This Wrinkle 2 QTVR Panorama created by Geoff Jagoe and Barb de la Hunty from Mastery Multimedia Pty Ltd, Perth, Australia.
Company WWW HomePage: http://www.mastery.com.au Barb's personal WWW HomePage: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/5148
geoffandbarb@mastery.com.au
Phone: +61 8 9634 2134
The Treetop Walk.
Photographed at the Valley of the Giants, near Walpole in Western Australia at 6.00 am local time on Saturday 21st March for Global Synchronous Shoot #1.
Location Notes: The Treetop Walk in the Valley of the Giants at Walpole-Nornalup National Park was constructed and is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM), as a unique way for humans to visit these ancient trees while causing the least disturbance to the fragile forest floor environment. It is accessible by both foot and wheelchair.
Shoot Notes: When we drove into Walpole late on the night before the shoot, it was in the grip of the first big storm of Autumn. Torrential rains and strong gusting winds made the prospects of a good QTVR in the treetops look very poor. However, when we rose at 4.20am, the winds appeared to be dropping, and we decided to take our chances in the canopy. The world was a black, stormy void around us at 5.40 am when we started onto the Treetop Walk by torchlight. Geoff set up the tripod in darkness in the middle of one of the high spans. At the end of each span is a platform supported by a single freestanding column, up to 40 meters off the ground. Movement is constrained by guy cables to the ground, but the whole assembly sways gently whenever people walk. Barb, our 3 sons and Chris (our guide) stood on the next platform up to minimise vibrations. The mesh floor of the walkway trapped the leg of the tripod at about 5 minutes to deadline! Geoff was also worried about dropping his levelling bubble as it would have gone straight through to the ground some 25 metres below.
Geoff shot the first frames in predawn dimness. Blustering winds were tearing apart the lowering clouds and the lighting changed rapidly as the overcast sky started to open up. Scatterings of rain suddenly stopped as the sun rose and we were finally able to see how far down the ground was below us! Standing 40 meters up in the air amongst the canopy leaves of the giant Tingle trees at dawn was a magic moment. Crows and other birds sounded the day's arrival but their calls were almost lost in the surging and soughing of millions of wet eucalypt leaves. The combination of dim, highly variable lighting, rain and strong breezes made this shoot technically challenging, but ultimately very rewarding.
We managed to shoot another node further along the walk before the rain resumed and drove us off the platform. The second node will be viewable from our Mastery Multimedia website. Our thanks to CALM, who gave us exclusive access to the area at this very early hour, thus making this wrinkle possible. Thanks also to Chris Goodsall, our helpful and knowledgable guide.
Technical details: Canon EOS 620 with Kodacolor Gold III 400 ASA. 17-35mm rectilinear zoom lens set at 17mm. Exposure fixed at 10 sec, f6.7 with flash fill. Camera and camcorder were both liberally wrapped in plastic food wrap. Self-made pano head based mostly on Manfrotto bits. Images scanned from negatives and stitched in QTVR Authoring Studio on a Power Tower Pro 250 MHz Macintosh clone running MacOS8.1.
Barb's Personal Home Page Company Home Page