Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Fall River Public Library Entrance


Fall River Library Entrance in Narragansett Bay

We took this shot in the entrance to Fall River's Public Library. It's a great virtual reality panorama made of some superb architecture.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Fall River Public Library


Fall River Library Hall in Narragansett Bay

Fall River's Public Library stands as a testimony to Fall River's heyday as a wealthy manufacturing center. It's like a building that one might find tucked away in some corner of Rome or Paris. It has been recently restored and now one can stand at the front desk and let one's eye travel upwards to vaulted ceilings and richly painted walls hung with world class artwork. This photo was taken at the beginning of 2009 and is one of Aerial Vr's most viewed. We hope you enjoy it.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Monday, November 16, 2009

Mount Hope Bridge from Island Park


Mt Hope Bridge in Narragansett Bay

The Mount Hope Bridge connects Aquidneck Island and Bristol Rhode Island. Newport lies at the southern end of Aquidneck Island. At the northern end lie the communities of Island Park and Common Fence Point where the Mount Hope Bridge comes arcing in for a touchdown. I had a great time looking for places to shoot this bridge from.

Time for some personal philosophy. I think everyone should spend some time wandering around with a camera over their shoulder looking for pretty things to take pictures of. Or a guitar ... cameras and guitars both suit the itinerant lifestyle and say to the world: "I travel but not because I have to." I had trouble with that last turn of phrase. It didn't really "turn", do you know what I mean? I might also have said " ... but not because I'm escaping famine." or " ... but not because I'm on my way to work." or " ... but not because I have buck teeth." This is degenerating.

I think I should get into why I think people should travel around with either a camera or a guitar. Because .... It opens the mind. It makes one into an observer. It also gives you something to say to nosy cops when they grill you about what the hell you're doing in their town. Just shrug and point to the camera or the guitar as if to say "what does it look like I'm doing Sherlock." I think I should also add that you should only carry a guitar if you can really play one or if you think there's a very high probability that you'll be able to play one in the future. If you can't play one you shouldn't carry one because sooner or later someone is going to ask you to play it and then your cover is blown or you'll really annoy someone who loves music. If you can't play a guitar then stick with the camera. Anyone can take a picture.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Mount Hope Bridge from Roger Williams University


Roger Williams Dock in Narragansett Bay

Roger Williams University ... a good university in a great location with a very nice dock. That should be their motto if you ask me ... just say it in latin and it will sound like the wisdom of the ages instead of the blurting of a scenery junkie like me. I skulked around the campus in my mini van, ogling coeds and looking for a likely spot to shoot a picture that would include the Mount Hope Bridge. I eventually found a road that led down to the water's edge through a grove of trees where the University's sailboats lay waiting for young sailors to man them. I did find that view of the bridge and the dock that you can see here.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Pomham Rocks Lighthouse Tower


Pomham Rocks Lighthouse Tower in Narragansett Bay

We took this shot in late October of 2009 after taking the short ride out to the island where the lighthouse sits in Rob's lobster boat. Rob is one of the friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse because he grew up there. He lived there for 2 years with his parents and sister. He could point out the spot where his mother grew tomatoes. When we climbed into the tower he told he was often sent up there to eat his lunch alone when he was naughty. He loved it up there. It wasn't much of a punishment and he was canny enough not to let his mother know.

While we're on the subject of friends ..... we took this series of panoramas with the help of our little friend Merlin Orion. Merlin is an automated "panohead" which aims our camera with great accuracy and ease. We love our little Merlin. He only cost the ridiculously low sum of something under $300. He was developed for use by amateur astronomers but panoramacists are catching on to his talents. He's built more like a Dodge than a Mercedes. Eventually one of his plastic gears will break a tooth but he's an amazing bit of equipment for the money and we can highly recommend him. We often put Merlin at the top of a tall pole. He never complains and goes about his job with his usual equanimity and dispatch, spinning and snapping photos like his life depends on it.

We usually speak to Merlin using a laptop computer equipped with a wireless device made by an outfit named "Silex." Silex wasn't working this trip however. The power regulator was broken and apparently the entire consumer electronics industry was incapable of supplying us with a working version of this simple but crucial device. (bad, bad industry). Merlin came through for us though. We programmed him with 6 positions and sent him into "cruise and shoot" mode with the flick of a few buttons on his handheld keypad. He went about his business in his usual quiet and efficient manner without laptops, or software or wireless communication devices, rotating and snapping and rotating and snapping ... and thank goodness he did because we came away with some great shots that we wouldn't have otherwise. Way to go Merlin!

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Pomham Lighthouse Flagpole


Pomham Rocks Lighthouse Flag Pole in Narragansett Bay

Pomham Rocks Lighthouse is about as cute as they get. It is currently owned by Exxon but they've been good corporate citizens and have let the "Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse" come out and spend huge amounts of money and effort to get the outside restored. They have plans to eventually purchase the lighthouse and run it as a bed and breakfast much as Rowes Island is run.

I don't know about you but I'm glad that lighthouses have friends. They look so lonely out there all alone and after a few decades of salt water and storms they really need a few friends to get them spruced back up. Here's a link to a website all about Lighthouses and their friends. There are many of lighthouses and all or most of them have friends but the page I'm sending you to is all about Pomham Rocks. http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=683

The tour's not over! We took 4 panoramas while we were out there and have already processed two of them. The other one is from the tower itself. You can go to the next blog entry to find it or you can follow the little white arrow that appears in this one. Have fun.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Crescent Park Carousel, East Providence, RI


Carousel in Narragansett Bay

We took this photo of the Crescent Park Carousel in late October of 2009. It's pretty much all that's left of a famous seaside amusement park where the good people of Providence would come to play around the turn of the century. They could take a trolley from Providence out to East Providence and amuse themselves to their hearts content all summer long. It has been beautifully restored and is looked after by a father and son named Ed. (They only have one name between them.) They let us in when we explained our mission and this photo is the result. If you'd like to know more about the carousel you can ask them. They can tell you all about it or ... you can visit this link www.eastprovidenceri.net/boards/CrescentParkCarousel.php

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Durfee Highschool

Durfee High is simply put the most beautiful high school building IN THE WORLD ... bar none. I'm not an architect. I'm not even a critic of architecture. You might put up a tree house in your backyard and I might tell you it has architectural merit ... but about this I'm right. It IS the most beautiful high school building in the world and there's no debating the point with me. I've made up my mind and will go into my grave believing it. There is a problem however ... it's no longer a high school. It's a courthouse. But at least it's being well taken care of.

We'd tried to shoot it once before. The light wasn't right. We decided it would photograph better mid day and once again we were right. We do have opinions at Aerial Vr, about architecture and about how to photograph it. This is a great image of an even greater building.

In closing, I won't tell you who built it or for how much money or in what style or where in the world you can find something that looks just like it. There must be a million stories that can be told about a building like Durfee High but I don't know them and time is short. I just want you to gaze up at that facade and tell me how much the people who built it cared about education (or how much money they had and how much they wanted people to think they cared about education.) You'll feel the answer in your bones.

Durfee High School - Fall River in Narragansett Bay

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Return to Battleship Cove


Battleship Cove in Narragansett Bay
We took this photo in early August of 2009. We'd taken several shots of Battleship Cove before but decided it was a good idea to return to Fall River's premier tourist location when the leaves were out and the grass a brilliant green. We also decided to make it into an opportunity to use our "big rig." The big rig is our 40' tripod equipped with a robotic mount and a wireless communication device. Chris ran the robot for this shot. You can even see him down on the boardwalk sitting on a bench in a straw hat with a computer in his lap. He's the man behind the curtain here ... a true wizard of the photographic world.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Save the Bay's Vegetative Roof


Save The Bay Roof in Narragansett Bay

We took this photo in mid August near the end of the day. It's not a bunker dug into a grassy hill overlooking Narragansett Bay. It's actually a high tech and beautifully designed building which houses a world class champion of green causes, namely Save the Bay. It only looks like a bunker from this angle. It's north wall is set into a grass covered berm about 10 feet high. The roof extends upwards from there and is covered with vegetation.

It's an old idea made new. I remember a childrens' story about an old woman who had a cow on her roof. I believe it really happened! Save the Bay probably couldn't graze a cow on their roof. They might manage to nest a few birds however. Vegetative roofs have made a comeback among the green crowd and Save the Bay is certainly that. They're quite energy efficient in the summer among other things. I can't expound further without doing research so I'll have to leave it at that. If you want the full story about vegetative roofs and why Save the Bay wanted one on their new building then you'll have to visit their website and find out more.

To take this photo we set up our 40' tripod in the building's main entrance on the north side near the end of the day. Our camera was high enough to see over the top of the roof to the beautiful view looking south over Narragansett Bay. The north side has the main entrance but it's not considered the front of the building. The front faces south and looks out upon that fabulous view. How clever of that architect eh?

We intend to photograph the front of the building next .... "in the morning light" .... in October if all goes to plan. Our little sunlight study says that's when it'll be best. You'll be able to see the front of one of the most unique buildings in Rhode Island and then spin around and see their eelgrass restoration project and the dock where the mighty Alita Morris revs her engines before delivering schoolchildren to an out of classroom educational experience they won't soon forget. It's all in the plan.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Festival of the Arts at the Narrows

We're still throwing things at the wall here at Aerial Vr, just to see what will stick. It's one way to start a business. It's not that scientific but it's a lot of fun and a lot smarter than it sounds at first reading. Think about it. It means cooking up a variety of ideas like different forms of pasta and seeing what seems to work by observing first hand how people respond. It means getting in there with one's sleeves rolled up. It means cooking. It means throwing pasta at the wall which is always fun. Then there's the last step, talk the people and observe their reaction.

We combined Chris' growing fascination with and mastery of a group of Adobe Photoshop plug-ins and my contacts in the local arts community into a fun weekend recently throwing pasta and generally having a good time. First ... the plug-ins. Plug-ins are software add-ons created by one company and meant to work within another company's software package. In this case, a company created a group of plug-ins for use within the well known Adobe Photoshop. How well known is Adobe Photoshop? It's so well known that "photoshopping" has become a verb meaning "to alter a photographic image digitally using computer software." You know you've really arrived when you become a verb.

So what sort of photoshopping has Chris been up to? He starts with one of our panoramas. The Panoramas are the result of stitching together 8 standard images in another software program. They are long strange looking rectangular arrays of pixels which look like this:


They contain imagery of virtually everything that can be seen from a given point in space ... the point where we placed our camera. They remind me of those funny looking world maps that we all looked at in grade school. They looked so funny because .... well, think of an orange. You can't peel the skin off an orange and flatten it out, at least not exactly. If you make a few clever cuts in it you can almost flatten it out. You can also stretch it using the mathematics of mapping. That's how we arrived at the image above, not by doing mathematics, we're not that clever. We used a stitching program. The people who designed the stitching program did the math.

But back to Chris and his photoshopping. He's been using tools that remap every pixel in our rectangular arrays to a new location. We call "little planet view", "tunnel view". They're quite similar but think "inny" and "outy." That is to say that in the little planet view the sky ends up wrapped around the outside and the ground and the buildings on it end up on looking like a ball or little planet on the inside. In the tunnel view the sky ends up in a ball on the inside and the ground or floor ends up wrapped around the outside. They're strange. They're Alice and Wonderland meets Pink Floyd. They're a lot of fun to look at as well.

So we went looking for people to look at them. We found them at the Festival of the Arts that the Narrows Center of Fall River puts on every year. I set up on Anawan Street with 30 or so other artists and craftsmen. We'd printed out 10 of our favorites and hung them on easels. I sat and spoke to people as they strolled by. We drew a lot of comments. We drew a lot of interest. I handed out close to 100 business cards. We didn't sell a single photograph but it didn't seem to matter. The pasta was sticking.

An example: a graduate of Durfee High came by and inquired about the possibility of getting a large quantity of prints of that building perched precariously on its little planet for his upcoming class reunion. He went through High School in the 60's. He may still think Durfee High looks like that. I don't know but he loved the image and he thought a lot of his classmates might also like them. Another young fellow took the little planet concept and ran with it ... to a line of clothing. He saw his teenaged pals wearing t-shirts with strange distorted insects on them, things like scorpions with large drops of poison hanging from their tails ... and in the poison .... a little planet. My imagination doesn't run to scorpions but I can work with T-shirt. We may stay in touch.

Another fellow referred to our photographs as "fine art." I'm not sure how fine it is but the point is that the pasta appears to be sticking and we'll try our luck at "Arts Around the Block," which takes place September 20th, from 12-4pm on Purchase St. in Fall River. Maybe we'll see you there.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Friday, September 11, 2009

Newport's Cliff Walk - Rough Point


Rough Point in Narragansett Bay

I've been hearing about Newport's Cliff Walk for years. I finally made it there with Aerial Vr as my official excuse. It was well worth it. We walked along with the ocean to one side, amazing architecture on the other and the bluest of skies arcing above us. We took 5 panoramas at various spots along the 3.5 mile path in the company from tourists from all around the world and took a glimpse into Newport's gilded age. This text below is from www.cliffwalk.com and sums it up nicely:

"The Cliff Walk along the eastern shore of Newport, RI is world famous as a public access walk that combines the natural beauty of the Newport shoreline with the architectural history of Newport's gilded age. Wildflowers, birds, geology ... all add to this delightful walk."

I've embedded just one of the panoramas of the Cliff Walk in this blog post. It's the one of Rough Point and my personal favorite. You can use the control features (white arrows or thumbnails) in the panorama to move from one panorama to another. You can also try another one of www.360cities.net's very cool features ... the map, to conduct your tour. Use the "Cliff Walk Map" link below and a map of the Cliff Walk should open up with blue links for entering panoramas. The 5 on the right are on the Cliff Walk. The 3 on the left are of Goose Cove.

If that doesn't work for reasons known only to web mavens, don't give up. Try the series of text links below to see each and every one. You'll have completed a virtual tour! It's great but frankly, it pales in comparison to the real thing. This walker's advice: wait for a sunny day, lace up your sneakers, pack a sandwich and an attitude that says "I'm a citizen of the world" and head on down to Newport to see the real thing! You'll feel like a million bucks, no matter what's in your pocket.

Cliff Walk Map
Ledge Road
Rough Point
Ochre Point
Salve Regina
40 Steps

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Friday, August 28, 2009

High on Aquidneck


Abbey Wind Turbine in Narragansett Bay

Some times things fall into place quickly. We'd like to think that that means they were supposed to happen or that some heavenly force is at work directing our steps. I don't know about that but it is nice to think so and sometimes things do fall into place with a rapidity that makes them seem heaven sent. They certainly did for us recently in our quest for great images in the Narragansett Bay area.

We passed the large wind turbine that has recently been erected by the town of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island. It occurred to us that a shot from the top would help us live up to the aerial part of our name and that it would very likely be quite spectacular. I poked around the website for the town of Portsmouth and eventually found the email and name of a man who I could contact about the possibility of getting up to the top. He responded in short order and with some enthusiasm for our work and for the idea of taking a panorama from the top. He didn't hold out much hope about getting to the top however as the company that erected it still controls access and they haven't been very cooperative of late. Our idea of taking a photo from the top of a turbine was quickly tied up in a combination of governmental red tape and corporate ill will. It turns out that they're being sued by every contractor who worked on the job but more on that later.

It took a few days to dawn on me that the Portsmouth turbine is not the only turbine on Aquidneck Island. The first turbine was erected at the Abbey School, also in Portsmouth. An email to someone in the administration earned me a response from Brother Joseph. Brother Joseph teaches at the school and has been an integral part of the turbine's existence since it appeared above his head like a light bulb signaling a good idea years ago. He interviewed all of the neighbors. He asked for and evaluated bids. He "did the math" and found the funding. He watched it go up and start turning and he's been speaking about it ever since on behalf of the school.

There's a lot of good things to say. It's only been in operation in light winds for about 3 years and yet it has nearly paid back the initial investment on the part of the school. That includes some substantial grant money but no tax breaks since the school is a non profit. Without the grant the payback period would have been extended a couple of years. With a payback period of 3-5 years and an expected life of 25 years and the current value of the electricity generated at something like $200k per anum ... the book keepers are happy.

Drawbacks? Are there scads of people in the area coming down with the mysterious "turbine syndrome?" No. Noise? A pleasant swish swish. Sub Aural Noise? No one can hear it. That's what sub aural means. If a herd of elephants were passing through the area there might be a problem with sub aural noise but none have appeared of late. Are their dozens of students running around the base of the turbine with crazed looks in their eyes saying "the blades! ... please stop the blades!!" No. None of that. Drawbacks seem to amount to the fact that there are a few houses and a few buildings on campus that in the right wind and atmospheric conditions get the shadows of the blades passing their windows ... that's annoying but only for short periods of time. Don't forget: the shadow is moving. It doesn't show up on cloudy days. It disappears when the turbine turns sideways to the sun. I don't know if the whole neighborhood turns to the turbine each morning and sends a silent blessing to Br. Joseph and what he's done for green energy in Rhode Island but on the whole it seems to be thought of as a good thing.

Brother Joseph liked the idea of a high definition panorama taken from the top of his turbine. He often has to climb it but can't share the magnificent view with too many people because of safety concerns. Now with the panorama he can. We had to wait for over a week for the weather to clear in the aftermath of Hurricane Bill. The week of August 24th began with some clear air but a lot of wind. Finally, on Thursday, the wind died and the sun came out and sky turned blue from horizon to horizon. We had our window of opportunity! Three of us strapped on our safety harnesses and made the 170' climb to the nacelle of the turbine. Brother Joseph assured us that we'd just joined a select group of people that had been allowed to make the climb. We certainly felt lucky to be that high in sky.

When our pulses had returned to normal Chris took the equipment from the bag that had been hoisted to the top from the rear of the nacelle. He had it all functioning in fairly short order and Brother Joseph and I climbed out onto the roof to place the camera and its robotic mount on top. The wind was so light that we didn't even anchor it down. Chris hit the trigger. The mount spun. The camera clicked and we had our panorama. Our hope is that it'll find it's way into one of Br. Joseph's powerpoint presentations and will be projected onto the wall in front of a series of enthusiastic audiences that are interested in sharing this part of Brother Joseph's journey. What very few of them can do in reality, they can all do virtually from the safety of their chair while they learn about the ins and outs of erecting wind turbines.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Little Planet Views



The Krpano viewer provides a rich interactive viewing experience. In addition to panning and zooming with your mouse if you right click in the panorama you get options for other projections. My favorite is the "little planet view". The normal view allows you to pan thru all that is visible from a point but the "little planet view" gives you all that is visible from a point all at once. To my mind these polar panoramas are like belly buttons. You have your innies and you have your outies. By dragging your mouse in the vertical direction while in the little planet view you are able to morph between these two projections.

In the near future we plan to convert a series of the panoramas you see on Vr Journey into versions for print to be available for online purchase. Below are the different projections we plan to offer. If you don't want to wait till then or have seen one that you think is begging to be printed email us and we will convert it to the projection you desire and get it printed for you. The images below are low resolution but the printable versions are about 100 megapixels and can be printed quite large.


This is the spherical projection. It is the same image that the web page viewer uses to allow you to pan 360 and zoom. It has distortion at the top and bottom similar to the flat map of the world unwrapped from the globe.

This is that same projection but cropped.


This is the "little planet view" in outie mode.

And this is the "little planet view" in the innie mode.

Enjoy playing with the various projections and if would like it printed email us the name of the panorama and let us know which of the four options above you would like.

Fair Winds,

Chris Blake






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Monday, August 10, 2009

The Fastest Indian

He was the world's fastest Indian .... or he rode the world's fastest Indian. Both phrases are correct because man and machine were one when the speedometer climbed towards 200 mph. The bare facts of Burt Munro's story strain the credulity of anyone who's ever ridden a motorcycle or participated in the development of any sort of machine technology. When the truth of the story is know, hands covered in machine oil from around the globe come up into a silent salute. The man was truly incredible and an incredible inspiration to tinkerers and backyard mechanics tweaking their machinery everywhere.

So what did he do? What are these bare facts. Burt Munro was born in New Zealand in 1899. He came back from service in WWI and bought his Indian motorcycle in 1920. It was the 627th of a series that had only been in production a few years in Springfield, Massachusetts. It had a top speed of only 54 mph off the production line. Burt began to modify his Indian to gain speed in 1926. By 1967, after 40 years of tinkering Burt traveled to his personal mecca at the Bonneville Salt Flasts in Utah and set land speed records, some of which have yet to be broken.

Here's the thing. He did it almost single handedly. He had no team of engineers and mechanics and financiers behind him. He was it .... engineer, mechanic and driver on the budget of a handyman and retired motorcycle salesman. He cast his own pistons, rods and cylinders. He designed his own aero dynamic fairing. He jiggered with fuel mixtures and carburetor settings. He modified and tuned his suspension. Then he tucked his wool pants into his socks, squeezed himself into his machine and traveled like a bat out of hell at speeds that have yet to be equaled by motorcycles that displace less than 1000ccs. It boggles the mind.

Relatively unknown outside motorcycle racing and speed record circles in his own day, Burt has achieved some fame after his death with the help of the movie industry. The movie "The Fastest Indian" starred Anthony Hopkins in the role of Burt Munro. Burt left behind a legend of skill, perseverance, and courage which typifies the ingenuity and resilience of the New Zealand spirit. But you don't have to be a New Zealander to appreciate him. Anyone who's ever stood with a wrench in his or her hand and explored their own limits and "thirst for invention" find inspiration in the story of Burt Munro and his beloved Indian motorcycle.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Friday, July 31, 2009

Narragansett Bay Chart



Note: This is a chart or the Bay from 1982 so its not for navigation






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Welcome to Westport - Now go home!



There's a bumper sticker that's current in Westport, Massachusetts that reads "Welcome to Westport - Now go Home." It was quoted to us by a friendly couple made curious by the oversized tripod we'd set up in front of the Harbormaster's shack at Westport Point. They smiled as they said it. They probably smile as they say it to the people who come to visit them in their summer cottage. It's not exactly a friendly thing to say but it is humorous and not entirely unfriendly depending on how it's delivered. Mostly it speaks to the truth of Westport's great natural (and for the most part) uncrowded beauty and the fact that people who've learned to enjoy it hope against hope to keep it that way. This couple had the look of summer residents. Let's hope that year round residents smile as they say it to couples like this one who come to stay during the summer. We like to think of people smiling.

There's quite a few strata in Westportian society. They don't always smile at eachother. They don't often mix at all except at town meetings and then they're sharing space and not really mixing. There are the full time working residents of Westport. They fish and farm and serve you food in restaurants which is not to say there aren't a few lawyers, doctors and financiers among them. Mostly, they build their nests for year 'round residence and send their kids to school.

Then there are the summer residents that keep second homes there and those who've even retired and decided to make it their first home. They have lots of money by local standards and generally don't have kids to put through local schools. Their kids are off at Andover or Princeton or Geneva International Boarding School for Children of the Rich and Well Monied.

Finally, there are the tourists that pack the inns and hotels or wrangle a room in a relative's cottage. The groups and their concerns are different. Go figure. They don't always get along and things get heated in the local political arena. You probably don't need to know all of that though if you're packing your bags in preparation for a visit there. It's just a backdrop. Come let the sun warm your skin and buy one of those bumper stickers if it makes you laugh.

Our visit to the working harbor at Westport Point had its genesis years ago. My wife lived there and was at least a temporary member of the local residents tribe though she never got the secret tattoo. I've often suspected her of lifetime membership. I've seen the wistful looks when we visit so I've looked everywhere for the tattoo and failed to find it. It's not there "on the flesh" but it may be buried somewhere deeper. We married at the church up the road from the harbor and had our rehearsal dinner at the Paquachuck Inn which figures quite nicely in the photo. She lived for years in the little apartment in the harbormaster's house just up the road. The tidy little shack in the foreground is where he conducts his business to this day. (www.westport-ma.com/harbormaster)

It's just a shack though, go full screen and spin around to the south. The stars of the show are the fishing boats. You'll find them in every size and shape, tailored to their use and done up in rich shades of red and green. Feel the warm sun on your face. Feel the welcoming breeze on your skin .... and then .... go home!

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Gooseneck Cove - the rest of the story




We haven't told you enough of the story of Save the Bay's assault on Gooseneck Cove. It's not just about one new culvert on Ocean Ave. It's a good deal more. There were three major obstacles to tidal flow in Gooseneck Cove: Ocean Ave and its inadequate culvert to Fishermen's Cove, a dam about halfway back and Hazard Road with no culvert at all near the back of the cove. Save the Bay took care of all three obstacles during their renovation project.

Part of the credit goes to the town of Newport. Newport realized that they could shorten emergency response times to part of their town by improving Hazard road in order to allow the safe passage of emergency vehicles. Instead of strangling STB's efforts with red tape, Newport picked up part of the cost to raise and pave the road in question, adding the culvert to improve tidal flow as a matter of course. Now the salt water courses in under Hazard Road, carrying seaweed, crabs and the occasional soggy politician pointing out the benefits of cooperation as he passes. You have to stand up and cheer when bureaucracies and organizations do smart things. So often they don't and leave the common man scratching his head in disbelief.

So, with more of the story to tell with our pictures, we went back to a location on the west side of Hazard Road near the new culvert to take a photograph that would show the area most affected by the project, ie. the area most relieved of the invasive phragmites grass "downstream" (from the standpoint of the incoming tide) of Hazard Road. We arrived at our spot at 8am on a Saturday morning. Low tide had occurred around 5am. High tide was due in at 11. My efforts at setting up the tripod were slightly hampered by our soggy location. Our endpoint in time loomed. The tide was going to get our feet wet within the hour. Chris booted his pc and switched on all the equipment that allow the camera to talk to the computer.

When everything was communicating I lifted the camera and its mount into place on the tripod and began to hoist. In my haste, I nearly overhoisted. The camera and its mount teetered dangerously towards the marsh with two of the poles nested only an inch or so. Chris gasped and my adrenaline responded in time to correct the situation without mishap.... note to self: add warning stripe of red paint to show limit of travel.

With the camera 30' up and stable despite the slight breeze, Chris began the automated process controlled by our software friend "Pappy Wizard." The mount moved and then stalled. The furrows on Chris' brow deepened. The camera came down. A few switches were flipped. The camera went up and he restarted the process. Pappy wasn't happy and we didn't know why. Pappy is young. He can't always tell us where it hurts and sometimes collapses in a heap without warning. Even a short nap in the way of a restart doesn't always help.

The tide came rushing in, cheered by all onlookers. We broke down our equipment and packed it away without really knowing if we had all of the images we'd need to create a panorama. You know we did because you see it above with all of the fascinating shapes and colors that flowing water, sand and marsh grasses can create.

With the equipment packed away we had time to chat with the natives. Jack Kelly surfaced as our insider's guide to Gooseneck Cove. He filled our ears with facts about what had transpired here, many of which found their way into this blog entry. He informed us of the presence of a Yellow Throated Night Heron down the road. Chris replies that his father's favorite bird had always been the Rosy Breasted Pushover. Clearly a friend to humans, many of Jack's friends now wear feathers and fur. He comes to the cove to feel his stress go out with the tide and points out the blue crab stalking its prey near the culvert's exit. Jack takes pictures and uses them to tell the tale of "Larry the Buck." While the big bucks crash heads, Larry sneaks in and finds out he's just what the doe was looking for, a lesson that can be applied to life, love and the pursuit of business if you care to.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Getting our feet wet in Fisherman's Cove, RI



Fisherman's Cove is idyllic. On the list of New England's most idyllic places, there's maybe Rockport, Massachusetts and then Fisherman's Cove in Newport and then, I don't know, your grandmother's cottage in East Sandwich. Fisherman's Cove has fishermen and their boats to start with: authentic fishermen fresh off their authentic boats and they'll show off their authentic harvest of striped bass if you ask them nicely. There's also plenty of rocks. It wouldn't really be a New England shoreline scene without them. So rocks are essential and this place has them. They're craggy and black and the seaweed clings to them like their little seaweed lives depend on it and it probably does. There's a road curving idyllically by it and summer houses perched like sentinels anywhere the land rises high enough to afford a view or enough height above sea level to avoid the highest of high tides. Fishermen's Cove is idyllic and I'm really wasting my time and yours trying to describe just how idyllic because if a picture is worth a thousand words then the high definition spherical panorama above is worth well over 10 million.

When we took this photograph, we'd just finished taking a similar one a few hundred yards away, across the road in Gooseneck Cove. Gooseneck Cove is not quite as high on the idyllic meter as Fishermen's. It lacks those authentic fishermen for one thing. They can't get their authentic boats into it because despite the fact that the two coves are connected by water, the water flows through two culverts and their boats don't fit through them. Imagine it this way: the open ocean (open at least until you run into Long Island) connected to Fishermen's Cove connected to Gooseneck Cove.

I mention the culverts because they're really important as culverts go. These culverts, especially the new one which affords a more direct line for water to travel between the two coves is so important that important people like Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island know all about it. He could probably describe in some detail the impact that this particular culvert is having on the ecosystem of this particular cove, not because he's an expert on such matters but because he was recently involved in creating the political will and financial wherewithal to bring this particular culvert into existence. It's an important culvert.

The idea to add this culvert came from one of the world's most successful environmental organizations, Rhode Island's own Save the Bay. They rock as environmental orgs go. They bend the ears and twist the arms of people like Senator Jack Reed for one and call it advocacy for one. They take school children out on the bay and dump live sea critters into their laps and call it education for another. As if that's not enough, they spend a great deal of effort planting eelgrass and monitoring its return in places like Gooseneck Cove and call it restoration. They really should be describing their three pronged approach to saving the bay themselves. Visit their website and let them tell you all about it .... but back to the story of our new culvert.

Why a new culvert? Not to put too fine a scientific point on it, the culvert lets in more sea water. The sea water makes life uncomfortable for the invasive phragmites grass choking the cove. Phragmites slowly turns the cove from a thriving complex ecosystem into a wet equivalent of a cornfield, pretty and green and consisting only of grass and a few red winged blackbirds. Build a culvert. The salt water enters. The phragmites goes away. The eelgrass come back with a little help from Save the Bay and their happy legions of eelgrass volunteers and before you know it all of the little creatures that like to live in eelgrass come back as well. Job done! Cove restored! Fishermen, tourists and photographers flock and Senator Jack Reed runs for reelection on an environmental platform.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Monday, July 20, 2009

St. Anne's Church



We did it! We pushed our 50' tripod into the sky to capture an unforgettable image of the facade of St. Anne's church in Fall River, MA. We screwed our robotic mount and camera into the top pole and sent it into the sky to see the world from a bird's eye view. It wasn't the eye of an eagle, more that of a songbird in the tree tops but no matter .... we were high enough to live up to the aerial part of our name: "Aerial Vr" and it felt fine.

We set up in Kennedy Park behind a row of trees which border the park and lifted our camera high enough to see over them and capture the entire facade of St. Anne's Church down to the steps. We had to work quickly to use the warm rosy light from the setting sun that illuminates the stone of St. Anne's facade to such good effect at this time of day. The tripod went up easily enough with the legs adjusted to plumb the center pole. We screwed the camera and its robotic mount into the center poles and began to slide them upwards, clamping as we went. Everything went quite smoothly up to this point.

We'd attached nylon rope to a collar at the top in the hope of guying the top of our contraption to the legs of the tripod. As the camera went upwards it became obvious that our pole wasn't stiff enough near the top and that our arrangement of guy ropes had to be altered. The camera began to sway back and forth in the light breeze and though breakage or toppling seemed very unlikely it was nerve racking to see our expensive equipment sway through space 40' or more above the ground. We scurried around with our ropes and were relieved to find that if we backed into the breeze until the rope formed an angle of 30-45 degrees with the pole that the arrangement began to stabilize.

We "pulled the trigger" on our pc and soon had the 8 images that we could stitch into a virtual reality photograph. You see the result of our efforts above. I feel safe in saying that the beauty of St Anne's, an amazing song in stone and one of Fall River's iconic buildings has never been celebrated from that particular vantage point. Spin the image around and look downwards and you can see the baseball game going on in the corner of Kennedy Park. The sweep of the park down to the head of Mount Hope Bay with the Braga Bridge behind is somewhat obscured by light. The vastly differing amounts of light encountered as one turns towards and then away from the setting sun taxed even our electronically enhanced ability to compensate for huge contrasts within a single image. Still, the park and the church and the lovely experience it provides the residents of Fall River on a warm summer evening is there in our virtual reality image. I think the park's designer, Frederick Law Olmstead would be pleased.

Our equipment made a few people curious. A 6 year old boy stood looking upwards, full of questions. The baseball coach from the game came over to retrieve him and ask what we were doing. Fall River born and raised, he made it clear he liked to see his city's most beautiful locations celebrated this way. He'd done his share of surfing the web as well and had already seen the "Street View" panoramas that can be found in Google Earth." I explained that our work was similar but of a much higher quality and resolution. Most of the panoramas we do can also be found using Google Earth. Simply turn on the 360 Cities layer that appears in the tree on the left of the page under the heading of "Gallery." Navigate on the map to Fall River and the panoramas we've done will appear as red circles with "360" inside of them. A click on the circle icons brings up the panorama. Be sure to try "full screen" for the full affect!

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Monday, July 13, 2009

Ups and Downs at Aerial Vr

It's been a few weeks of interesting technical achievements and setbacks here at Aerial Vr. It's time to let you in on part of our technical journey.

The good news first .... Chris has put his mechanical design talents to good use developing one of the world's largest camera tripods. We'll soon put a camera with its robotic remote controlled mount 50 feet in the air with perhaps a half hour of man-effort. We're proud of this of course but we're not strutting around like a north Korean with a nuclear missile either. This is not rocket science. It's also a problem that anyone with money can solve. There are collapsible tripods that will lift a camera up that high on the market already and Google will be glad to help you find them. Just get ready to drop a couple grand down your equipment hole before you lift a camera up into the sky.

We're proud because Chris did it for under $500. He's not going to tell every camera buff on the internet how either. We'll just say that he did it with an assortment of commercially available nesting fiberglass poles, some clamping blocks, some angle iron, a few nuts and bolts and hose clamps and a good drill press. The legs all collapse alongside the center pole to create a bundle 10' long and a foot or so in diameter and just light enough for one strong man to carry a 100 feet before collapsing on the pavement. It can be divided into two bundles and carried by 2 men a good deal further in a pinch, or so we hope. We don't want to have heart attacks and we don't want to hire porters. They're both expensive in Rhode Island.

We can let you in on a few more of the general operational parameters of the tripod. It doesn't have a crank. Someone needs to stand on a 6' ladder in order to mount the camera and slide it upwards into the sky one 10' pole and one clamp at a time. Finally and importantly, it will need to be guyed and sandbagged in order to go much beyond 20' into the air safely. We plan to guy it from somewhere near the top with nylon cord, probably down to its own 4 feet for simplicity. A couple of sandbags on the base should keep it stable in a light wind. I said "should." We have yet to lift it skywards with any weight on it. If we had a rocket scientist on staff we'd ask him to calculate how much weight it would take to stabilize our tripod in a 10 mph wind given our 50' max height and our 4 feet arranged in a circle 14' in diameter. It's not that we're not safety conscious or good engineers. It's that we had to lay off our rocket scientist last week due to the economy. We'll just ask our loved ones to stand clear, say a prayer and hoist away. It may not be how you put someone on the moon but it's a time honored experimental approach. It worked for the Wright Brothers. It will work for us too.

But it's not about having the biggest tripod on the block ... not really. Our palms sweat and our pulse quickens when we think about what sort of images we might capture with this marvelous contraption. We're thinking about catching the lovely curve of a coastline from up there or the majestic sweep of lawn leading up to a mansion or two down in Newport. We have a series of public service panoramas planned that will allow us to realize these ambitions without having to waste good time negotiating a paycheck. We hope to photograph Save the Bay's very green and solar panel bedecked roof using it. We may even have enough altitude to hoist the camera in the parking lot north of their building and get a view of their saltmarsh south of it. We hope to use it to photograph the front of their south facing building in the clear morning light. We also hope to capture unforgettable images of two of Fall River's iconic architectural structures: St. Anne's church and Durfee Highschool. If we have our way or should I say "if we're able to realize our ambition" then soon people from Tokyo to Taiwan will be studying these two remarkably beautiful stone facades and planning their vacations accordingly. I hyperbolize in order to amuse but the telling fact remains. We'll be using our new tripod to realize the aerial part of our name in the next few weeks or we'll collect a few bruises and a sprained back in the attempt.

But it's not one achievement after another here at Aerial Vr. We've collected our lumps as well. We won't play our violin too loudly or plaintively but this is one hell of a complicated way to take a picture. On a bad day it will send you running for your insta-matic. The lens on our digital SLR has to "talk" to our camera if you please. (We used to happy if the lens let light through. Now it has to talk and perhaps more to the point be heard.) The camera has to talk to our usb hub. The hub has to talk to our "hot spot" radio frequency gadget. The hotspot has to talk to our laptop's network card. Once inside our pc, the line of communication is more or less safe, (as safe as anything running in one of Bill Gates' creations can be) still, at least 4 pieces of software have to be opened in the correct order and dozens of operational parameters set properly in order to take the series of photographs that will become a virtual reality panorama.

One of the software programs is called Pappy Wizard. The Wizard talks to the robotic camera mount we call Ansel. It talks through the same cards, hubs and hotspots as our camera. The Wizard and Ansel communicate just fine as long as the phone lines don't go down. There are a half dozen batteries, a half dozen electrical and usb connections and about 100 ways that the whole contraption can refuse to work. The Wizard is very clever at aiming our camera with the help of Ansel's servos but don't think of Captain Picard saying "make it so!" There's a whole engineering department working hard to realize his orders. The wizard needs to be informed about the camera and lens. Everything from the lens' focal length to the camera's array type (there are 3) need to be entered correctly before Ansel and the Wizard can be set on their happy robotic way to capturing overlapping images.

All this to tell you that we went out recently with high photographic hopes and we came up short. Our Tokina lens wouldn't talk to our camera. It needs an adjustment that only the chiropractors at Tokina can provide. A second lens' focal length had to corrected due to our camera's array size. The Wizard needed to be informed of that fact and wasn't. So it was a swing and a miss. We came home without the prize we sought but just a little wiser and a little more determined to bring it home next time. Stay tuned to this station. We'll have some amazing virtual reality photos from high off the ground for people to enjoy in the next few weeks or our name isn't Aerial Vr.

Fair Journey,

Brian Shriver






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Blithewold




Blithewold ... it means "pretty wood" in old english and it's an apt name for a beautiful home by the sea, built in Bristol, RI around the turn of the century by the Van Wickles. The Van Wickles didn't just have a cute name and lots of money. They had great taste in architecture and a real fascination for horticulture. We've attempted to capture both in a series of panoramas we've done of their house and grounds. Our virtual tour starts at the front of the house in the panorama I've embedded in the page above and continues to the veranda in the back of the house and the sweep of grounds down to the sea. Try the "full screen" option and then use the thumbnails which will appear at the bottom of the image to move on to the view of the frog pond and the daffodils in the woods.

You'll like the creation of the Van Wickles, we can assure you. They were good people. Money didn't rot their souls and turn them into mean hearted Scrooges. It enabled their spirits to capture and create beauty. It's not just my fanciful imagination. It's on the books ... or in this case on the website ... all in one telling factoid from their history page. The mansion you see today is the second of two. The first one burnt to the ground in 1906, only 10 years after it was built. It was a slow moving fire that they were apparently powerless to stop. The telling part ... many of the people of Bristol were there trying to help. When they realized they couldn't stop the fire they decided to save as many of the furnishings as they could, "even fireplaces and bathtubs." Now I ask you, would you get up in the middle of the night to risk your life carrying some rich person's bathtub down the stairs of their burning mansion if you didn't like them? The VanWickles obviously inspired some degree of devotion in the good people of Bristol.

The good news is that the devotion is alive and well today. The house and grounds are cared for by a lean non profit organization that has weathered several financial storms in their quest to keep the Van Wickle's dream alive. They direct the efforts of over 200 dedicated volunteers who work on the house and grounds. They oversee a membership of over 1300 and an endowment of 3.2 million. Most importantly, they've succeeded in sharing the beauty that the VanWickles created with over 35,000 visitors each year! We think you'd do yourself a favor if you decide to be one of them. For more information you should visit their website at www.blithewold.org.







Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Santo Christo



I pass this Catholic church every day on my way to delivering my son to school. In search of a memorable image of Fall River, we poked our head in the front door just a few weeks ago and were glad that we did. Santo Christo sits at the corner of Columbia and Canal Streets in the heart of Fall River's Portuguese Cultural district and serves the Portuguese community in Fall River with services in both english and portuguese. Rev. Gastao Oliveira and Rev. Thomas M. Kocik preside over services. They don't appear to have a website but a phone number, address and a list of services can be had at this link: www.fallriverdiocese.org/parishes.asp?display=All

Journeys can take many forms and spiritual is one of them. I'm often affected, calmed perhaps by the sight of the inside of a Catholic Church. My eye follows the lines in the fluted columns upwards to the sight of the vaulted ceiling. I find myself thinking that if God came to earth he'd probably want to stay the night in this architectural grandeur. I hum a bar of "nearer my God to Thee" and out the door I go into the sunshine.

I confess that that's not the only sort of thought that a church invokes in me. Do you watch Bart Simpson? I love that little scamp. I was once amazed watching an episode in which he escaped the confines of a church by running along the backs of the pews, hopping into the aisle and climbing the chains that serve to open those peculiar little tilting windows one finds in the middle of the stained glass panels. He squeezed out and I remembered how many times I'd done exactly the same thing in my imagination as a young boy. Whatever form your religious devotion takes we hope you can enjoy the site of this lovely church interior that has served the Portuguese community in Fall River for so long.






Aerial Vr - "Your location in high definition virtual reality."
email us with your comments and ideas at btshriver@aerialvr.com & cblake@aerialvr.com
For more about our services see our website at www.aerialvr.com
This is the blog of Aerial Vr (www.aerialvr.com). We create virtual reality photographs for viewing on the web. We also send our cameras into the sky on a variety of kites and blimps to see the world from a bird's eye view. We're blogging about our experiences as this exciting new technology and the market around it develops. We're also dedicated to developing a resource for visitors to the Narragansett Bay & Southcoast areas so that they can explore in virtual reality before they come. Try the links above to see all of the content we present in this blog, especially the "Vr Map" link which presents information with a Google map as starting point. "Home" will bring up several recent posts. Or page downwards and try the "Labels" or "Blog Archives" to bring up blog posts and panoramas from our expanding portfolio that fall within a given category. Fair Winds!

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