Did I previously mention that the managers at work thought it would be beneficial to send me to a workshop/conference down in San Diego for a few days? It's all about identity management related to computer systems. Not all that interesting to me personally, but of some concern with my work back at CSUN.

Anyway, the conference runs Monday-Wednesday, so I had to be down at San Diego by Sunday night. I decided to take advantage of the timing and come down as early as I could (via train) and go visit the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier turned floating museum anchored just down the street from my hotel.

Not only visit, but shoot panoramas. With the new equipment.

And boy, did I! In 3.5 hours (with 30 minutes of that standing in line for access to the bridge tower) I shot 46 panoramas (with a few repeats). Compare that to the Panoscan in Italy where it took about 8 hours to shoot only 22. The Nikon shooting speed greatly outpaces the Panoscan, but I'll pay for it in post-processing. How much remains to be seen.

Post-production with the Panoscan meant editing out moving people and dealing with bright sunlight bars. Still images means stitching them, and possible editing people, depending on where and how they appear.

The next few nights, then, I'll be spending evenings at the hotel working on the iBook.

Also while here I want to get over to the Maritime Museum, which is also just down the road, and shoot panos there as well. They have the HMS Rose, a replica 18th-Century frigate moored there.

Panos coming soon, I hope.





USS Midway





The Star of India, a tea clipper from the 19th Century