Category Archives: Photos

Photos

Seeing Whales Sculpture

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If you have walked along the Edmonds, Washington, waterfront, you are familiar with the “Seeing Whales” cast aluminum sculpture located at the south end of Olympic Beach Park.

"Seeing Whales" sculpture, Olympic Beach Park, Edmonds, WA
"Seeing Whales" sculpture, Olympic Beach Park, Edmonds, WA

Above is a photo of the “Seeing Whales” sculpture. Below is a 3D model of this sculpture.

To view the model in 3D, click on the image below. It will take a little while to open the model. Once the model is open, use your left and right mouse buttons to spin it around to view it from all directions. Use your scroll wheel to zoom in and out on the model. For the best experience, view the model full screen – either click on the arrows at the lower right or press the “f” key.

If you are viewing this in your email client, you must go to the blog website or directly to Sketchfab to see the 3D model.

Seeing Whales by Gary Stebbins on Sketchfab

I created this model by shooting 287 photos with a GoPro Hero 5 Black camera mounted on a selfie stick. I set the camera to shoot  an image every 2 seconds, then moved the camera around to get many different views of the sculpture. The selfie stick was so I could get the camera above the sculpture, and also more easily get the camera down low.

I then processed these 287 images with WebODM (Open Drone Map, web version) into a 3D model, then cleaned it up with Blender, a 3D editing and creation tool. The resulting model was uploaded to Sketchfab for viewing.

Photos

Low Tide Beachfront Aerial Photo

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On September 8, 2022, Edmonds had a low tide of -1.7 feet. That happens frequently, so it’s nothing too exciting. Except this day we had sunshine and I had my drone up in the air. Lots of people were out enjoying the beach, and it seemed like the perfect time and place for a few photos.

The ferry was at the dock. At these low tides, it is possible to walk under the ferry dock without getting your feet wet (at least not very wet – wear boots).

Update April 21, 2023:

I have moved Edmonds-on-Puget-Sound to a new host, and now have additional capabilities. Before, I could not embed a 360° photo in the page and had to link to a different site to display it. Now I can embed it directly here, as below. Click and drag in the 360° photo below, use your scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Or click the small square in the upper right corner to view it full screen (which I highly recommend).

Photos

360° Panoramas!

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I’ve been playing with 360° photography for several months. For me, this is a fun new way of doing photography.

The simplified explanation of the process is to shoot enough images to capture all directions, then stitch these images together (I’m using a program called PTGui) into a special format. To create the image below, I shot from a drone at 200′, in RAW to capture the wide range of brightness from shadows to sun reflections, then processed the images in Lightroom, sent these processed images to PTGui to generate the panorama, cleaned up the sky a bit in Photoshop (there’s a hole where the drone is – the camera can’t shoot straight up), then generated the final image using PTGui.

To see all of the panoramas I have published, check out my Panorama Page at roundme.com/@garystebbins. When on that page, click the “TOURS” button to see the images I have published.
Some images have been shot with my camera on a tripod, while others have been shot from a drone. I’m still experimenting and learning.

The image below is a snapshot from a panorama that was shot from a drone at 200′ above the beach just north of Brackett’s Landing. I can’t display a 360° panorama directly in this blog, so you will need to click on the image to open it in a 360° Panorama viewer. For fun, open this from a tablet, like an iPad, and be more immersed in the experience! 🙂

Edmonds Waterfront 360 Snapshot
Edmonds Waterfront 360 Snapshot