New virtual tour scenes

[BlueRanger]

I shot 4 new panoramic scenes for the TFF virtual tour on Saturday evening, after a beautiful day of skiing at Indianhead. They're currently positioned at the beginning to make them easy to find. The new Springstead Landing scene really shows some of the tornado damage.

http://tours.grandviewvirtual.com/12204?a=1

I'll be posting quite a few regular photos later. If you click the tours.grandviewvirtual.com link at the top of the tour, it will show a few other non-commercial tours I've done, including some scenes I shot at Black River Harbor on Friday afternoon.

[The Frog caster]

Hey Blue ............ those pics are gorgeous !!! .......... I really like the "The Falls" .............. It reminds me of my Hamm's motion beer sign. When I can't view your 360 degree pics, I can plug the sign in. !!!! Nice job Blue.

Kind Regards, Larry F.

[DonH]

Great stuff Blue. Really appreciate all your hard work for our benefit. This is truly above and beyond, and I love it! I know what I'll be watching during lunch for quite a while.

[luv2brw]

Thanks Blue for the new imagery!

[Flambeau Vista Retreat LLC]

Nice job Blue! Thanks for sharing.

[Greenkeeper]

Awesome!!!!!!!!

[MuskieRandy]

Very well done! What kind of camera do you use?

[BlueRanger]

Again, I'm glad that people enjoy it and I appreciate the compliments. All of my camera gear goes literally everywhere I do, thanks to a cleverly designed but grossly overpriced backpack that keeps it all organized and protects it from the occasional spill, and I have quick release clamps on everything so I can quickly set up the panorama rig and shoot a few scenes whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I just uploaded an album of TFF stills at the link below. Will be uploading another one later with some great photos I shot Friday afternoon/evening at various locations along the Lake Superior shoreline in the U.P.

Right now I shoot everything with a Nikon D40 and 2 lenses, an 18-55mm and a 55-200mm. In terms of resolution and image quality it's really all I would ever need for the panoramas and most other purposes. But I've been looking at a D7000 for its high-ISO capabilities - I also shoot a lot of musicians in poorly-lit bars.

[Flambeau Vista Retreat LLC]

What songs do the musicians play that causes you to shoot them? I just want to make sure I don't whistle one of these songs around you! LOL

[BlueRanger]

I just uploaded another album, featuring Black River Harbor, Little Girl Point, the Montreal River and a couple shots of Hurley. I'm keeping the bikini skiers at Indianhead to myself. Thanks to the more than 200 people who checked out the virtual tour since yesterday!

[Timbrr]

Great pictures of Black River Harbor and the lakefront. My wife and I love to hike this area, including all of the falls. I (hopefully) attached 2 pictures from the north side of Rainbow Falls which I took on Tuesday, March 29th. I have never seen it running with such force! I also took some video. Nice work on the virtual tours too--keep them coming! -Joe

[Musky Mauler]

Very, very nice, Blue Ranger! You sure know how to do it.

It looks quite peaceful. Brings to mind a time some 35-40 years ago. Back then, opening day for walleyes and muskies came on the same day: the third Saturday of May, if I remember correctly. In any case, it was close to the middle of the month.

Anyway, Wally Wagner and I went fishing with Earl Tomek, the owner of The Old Log Inn before he sold it and it burned down. We were staying at Al's Place (now Fort Flambeau) and got into one of Al Weseman's 16-foot Alumacraft boats. We used my Envinrude 9.5 outboard. (Nobody would DARE to use anything more than a 15 HP engine on the Flowage in those days! Too much of it was like a minefield!)

Earl suggested that we run all the way up to Lake of the Falls. Took a little while to get there with that 9.5, but chugging around ANYWHERE on the Flowage is always a delight. Once we got there, a couple of other boats were busy drowning nightcrawlers or mud minnows trying to fill-out their five-walleye limit. (Those were the days!)

But, the shore was full of land-bound fisherman trying to accomplish the same thing. Lines would sometimes get tangled. Some casts would come a bit TOO close to some boats. Words began to fly. Threats were made. Lead sinkers were even thrown from shore to sea, and vice-versa. Tempers flared.

Earl soon had enough. He said, "Let's get out of this madhouse and go back down to Lake Ten where we'll be safe!"

I look at your tranquil photos of Lake of the Falls and can't help but think back to that rowdy situation that day. Sure glad it wasn't like that all the time up on the Flowage!

[bupa]

Great pictures Blue! I was wondering if there was somehow when viewing these pics if there was some way to get that little map to come up on the right side of page to see where these pics are on the map.sorry about the long sentence!It would help a newbie to the TFF to see where these pics were taken. Thanks again for the wonderful photography!

Thanks,Bob S.

[BlueRanger]

bupa, you can open the map from the box in the upper left, and I think it will stay open. You can also drag the divider to change how much of the screen is used for the map vs. the photos, but I think 30% is the minimum for either side. It defaults to off because I thought it looked a little cluttered with all those scenes, and I just guessed that more people would like it off than on - it's mainly designed for displaying floor plans on real estate tours. I'm trying to figure out a way to make it better, and I think my options are to divide the map into smaller sections to make the icons more distinct, or split the whole tour up into multiple tours with fewer scenes on each. The map is set to one side or the other, users can't move it.

Musky Mauler, that sounds reminiscent of the salmon snagging season on Lake Michigan when I was a kid.

Timbrr, it looks like you were on the east side of the river - I haven't hiked down that side, but it looks like the view was worth it. I'm looking at a camera mount that goes on a telescoping painter's pole for elevated shots, and it struck me that I could use it in a place like that to reach out over the river and take shots from a perspective you wouldn't be able to get any other way. I think I have a set in my Picasa albums from last spring when the water level was about the same as in your shots, taken from the other side.