his manhood in one hand and his testicles gently in the other.

She looks very closely and says, "There's nothing wrong with them, Sir. They look fine."

The man slowly pulls off his oxygen mask, smiles at her, and says very slowly, "Thank you very much. That was wonderful. Now listen very, very, closely"

"Are - my - test - results - back?"