Arpoador beach has been where a person have first worn a biquini in Brazil. This has been in 1948 and the author has been a German woman that lived here. Arpoador is at the left of the immersive picture, looking to the continent. The picture has been made on a big rock that kind of makes the “corner” of Arpoador and Diabo beaches (this last at right). Arpoador beach is only the first 500 meters (0.3 miles) of that beach. Ipanema and Leblon are other names that follows this one beach that the men splited in three.
The most traditional golden hour there is the sunset, when the place gets completely crowded. This one has been made early in the morning.
Arpoador translates to harpooneer and this name has been given because there, from the rock, it was possible to harpoon wales in a remote past.
“Turn your face toward the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.” – Oriental saying
These pictures were shot at Point Loma, a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, the east by the San Diego Bay and Old Town and the north by the San Diego River. The time of the shot was good for the picture of the sun, but unfortunately I couldn’t visit the Cabrillo National Monument as it was already closed. I went there with a friend met at a conference I was participating in the city. He suggested me the place. Then we stopped in this place, which gave me a very peaceful sensation. Although it might look morbid, I try to face things naturally. I believe oriental people do that more than occidental. The Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is a federal military cemetery where are interred soldiers died in battles, wars and accidents since 1846 until the World War II.
As the place is a little far from downtown (about 10 miles) the peace feeling was great. It has very few people and we could basically stare the nature, the sky and the view around.
“Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, each one she passes goes – ah”
This song has been sang by Frank Sinatra (with Tom Jobim in this video) and others around the world. Shown above is a small part of the original “Garota de Ipanema” (The Girl from Ipanema), a music composed by Tom Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes. The Portuguese version in the panorama is sang by Toquinho and Vinícius, recorded in 1975.
Ipanema is a very inspiring place, and right at its corner is Arpoador. There is no physical delimiter between them. The neighborhood, the beach, always full of young and beautiful people, inspired Vinicius de Moraes, Tom Jobim and many other lovers since no one knows when.
Daily the crowds go over the rocks to see the sunset. As a friend said when we were there shooting, it is amazing how people do that for more than 20 years, and every single sunny day the clap their hands when the sun hides below the horizon. Oh, that’s a wonderful thing, and that’s one more reason why this is so called “The Wonderful City”
This place reminds me when I was a child and used to go there with my parents to ride my bike and play with our dogs. The “Aterro do Flamengo” has been built with many successive embankments over the Guanabara bay since the beginning of the XX century until late 50’s. It is today a big leisure area with many different spaces, monuments, a museum, a marina and a freeway that connects downtown to the south zone of the city.
It is a little strange sometimes to imagine that this part of the city, that for me has always been there, once didn’t exist and has been created by men over the bay. I’ve already done other 360º pictures there, at the Monumento aos Pracinhas, Maman sculpture, that was exposed close to the Modern Art Museum (MAM) and at the statue of Marechal Deodoro, creator of the Brazilian Republic .
This picture has been shot over the Estácio de Sá monument, an obelisk, called pyramid by some, that nowadays hosts some photography exhibitions in it’s underground. Estácio de Sá has been a Portuguese military, founder of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Cousin of Salvador Correia de Sá and nephew of Mem de Sá, other important people from the Brazilian history, he came to the city of Salvador, in Bahia, in 1563, with the mission to expel definitely the remaining French at the Guanabara bay and found here a new city. In 1565, after accomplish his duty, he finally founded the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, our Wonderful City!
At this picture I tried to play a little, shooting in the morning and then in the late afternoon. It is possible to change the panorama whenever you want by clicking at the Sugar Loaf or Corcovado icons, and you will see the sun mooving from one to the other, going to it’s corresponding position in the morning and afternoon.
As the places has many many beautiful scenes I decided, once more, to put an image album over the immersive picture, giving the user a chance to know a little bit more from the place.
Aterro do Flamengo
Technical Datasheet
This is a place I wanted to shoot since a long time ago. I went there in the morning, but not too early. Maybe if I went earlier the sky color would be better, more yellow or orange, but I’m not sure if the gopro would perform well with less light, I still need to test it. Until now I prefer the aerial pictures shot in the middle of the day, this way the sun is higher and the light gets uniform in all directions, not giving me the problem of the big white sky with the sun closer to the horizon. After stitching the morning picture I thought about coming back at the end of the day to make another. My initial idea was to make one only panorama mixing the two images, getting from the afternoon one only the part of the Sugar Loaf mountain, but after trying this I decided to put both panoramas separated in a tour.
The positioning between the two didn’t get so good, but the problem was the different highs from the shootings that changed very much the overall perspective, making it impossible.
here is one more panoramic picture, this time giving you the opportunity to visit the entrance of the beautiful city of Teresópolis, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This specific place is know as “Soberbo”, which could be translated to superb, and I think you cam understand the reason by watching the immersive photo. The privileged view reaches the Guanabara Bay, at more than 60 miles (100km) away. Closer to the Soberbo is the most famous mountain, called “Dedo de Deus”, which means “God’s Finger”. Many stores and other companies in the city use this name.
The city is well know from those who like tracking and scaling activities, with many different places to visit. The “Pedra do Sino” (Bell’s Rock) is probably the most famous climbing place in the area. For those who like easier workouts, I recommend the Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos, where you can take a walk in nature with a beautiful river.
This is one more picture made in Carolina, countryside of Maranhão, northeast Brazil. We were there, just taking some sun at Pousada do Lajes. Bruno wanted one more time to appear in all the photos I do to make the panorama, and that’s been done. Even having many natural pools, water falls, lakes and other natural attractions, a “normal” pool has also it’s value. For the kids fun is what matters. A beautiful immersive panoramic picture is a good way of keeping this moment in our memories and makes it easy to share our view of the place. I hope you get amused with the blue sky as we did.
Pool at Pousada do Lajes
I just need to remember of recording the sound to create a better environment to the picture.
Other panoramas in Carolina
View From ChurchKids at the FarmItapecuru FallsTorre da LuaSquare in CarolinaZipline
Hi guys, I know some fellows that will probably complain when they see this photo… third time at the same place … 🙂 I can’t help it, it is the most practical place to try new ideas.
This time I tried to repeat exactly the same shooting point of the previous picture, but at night! The challenge was the long exposure using the pole. I think it looks good, check it out!
Day and Night on the Roof at Leblon
Night picture data sheet:
The data sheet of the daytime picture is in this other post.
Spin: 8 stops at 45 degrees spinning in the horizontal with the cam at about 30º down + 8 stops at 45 degrees spinning in the horizontal with the cam at about 30º up
Pictures: 4 JPG’s with auto-bracketing with 0EV +2EV +4EV +6EV using the Magic Lantern firmware
EXIF: ISO 100, f16, 2s + 10s + 42s + 170s, fixed white balance
Final image size: 14978×7489 pixels = 112 megapixels
