Weir, Monsal Dale

Weir on the River Wye

(Canon EOS 60D, Sigma 17-70mm @ 17mm, 1/100s @ f/7.1, Composite panorama of 3 images)
A sunny but cold morning tempted me out for a walk today. I decided on Monsal Dale and walked from the A6 up to Brushfield then along the top to the Monsal Trail and back along the dale by the River Wye. After all the rain we have had recently the River was well up and much was crashing over the weir. I passed through a field of bullocks near the road on the way back to the car.

Bullocks in Monsal Dale

Cheddleton Panorama

(Panasonic Lumix TZ10 - 10 images stitched in Microsoft ICE)

This morning, while out walking Button, our dog, I decided to put the Microsoft Image Composition Editor (ICE) to the test with a large panorama. I used my Lumix compact camera set on A mode (aperture priority), with auto exposure, white balance and focus. The 10 photos looked at individually had various tints due to differences in white balance but, as you can see, ICE made an excellent job of stitching and balancing the 10 photos giving a view over a 208 deg angle. The white border at the bottom of the panorama on the right is there because I decided that the auto crop feature of ICE was a bit too fierce as I had hand held the camera rather than using a tripod. I haven't found any panorama stitching program that does a better job. (Click on the photo for a closer look.)