Rohit Mordani’s Blog

Just came to know that one of my panorama of Snoqualmie Falls (close to Seattle) was chosen to be featured in the “Schmap Seattle Guide” which is an online guide to all the attractions in and around Seattle. This is quite a big deal for me. There are a gazillion good photos of Snoqualmie on Flickr and mine was selected from all of them !! I am quite proud of this and want to share it with all of you !!

Here is the link to the Fourth Schmap online guide to attractions in and around Seattle.

I take a lot of Panoramas and I usually like to put a “frame” around them to make them look professional Here are the various frames that I have tried in the past. These pictures are ALL shot by me. Click on the pictures to see the larger version.

Northwestern Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Vernal Falls, Yosemite National Park, California

San Francisco, California

Downtown New York City, New York

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California

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I have been using Adobe Photoshop since ver 3.0 (1995) and I can proudly (and mostly non arguably) claim that I am very proficient at it ! I am not saying that I am the best or that I have mastered it all, but I am good. I have loved this software since ver. 3.0 and have hardly had any complaints with it - Some suggestions surely, but no complaints whatsoever !

Photoshop is the premier image manipulation software for graphic designers, photographers and many more professionals in the business. Some people do complain about the lack of vector support and text support, but those features are present in the current version of Photoshop - not too advanced though !

How I got into Photoshop, I myself do not remember. The earliest memory of me using Photoshop was when I was designing a poster for the IEEE society at my Engineering college - Thadomal (undergrad) called 360 Degrees. I think I had used ver. 3.0 for this. This is when I realised the power of Layers in Photoshop ! I became pretty good soon and started teaching the basics of Photoshop by example - This is the way I learned it and this is the way I was going to teach it !

I must say, I was pretty famous in my college and no one came near when it came to designing - I may sound arrogant right now, but I am not. Everyone has their talents and I had just found mine ! I learned Photoshop by following tutorials on the web. There are tons of tutorials out there - probably the most number of tutorials that I have seen on the web are the ones for Photoshop. I also did a website where I put up some of my own tutorials. This is quite an old site, but the tutorials are still good if you are a beginner ! Check it out if you are starting off as a beginner. Here is some of my Photoshop works…

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If you have ever been to Pier 39 in San Francisco then you must have definitely seen the entertainers on the street ! One of the “entertainment sections” of Pier 39 are guys who put on some loud obnoxious music and sit in front of a crowd and display their talent - the amazing spray paintings that they create from a scratch !

These guys are amazing - to see them paint in front of a large crowd without a reference picture is quite something ! Everything is right out of their heads - at times you don’t even recognise what they are doing until the piece is all done. Its pure TALENT ! Their only tools are the Spray Paints, a circular cover (for the planets), a small blade, and magazine pages (to give the texture on the planets). Amazingly, the theme is always a “Space Scape” and some famous landmark of the city - The Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz or even the Transamerica Pyramid. I have also seen this kind of spray painting in other cities - New York, Las Vegas etc.

Check out these videos if you haven’t seen these people doing their thing . The next time you are in one of these cities do not miss out on this - You can even purchase one of their paintings for a mere $20.

I just figured out that there is a website dedicated to this kind of art. Check it out : spacepaintings.com . It also has some tips and instructions for beginners - in case you get inspired and try to do this on your own - I am planning to do this sometime
UPDATE: I actually went out and got the paraphernalia to spray paint and tried it out. The result - Well, I am not (yet) as good as the ones in these videos but am just starting off - I will learn more and more and become good at it ! I encourage you to go out there and try it out as well - Its fun - try to mimic these guys in the video and you will learn !

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Today I figured out a new feature that Google Maps has put out. It is pretty cool. You can tag your own places - not only a simple pinpoint but you can mark out an area with a polygon ! I like the feature. It is also really good ’cause you can associate a picture (any rich content - HTML) with that mark !

What I did was to combine all the panoramas that I have taken (all arent marked yet) and mark the spot from where I took that panorama (or any other photo). Here is the link to my maps - they are all public.

• Southern California
• Pacific Coast Highway
  
• Chicago
• Seattle
• Lake Tahoe
• Bay Area

I love to live in the Bay Area - the weather is awesome (most of the times at least ). But that is not the only reason I love to live here - There are so many nice places around to go to. It is a photographer’s paradise here ! If you go North from the valley you have San Francisco. Further North there is Lake Tahoe. To the East there is Berkeley. Further East there is Yosemite and the Sierras. To the West there is Skyline Ridge and Half Moon Bay ! To the South there is Monterey. Further South there is Big Sur ! WOW - that is a pretty impressive list all around ! I bet I am missing out some more cool places !

Anyways, as an avid photographer myself, I have taken a lot of Panoramas (yes - I love the wide angle views !) around the Bay. Here are panoramas from around the Bay - I never get tired of shooting Panoramas !!

North :

Further North :

South :

Further South :

East :

Further East :

West :

Further West:

Check out my journal at DeviantART. The journal entries so far are mostly panorama related - a collection of some really good panoramas from various people at deviantART. Panoramas from others always inspire me to take more panoramas and do a better job of taking them !!

Here is the journal : deviantART journal

Panography - and yes that is NOT a spelling mistake… Panography is a technique that uses a lot of photographs “put” together manually (in photoshop or whatever) to form a composite photo. Its a little different that Panoramas, since images are not “stitched” but just placed together, but it is really exciting if done well.

The technique is to reduce the opacity of the images to about 50% or so and use an image editing tool such as Photoshop to rotate and align the images appropriately.

It is an innovative concept and I really like it…Maybe I shall make a few of my own

Till then here are few examples…

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If a picture can paint a picture. If a picture is worth 1000’s of words then imagine what a Wider picture would be worth !! That is the thought that came to my mind when I saw Yosemite National Park, California. I was at Glacier point, Yosemite and the view was more than just breathtaking ! At that time I had my brothers ‘new’ Canon 3MP digital camera and guess what it had - a panorama mode ! And thus began the saga of me taking Panoramas from around the world ! This one below is the first ever panorama that I am talking about :

For some of my best panoramas check out:
Rohits Panoramas at Picasaweb

The whole set of Panoramas that I took (good or bad) is at :
Rohits Panoramas at mordani.com/gallery

Some of the others that I love personally are: