I recently visited the West Palm Beach City Waterfront and Commons to collect some data for the map for the upcoming 26th Annual Palm Beach International Boat Show (March 24 – 27, 2011). Along with collecting other data I shot these two panoramic photos. I hope you like them.

Addendum:
Also see these panoramic photos I shot during the boat show: Ramp E, Meyer Amphitheatre, the Sky Limo barge and The Yachts International Pavilion

Go to West Palm Beach, FL City Commons

You may recall that last year I worked on a project for Foreign Trade Zone Corporation of Mobile, Alabama. I created a holiday card photo of their offices. They wanted a snowy scene at night. Unfortunately, the only images available to them were during the day and without snow (since it doesn’t snow in Mobile). I did the job using Photoshop and recorded the project in Time Lapse video.

This year they decided to use the same image, but with a twist. They wanted the building in a snow globe. Once again I used Photoshop. I created a decidedly ambiguous environment for the snow globe to reside in, but I implied that there is a fireplace in the room.

It was a fun project. I look forward to seeing what Foreign Trade Zone Corporation comes up with next.

The following pictures are from last years holiday card project. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already.

Before	After

Go to Paluxy River, Glen Rose, Texas – Dinosaur Valley State Park Site 4

I recently visited Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas. It is a 1524.72-acre, scenic park set astride the Paluxy River. 113 million years ago the Paluxy River was part of the shorelines of an ancient sea. Apparently a violent storm blew across the shoreline and created a series of sand and lime-laden mudflats then a bunch of dinosaurs proceeded to walk through it and then the tracks were gently buried with a somewhat different sediment. Their footprints are now fossilized into the rock of the riverbed. The fossilized tracks in the Paluxy belong to two main types: many are three-toed, sharp-clawed prints made by two-legged meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods and long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs known as sauropods.


The site 4 photograph above shows some very well formed and easy to spot tracks. The site 2 tracks in the photo below are more dug in at the toes as if the carnivores were running. You may also spot some large round sauropod footprints.

Go to Paluxy River, Glen Rose, Texas – Dinosaur Valley State Park Site 2

Although the dinosaur tracks are the highlight of Dinosaur Valley State Park the natural beauty of the place is also overwhelming, so I’ve included to panoramic photos of the river itself without any dinosaur footprints in them below just to show how pretty it is.

Go to Paluxy River, Glen Rose, Texas – Dinosaur Valley State Park

Go to Paluxy River, Glen Rose, Texas – Dinosaur Valley State Park

Go to Zapruder’s Perch, Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas

I want to share some photos I shot while in Texas. I stopped by Dealey Plaza in Dallas where president John F. Kennedy was shot and killed on November 22, 1963. The photo above is taken from the same location as the famous, 26.6 second, “Zapruder film” most of us associate with the assassination. Now you can look all around from the same vantage point as Zapruder could on that day.

The second vantage point is behind the fence at the top of the grassy knoll, where conspiracy theorists think a second gunman may have been located. There is no grass on the shooter’s side of the fence making the “grassy knoll” title seem a little odd. The parking lot is now used by the Sixth Floor Museum located in the former Book Depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald is said to have taken the lethal shot.

Go to The Grassy Knoll, Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas

Go to Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas

I decided to put a little explanation of my custom designed maps and panoramic photography into video format so that I can describe what I can offer without having to be sitting right in front of a client. I have a lot to offer and I thought this might be an easier and faster format for some folks to use than browsing around my website. This also allows me to show my services as I perceive them pretty clearly. I hope you enjoy it.

If you want to read the transcript here it is:

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi. I’m John Potter. I work under the title Escape Key Graphics.

I want to describe some of my favorite services and how they can be tied together.

I do a lot of different things, but one of my specialties is designing and illustrating maps. These maps can work great for campuses, factories, museums and lots of other stuff, but I am going to refer to them in the context of parks and attractions.

These maps are fun, colorful and informative. They are easy to follow and make it easy for guests to find what they are looking for.

I usually start a map design by collecting GPS data that ensures accuracy. By using GPS I can also create accurate maps at sites where tree cover is an issue, and using aerial photography isn’t very helpful.

Initially I map everything out from above like a road map to ensure that placement and scale are correct. From there I take the overhead layout, turn it into a perspective drawing, and turn it into a real work of art. The artwork is fun to look at, but retains the practical details established in the first steps.

The maps are perfect for printing as guest maps and a lot more. They can potentially serve double duty as lobby brochures as well.

The maps are vector based, which means you can enlarge them as much as you want without the image degrading. As a result they can be used for signs, posters or even billboards. The methods I use also make revisions relatively easy and cost effective should they be necessary in the future.

The maps can be displayed on your website as JPGs, GIFs, PNGs or PDFs. Maps can also be used as wallpapers for download. Before I describe how these maps can be used on your website too much I would like to describe another service I offer…Panoramic Photography. Some people call them virtual tours, but whatever you call them, they’re really cool.

Panoramic photography takes still photography and turns it into something more like a video, but you, the user, can control it. You can look from side to side and up or down just by using your mouse. This very immersive experience makes you feel very much like you are there, but still wanting to stand there in the flesh. Unlike video, panoramic photography allows users to move at their own pace and concentrate on what interests them the most. Panoramic photography is also a great tool to show off your gift shop, museum exhibits, real estate, RVs, yachts and/or just about any other environment.

Once you have the panoramic photography on your site you can link to it with simple text links or thumbnails, but if you also have a map, they can be integrated into it. The map can be made clickable so that visitors to your site can see the map and just click on points of interest and be sent right into a panoramic photo as if they have been transported there. This could also be done in a PDF if you needed something that you could, for instance, email while still retaining the links.

If you prefer, the information initially collected for the creation of the map can be used to overlay clickable points of interest through Google Maps on your site. Once again, clicking on the points of interest can send visitors right into a panoramic photo as if they have been transported there. Any paths established in the initial stages can also be overlaid through Google Maps on your site.

Of course, either of these techniques of linking from maps could be used to link to anything else, for instance, conventional photos or articles.

So, you’ve got maps that can be used for handouts and brochures. They could be used for lobby flyers as well to reduce your printing costs. They can be used for signage, posters in your gift shop and billboards. They can be displayed on your website and made into monitor wallpapers for people to download, and they can also be used on your website as a way to navigate panoramic photos. They can be linked to other information and or linked in a PDF you could attach to an email or burn onto disk. The data initially collected and created for the maps creation can also be integrated into Google Maps on your site in multiple ways. That’s at least nine possible uses for your map and several possible uses for the data involved.

The panoramic photos serve as the perfect compliment to the maps. If someone has taken the time to visit your website while planning a vacation, panoramic photos will convince them they HAVE to visit your venue.

Lastly, if you need a website built to tie this all together I can do that too. Just let me know what you have in mind and we can go from there.

I hope this gives you some ideas for marketing your business. I can bring creativity and expertise to your marketing plan that helps you achieve your goals. You’re spending the money on printing. You’re paying for web hosting and domain registration. Make sure you’re getting the most out of both and open up to new possibilities by working with me, John Potter of Escape Key Graphics.

Visit my websites, AttractionMaps.net and EscapeKeyGraphics.com to see samples of my work, more videos and lots of other stuff.

Miniature Golf Map Zoomable Map Map Image Kimball Farm Map Zoomable Map Map Image Creation Video Miami Boat Show Parking (Adobe Illustrator) Map Image Miami Conv. Ctr. Parking (Adobe Illustrator) Map Image St. Pete Boat Show Map Zoomable Map Map Image Palm Beach International Boat Show Map Zoomable Map Map Image Creation Video Flamingo Gardens Map Zoomable Map Map Image Creation Video Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show Map Zoomable Map Map Image Creation Video Miami Convention Center Map Zoomable Map Map Image Miami Yacht and Brokerage Show Map Zoomable Map Map Image Creation Video Miami Strictly Sail Map Zoomable Map Map Image Miami Boat Show Sea Isle Map Zoomable Map Map Image Creation Video Fort Lauderdale Convention Center Map Zoomable Map Map Image Dinosaur World FL Map Zoomable Map Map Image Creation Video Dinosaur World KY Map Zoomable Map Map Image Creation Video Dinosaur World TX Map Zoomable Map Map Image Florida Seminole Heritage Map Zoomable Map Map Image Creation Video British Virgin Islands Map Map Image Ft Lauderdale Boat Show Transit Map Zoomable Map Map Image

Go to The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum – B17

I want to share some photos I shot at The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah, GA. The B17 photo can also be accessed through the Panoramic Photography page and the Google Earth file where you can get a better idea of the location.

I really enjoyed my visit to the The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, but I will allow myself more time on my next visit. The museum is top quality and features numerous artifacts as well as films and interactive exhibits. The museum also features a memorial chapel and gardens as well as a B17 in the process of restoration, a B24 nose section, an F4 Phantom, a Mig 17, a Messerschmitt ME 109, the cockpit of a Mig 21, and a B47B among other things. If you’re even vaguely interested in this type of thing you will love this place.

The photos was created using multiple exposures and then combining them using HDR technology. I played with the HDR a little more on the B 24 nose.

Go to The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum – B24

I want to include one photo of an exhibit area just to show the high quality of the museum. Be sure to view these in Full Screen also. It’s an impressive feature.

Go to The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum – Exhibit Area

New HDR Page

Backhoe

Abandoned Building

Since my first entry about High Dynamic Range (HDR) enhancing photos I have continued to use and experiment with HDR software. For the most part I use HDR software to combine exposures to get photos with a nice range of contrast and lighting. In other words if I’m shooting a photo inside a tent, but with the flap open I can take one photo showing the inside and the outside white and one that shows the outside with the inside black, combine them and have a nice photo that shows both. In the course of my experimentation of course I had to try over doing it, and it yields some pretty cool effects.

Now I’m not implying that I am the first to do this or that I’m breaking new ground. I’m sure the software developers were playing with this before any of the rest of us had heard of HDR. Now there is a debate ragging over whether or not HDR images qualify as true “art”. I’m not taking a stand on that issue. Regardless I want to share some of the images I have come up with.

All of the photos at this point are from my recent trip to Suriname. I like photographing things in a state of disrepair, just like a lot of other people. The nice thing about being abroad is that you see different things in a state of disrepair than you would at home for a variety of practical reasons, but they still tend to be unique and wonderful to the outsider. I also have a couple of shots of other stuff thrown in.

I hope you enjoy the new page.

Go straight to the panorama

Back in the ’90s when I was working for Intra Corp Entertainment I used to use mass transit to commute sometimes. I was already playing around with photography a little bit and took these photos from the platform for the Metrorail at Brickell Station which is at 1001 South West First Avenue (map of Miami Metromover stations). These photos were taken some time between 1994 and 1996, but probably 1995 (at the same time). I was carrying a camera with me a lot because I was shooting reference and material for textures for TekWar the game. I used a 35 millimeter SLR, and only in the past few years have I had the software to properly stitch the images together. Ipix was already around, but I think I was unaware of the existance of immersive photography at the time. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of David Hockney’s photo mosaics.

If you frequent the area you may be able to spot differences in the skyline.

Go straight to the panorama

I was recently on business in Boca Raton, Florida and on my way back I noticed a sign for Yamato Scrub Natural Area. I usually plan these things, but I had my camera with me, so what the heck. I didn’t get to walk all of the trails, but I did walk about half a mile in.

Yamato Scrub Natural Area is relatively new, having opened in October of 2007 and the parking lot doesn’t even show up on Google Earth at the time I’m writing this. It is owned by the state, the county, and the city jointly if I understand correctly. At 217 acres it’s scale is impressive. It is primarily comprised of scrub, but there is also a small wetland basin that was apparently nearly destroyed in the 60s and Herculean effort has gone into restoring it. The brochures at the entrance are very comprehensive with a handy wildlife guide and all in full color. The park does have a paved parking lot, a bike rack and a small kiosk, but there is nothing else but 2.4 miles of hiking trail.

My initial impression of the place was that it had few visitors, and that is more an educated guess than anything, but it could make spotting wildlife a more realistic possibility. Unfortunately in my time there I only spotted some small birds.

My honest impression of Yamato Scrub Natural Area was not very positive. Although an environment worthy of protection as much as any other scrub areas just aren’t very aesthetically appealing to me. Slash pines and saw palmettos are the bulk of the foliage and you can see why these areas are so fire prone when you see it up close. Although 2.4 miles of hiking trails is a lot, they are paved like a sidewalk and combined with the irrigation system you occasionally spot exposed and the visible development along the perimeter the place has a McNatural feel to it for me. The paved trails might be fun to rollerblade or bike on, but those activities are prohibited.

I’m glad the area is protected, but I don’t think I’ll be spending a lot of time there.

Yamato Scrub Natural Area is located at 701 Clint Moore Rd Boca Raton, Florida.

Go straight to the panorama

The gondola or car with two Continental IO-360 engines
providing 210 hp thrust to move the blimp up to 40mph

I’m excited to have been allowed to photograph one of America’s great icons up close…The Goodyear Blimp!

The folks at Goodyear simply asked that I not use the photos for commercial purposes, so please don’t ask me to sell you copies. I can’t say enough nice things about these folks. I am greatly thankful for their hospitality and their patience as I asked a million questions.

This Goodyear Blimp, “The Spirit Of Innovation”, is based at The Pompano Beach Air Park. The Pompano Beach Air Park was constructed during World War II as a training field serving the Naval Air Station located at what is now The Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood Airport. After the war the city purchased the place for general aviation use. It’s a lively little airport with helicopters, corporate jets and all types of aircraft coming and going.

The mooring mast connected to a tractor
and the blimp of course

Goodyear has about thirty two and a half acres on the west side of the airport, including a 45,000 square foot hanger large enough to hold two fully-inflated Goodyear Blimps. Goodyear also has some administrative buildings on the premises. The thing that is amazing is that this hanger is small in comparison to the ones in Akron, Ohio.

The Spirit Of Innovation is 192 feet long, 59.5 feet tall and 50 feet wide and is supported by a crew of 16. The large tripod looking assembly is called a mooring mast and is the blimps primary connection to the ground. In the hanger you may see that it is also tethered to two vehicles, but when outside it is usually just tethered to the mast and allowed to swing freely in a 384 foot circle which demands large space requirements when the blimp lands.

To learn more about the Goodyear Blimps at http://www.goodyearblimp.com

If you go through the Blimp Anatomy section of Goodyear’s website you will be able to locate most of the parts of the blimp in the panoramic photos. Something rather surprising to me is that you can see the ballonets in the panoramic photos as darker ares in the envelope.

Once again…Thanks to the staff at the Goodyear Blimp Base in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Go straight to the panorama