Egyptian Walk

I went out for a walk today and ended up walking 12 miles - a little further than I intended. However the real purpose was to play with my new toy - a Canon S5 IS digital camera. And it's really good. In fact I'm delighted by it. It's fast and takes rock steady photos - no more blur and camera shake thanks to it's image stabalizer - that's what the IS stands for.

Anyway, I went to a couple of places I've never visited before in San Jose. The Rosicrucian is an museum of pseudo Ancient Egyptian Temples and Gardens. Very beautiful and peaceful. And San Jose Rosarium - the City Rose Garden. Beautiful Smell. Not at peaceful as the Egyptian Place, but well worth a visit.

I can't but wonder how the Rosicrucian comes to be here. It's incongruous that such a place should be here in Silicon Valley. And the Planetarium which is on the site, dates from 1936. Possibly a rich excentric's hobby which has been left to the City. I must find out more about it.

On the way home, while coming through Guadalupe Gardens, I was interviewed on camera for KRON-4's 6 o'clock news. I don't know if I made it on the screen, however the guy was shooting a story about air polution in Silicon Valley. Apparently, San Jose comes bottom the table for air quality in the Bay Area. I've never noticed anything odd about the air here - the weather's clear, warm and the skies are blue most of the time.

I didn't have time to watch the news to see if I made it onto the air. Oh well, maybe somebody saw me and I'll hear about it.

This is the first time I've made a QuickTime movie with the the Photostitch application which came with the new Canon Camera.

The camera has a 'stitch assist mode' which is very easy to use and almost guarantees perfect results. When you use this, the camera view finder TV superimposes the previous photo with the current lens view. So you can see the stitch in the camera when you're taking the next photo!

The camera can stitch horizontally for panoramas. Or vertically for tall buildings. And there's a mosaic/tile for something wide and tall such as a large document, or the Grand Canyon.

The desktop software finishes the job and exports to a variety of formats. I've used QuickTime here for no special reason. Use the mouse to pan this scene at the San Jose Rosegarden. 10 photos taken to make this. Spot the joins? Enjoy!

Lightbox click here - 4.12mb download

Google Map: click here - 5mb download