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Spherical panoramas

by Erik Krause

All panoramas on this page were taken between 2002 and 2008 with Canon cameras (EOS 5 and EOS 600) and a Zenitar 15mm Fisheye on analog film, partly on slide film but mainly on color negative film, and scanned with a Nikon LS-40 film scanner. PTGui was used for stitching. Post-processing was done in Photoshop.

My newer panoramas (taken digitally) can be found if you follow the links in the section More (and newer) panoramas.

Czech Republik

August 2005 we could visit the old homeland of my parents. Since my father often went climbing in those former times we of course had to visit the climbing areas.

At this point I'd like to thank Josef Štrosner and Milan Meier who showed my two of the s son Mirek who found out the exact GPS-coordinates of my panoramas and told me the names of all visible rocks.

Ještĕd
Ever since the Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 the Ještĕd isn't unknown any more. The summit provides a magnificent view on the Jizera Mountains and the futuristic tower can be seen from far away. More info on Wikipedia

Mariánské schody
Farming alone couldn't feed the inhabtants of the small village Marienberg in the Jizera Mountains. They had to go for work f.e. to Desná in the valley. To make the steep path less troublesome those stairs consiting of more than 350 stone steps where built.

Skalák: Sfinga & Mravenčí
The trail through the rock town Skalák often leads through narrow gaps like here between the rocks Sfinga and Mravenčí. In the background the Jeřábí

Skalák: vyhlídka U Lvíčka
The rock town Skalák is situated in a valley. There are several lookouts where you have a nice overview.

Hrubá Skála: Dračky
Hrubá Skála is another rock town, neighboring to Skalák. Dračí zub and Dračí věž are only two of the many rock towers there. Behind the trees you can see Větrník and List. In front Josef Štrosner (double :-) and Milan Meier, my patient guides.

Hrubá Skála: Dračí zub
If you walk around the Dračí zub you soon see the next rocks. Here the Řetězová in the background. And this goes on and on.

Prachov: Císařská chodba
The Císařská chodba (Cesars path) goes between the Dráždanská věž (Dresden tower on the sunny side) and the Americká věž (America tower) through the rock town Prachov.

Prachov: Myší díra (mouse hole)
There are several really narrow gaps like this one in the sandstone rocks of the Český ráj. In Prachov are still many tourist. Hence at the entry sometimes you can hear a child say: "Mom, you won't fit through here"

Příhrazy: Kobyla 1
The Kobyla (mare) may be the weirdest rock in Příhrazy. The side view shows the head which probably caused the name.

Příhrazy: Kobyla 2
The view from the hillside shows that all sides of the Kobyla more or less overhang.

Color (wwp908)

"Color" - the theme for the end of summer WWP 2008 allowed for a lot of interpretations. I decided to ask the Master of Colors for a shooting date.
Martin Kasper - the Master of Colors
The use of hide glue and pigments created a landscape of colors over the years

Martin Kasper - The new palette
The trolley which serves as palette has got a new tier

Martin Kasper - The studio
A room to work in.

Solstice (wwp608)

"Elevation" was a hard subject for the 2008 summer solstice WWP especially since there is no direct translation to german. But if one lives in the city with the highest difference in altitude there should something be possible.
vertigo
A panorama to get vertigo. Where is up? where down?

sunset at Schauinsland
The end of the longest day seen from the highest point of Freiburg.

the first try
Wednesday 18 the wheather wasn't as good.

solstice fire on Mundenhof
The whole year a huge pile of wood is gatherd which is ignited on summer solstice evening

Beginning (wwp308)

It shouldn't be hard to find a suitable subject for the beginning of spring WWP "Beginning". But it started to snow precisely on equinox hence it was still a bit tricky. I found an enthusiastic beginner in the end.
a beginner
My son Laurin had to test his new inline skates in spite of the bad weather

first signs of spring
On anemones and corydalis again there are snow flakes

Holiday 2007

2007 was the last chance for us (before our children went to school) to go for holidays 2 month at a time. The first 4 weeks we spent again in La Crueize. After that we travelled over Pont Du Gard to Cap Creus in spain, through the Pyrenees to the atlantic ocean cost and through sout-west of France back again.
The broken chapel
The chapel Sain Laurent on the hill above La Crueize is broken down because of subsidence caused by coal mining.

The bell
The bell belonging to the chapel is situated at the top of the hill which provides a beautiful panorama of the southern cevennes.

The last rays of sunlight
Most tourists are gone at sunset when the Pont du Gard is most beautiful.

Pont Du Gard
The 2000 year old aqueduct once brought water from springs near Uzès to the Roman city of Nemausus (Nîmes). Now it is one of the major tourist attractions in southern france.

Cap Creus
The Cap Creus is the most eastern point of spain where the pyrenees dive into the mediterranean sea.

beach
A bed of compressed peat (or very young lignite) - impervious to water - causes many small fresh water sources spring up from it and pour directly into the ocean.

Albeit the place is named "Pin Sec" (the dry pine) there is a good supply of fresh groundwater for the currently living forest behind the dunes due to this fossil plant community.

four friends
Petra, Claus, Endi and Peggy know each other since many years. Often they go together for holiday, if possible to Pin Sec

Medieval market hall
This medieval market hall is covered by a self-supporting roof in a demanding wooden construction.

Windmill Spetzerfehn (wwp1206)

One of the Panoramas shown here is also my contribution to the best of 2006 world wide panorama event.

Theo Steenblock and his son run the last commercially operated windmill in eastern frisia. It was built in 1886 and is in almost original state - whith gear and wheels made of wood.

the gallery
With up to 90 km/h the wings of the windmill go shortly above the gallery.

milling (2.) floor
In the yellow housing works the big millstone

3. floor
The third floor is mainly used as storage and for some other machines.

4. floor
Here is another millstone. Beside the door to the gallery there is a broken wooden gear wheel and a wooden shaft as you can see them working above.

spur gear (5.) floor
The gear made of two gigantic wooden gear wheels doubles the rotation speed.

cap floor
The cap (above) is turned into the wind automatically by a small wind wheel.

Transportation (wwp906)

My contribution for the autumn equinox world wide panorama event "Transportation" I have dedicated to the old Freiburg Goods Station.

Only a few hundred meters from my home is the the old goods railway station of Freiburg. It will soon be torn down to make room for new flats and offices. I hope they will preserve at least a bit of the old architecture.

Currently the warehouses are still used to store goods and are also used as studios, small factories and workshops.

The trains, however, don't use this spur any more and only the names of the streets like "Zollhallenstraße" (toll street) or "Freiladestraße" (free-goods street) tell of the former importance when there was still customs at the border to France.
old Freiburg goods station
The goods wagons could go directly into the halls here

old Freiburg goods station
The large wagon hall is now used otherwise

old Freiburg goods station
This area is still used as holding tracks

old Freiburg goods station
blackberries overgrow anything...

ZMF

Each summer the Tent-Music-Event takes place in Freiburg. When anything is disassembled the left over timber is burnt in a huge pile.
the fire starts
Soon the dry wood blazes up pretty high. The heat is enormous - I had to run away between the shots and I was scared for my camera.

...a bit further away
Some meters further away the heat can be sustained

Gardens (wwp606)

The theme for the summer solstice world wide panorama event was "Gardens". The most interesting subject in our garden at this time are the cherry trees.
picking cherries in our garden
There are two cherry trees in our garden, one with sweet black cherries which ripe earlier and one with pale yellow ones (yes, they are ripe - they don't get red).

Those yellow cherries give a wonderful golden jam and I picked about 15 kilo after shooting the pano, enough for a two years supply of jam.

Just another garden pano

Borders (wwp306)

The theme for the spring equinox world wide panorama event was "Borders". I wanted to show not only a physical border but the border between day and night, too. Equinox means day and night have equal lenght hence the day and night area of the image had to be equal in size. This questions the borders of our perception: It looks quite real but can not be...
The "Schwabentor", an ancient customs boundary
The "Schwabentor" was a customs boundary some hundred years ago - between "Baden" and "Schwaben", two separate states in those times. It is not exactly located on the border but on a point where all traders had to pass.

The "Schwabentor", day version
the complete day version

The "Schwabentor", night version
the complete night version

the firing
Another idea for "Borders": The wood powered heating of my father. A cast iron door forms a border for the fire.

Münster spire (wwp1205)

My contribution for the Best of 2005 World Wide Panorama Event: The Freiburger Münster open-work spire is the only one that was finished in the Middle Ages - all others were completed much later.

The Münster spire has survived for seven centuries and not even the shock waves of the bombs destroying almost all of the surrounding city during World War II could seriously damage it. See here for an image (german)
inside the open-work spire
Although I'm absolutely not religious, I am fascinated by this piece of medieval architecture any time I see it. Hence the Münster has been featured in three of my WWP contributions:
Marketplace, World heritage
and this one.

Energy (wwp905)

The theme for the autumn equinox world wide panorama event was "Energy". I didn't spend too much creative energy on that and did a pano from a small power station nearby.
Modern Water Wheel
This water wheel produces electricity and saves 96 tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide per year. See the first attempt on the same subject

my source and drain of energy
A pretty normal afternoon. While Laurin swings from a rope, runs about, climbs, goes on the swing, digs and builds, his brother plays peacfully in the sand box.

a wind power station in the Black Forest
This is one of many wind power stations in the southern Black Forest

Gîte (La Crueize)

Each year since 2004 we where happy to spend our holiday in this lovely gîte in the cevennes...
The living room
The holiday home origins from 13th century and was carefully renovated.

The Kitchen
The holiday home origins from 13th century and was carefully renovated.

Water (wwp605)

The theme for the summer solstice world wide panorama event was "Water". This allows for broad interpretation and I tried several subjects
Grimsel alpine power dam
My contribution to the summer WWP event 2005. I was at Grimsel pass just by chance for climbing this weekend. Situated in a landscape formed by ica age glaciers water is used to generate electric power.

Cascade
The artificial waterfall on the north side brings water to the Grimsel lake from the neighboring Bächli valley.

The granite gorge
The young Aare has carved a narrow gorge into the hard granite

The Water Wheel
A modern water wheel is used to generate electric power several hundred meters from our home. I tried again on that subject for the autumn equinox 05 WWP

Münstermarkt (wwp305)

The theme for the spring equinox world wide panorama event was "market place" - what was more obvious than the place around the Freiburger Münster which most likely was a market place since many hundred years
From above
My contribution to the spring WWP event 2005. The Münstermarkt from above. Many thanks to Eckhard Gerteis who opened some doors and made this shot possible.

The farmers market
On the north side of the Münster is the farmers market located where only local products can be sold

The traders market
On the south side of the Münster is the traders market located where foreign products can be sold

St. Michael (wwp1204)

The theme for the winter solstice world wide panorama event was "Sanctuary" - a holy place or a place of withdrawal. The romanesque church in Niederrotweil was both: a place of contemplation as well as a place of defense and safety for the inhabitants of the village, as the strong wall and situation on a rock indicates. More about the church ( german only): http://www.st-michael-niederrotweil.de/.
Interior

Freiburger Münster (wwp604)

The world wide panorama event requiered to shoot important locations or world heritage sites at summer solstice as a panorama. The Freiburger Münster is not on the UNESCO list but should be in my opinion.
Interior

Outside view from north
On weekdays the farmers market takes place here.

Outside view from south
On weekdays the traders market takes place here.

Welcome to Verdon (2002)

My first and most spectacular spherical panorama. 400m above the ground and 2m outside the railing.
Allegedly this panorama was the first to be photographed with horizontal pole technique.
Welcome to Verdon
A weird idea to shoot a spherical panorama 400m above the gorge ground and 2m outside the railing - with possibility to look down of course. As was to be expected the parallax errors where really huge and I had to work hard to retouch them. It finally turned out to be as spectacular as I imagined it.

More (and newer) panoramas

My panorama collection at WWP (World Wide Panorama event)

All my panoramas on 360cities

© Erik Krause 2002 - 2024 All images on this pages are protected by copyright law. Any use - even pivate - requieres written permission by the author!

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Erik Krause
Herchersgarten 1
D-79249 Merzhausen
e-Mail: Erik Krause

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