Fourth Street Lofts Web Log

You know I love panoramic photography. I'm always looking for tools to help me improve my results. Some months ago I downloaded Pano Tools and Pano Tools Assembler, but never seemed to find the time to try them out - until today. After my first hour with Pano Tools, all I can say is, "WOW!"

The shot above is a composite of four images I shot of the Greenlee Building. What makes it really special to me is that Pano Tools allows me to combine the images in such away that it looks as if it were shot with a view camera or at least a very expensive shift lens. Notice how the building's lines are straight - they do not converge as the camera is pointed up. Well, that's part of the magic of Pano Tools. The other magical thing about this program is that by combining a series of 4 images in this way, I effectively quadruple the resolution of my camera! Click on the image above to see it 3,000 pixels wide.

This is my first panorama with Pano Tools. I used my poorest quality lens and made quite a few mistakes on this image. I promise future panoramas will be even more amazing. Joanna Adler recently suggested that I make a MyPublisher book of our neighborhood. This definitely brings me a step closer to doing it!

Posted by Jim Pire at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MovableType just released version 3.2 of their excellent blogging software. The new version includes several spiffy new templates, so I could not resist trying out something new on our web log. So, what d'ya think of the new design?

Posted by Jim Pire at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night's Home Owner's Association meeting was the most tolerable in a long long time. Our meetings are still too long, but this board wastes less time mired in minute details than the previous board. If this trend continues, I think we have a chance to get a lot accomplished this year. Lets continue to support John, Jack and Chase!

As chairman of the Communications Committee, I have asked that our new board provide us (me?) with more information about the work they are doing. I'd like to get more details regarding on-going maintenance issues, etc. and post them on this site. If we inform our community of the hard work our board is doing on a daily basis, we create a permanent, searchable record of that work and provide a forum for owners to voice their opinions.

I have also committed to digitizing virtually all of the archives of the last two boards. I would expect that the ability to search through years worth of association business in seconds will be useful to present and future board members! Our committee also plans to compile a welcome packet for new occupants of Fourth Street Lofts. The packet will be made available on this site and in other printable formats for distribution by our management company.

Our web site can be an invaluable resource - but only if we use it! I am asking all of you - my neighbors - to participate. Make comments, become an author on the blog, make suggestions for improving the web site, request additional functionality. Can you think of other uses for our web site? Would you like to contribute? Do you know of other similar sites we can emulate?

If you'd like to learn more about our web site, our LDAP server and other very cool things going on in our lofts, please attend our next meeting, where I'll be making a presentation.

Posted by Jim Pire at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)