I shot a series of 22 photos at the 13,058 Ft. summit of Mt. Owen yesterday and stitched the images into a 360 degree panorama using Microsoft I.C.E. I looked for a cool way to present the resulting panorama image and came across this site, Dermandar which turned my shots into this neat interactive experience. I'm pretty happy with what I can do with this and am thinking about future panoramics to try this with. Maybe I'll dig up some past ones too.

This spot overlooks the largest aspen grove on Earth. It's a pretty spectacular place, especially when the fall colors are happening. Unfortunately it was hazy from fires in Wyoming but I still like this result. What do you think? Anyone got a better method for presenting a panorama like this? My only complaint is I couldn't go full resolution with the 283 MP original.

Try dragging the image around to pan, and you can zoom with your mouse wheel (or scroll gesture). Click the arrow in the upper right to go full screen. Neat, eh?

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IMGP6550.hdr.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

The Solstice sun behind these silos caught my eye on the way home from a glorious and long after work ride at Hartman Rocks. I took three images handheld and blended them using HDRPad. Since it was handheld, I used the built-in alignment feature and it seemed to work very well!

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IMGP9370.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I was having fun shooting these drops on the laundry line and decided to get in the shot myself.
Shot with a Pentax K-x, Vivitar pk-a/r-pk Macro 2x TC, Pentax da40.

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IMGP8401.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I saw this composition earlier in the day and thought to myself "keep an eye out for this when the light is better". Well, that's what I did when passing by again later. I love the color of the willows against the deep blue Colorado sky. The Pentax DA40 lens really helps the colors pop and it's super sharp.

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IMGP6313-Edit.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

They turned off the lifts at Crested Butte for the season and Monarch isn't far behind. Now I'm really starting to think about summer even though I may still ski another time or two under my own power.
This shot was from our favorite family camping spot off Ohio Pass last summer. A strong beam of light was breaking through the trees to light up this columbine on the dark forest floor.

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IMGP7288.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

My friend Kevin and I had a fun morning skiing the Pencil Chute on Axtell. Beautiful morning, and fun skiing although I was a little gripped at the start. I just carried the K-x and DA40 combo to keep it small and light, but sharp.

Warm temps earlier in the week and then a little new snow on top a few days ago made conditions pretty nice and relatively safe.

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IMGP6997.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I shot a few water study photos with the Sears 135 f/2.8 the other day for a class I'm taking. Light was really tough for landscapes (bright overcast) so I decided to focus on closer views.

1/15 was as slow as I could go without overexposing them but it seemed to be the magic number.

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IMGP4944.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB (somedudeus).

A good friend of mine who has been gone for months came back to town and we went for a ski. It was a nice day and we got a late start so we just skied our light gear and didn't go very high. Snow was great and it was a fun afternoon. I'm glad we got out!

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IMGP4682.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB (somedudeus).

While I'm not too excited about this being so close to my house, there's a certain beauty to arc welding in the twilight.

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IMGP4655.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB (somedudeus).

I spent the weekend with a good group of people taking the AIRE Avalanche Level 1 course near Crested Butte. It was certainly an interesting weekend for it because we got several feet of snow. So there was lots to study and many changes going on in the pack as we did our field work.

Much of what we learned was review for me but it was nice to be able to formalize this information and and refine/practice my techniques for evaluating snow and safe travel in avalanche terrain.

If you are a backcountry skier, rider, or just want to know how to stay safe in avalanche terrain, I highly recommend this course and Crested Butte Mountain Guides who taught and developed this internationally recognized program.

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