I had never created 360 panorama or small planets before. I had previously read various articles and seen very interesting photos as well. I was very excited to make something like it, but never got a chance to make it.

On my trip to Blagoevgrad and Rila Monastery Trip with ESN people I found a very interesting place. There was non-functional spring in the middle of the steps and they were forming a perfect circle. At that point I thought how about a group photo by making small planet shaped circle. So I calculated number of people and walked around the circle. I gathered people and asked them to hold their hands around the circle and stay still. I went to middle of the circle and after I was satisfied with the formation, I adjusted the focus of my camera[in auto focus mode] and switched to manual focus. It is very important to have the same settings[aperture, shutter etc] for all your shots. I could have taken the 6 or 8 shots but I was not using the tripod so for better alignment I took 10 shots covering everyone.
When I came back I stated stitching the photos using Photoshop. I used photo merge option of adobe and selected “perspective” in “Layout”.  I loaded 10 photos and they had very high resolution and the result was the picture having size of 28.2 MB. I purpose that you should reduce the size and then continue otherwise adobe might crash and you might lose your data [or you should save psd formats side by side without reducing the size].

The photomerge option resulted in Raw Panorama of the shots and each photo was in Layers. As I had told you I did not used the tripod and few people were not aligned perfectly. Thats why I had to carefully align the picture manually. Also I wanted to make small planet shaped circle so I had to be careful with the ends of the picture.
After I was satisfied with the stitching I applied “Polar Coordinates” filter [Filter->distort->polar coordinates]. My first small planet was ready … but what the … The ends were not perfect[it needed extra adobe photoshop magic...].  I had to do some basic adobe photoshop in order to remove the deficiency. [Always use tripod or try to learn advance adobe photoshop].

The resulted picture as you see is not very satisfying… I tried various adobe photo shop techniques to squeeze the people and make it perfect but it was taking too much effort. Now I search for some tutorials and wanted to look others similar pictures. After reading some stuff I realized I was doing the same thing but if I add some empty space at the lower part of the picture, the inner circle will be more wider and people will look better.

I had already saved the straight Panorama so I increased the height of that image and applied the filter. This time the result was much better. But I did not kinda liked the inner white circle, so I thought how about stretching the grass[lower part of the image] and this increased the height of the image as well. After doing that I applied the polar coordinate filter and the end result was the following picture.

I learned a lot from my first experience and next time I will do better than that.  Try increasing the height upto the width and see you will have better results. I am open for suggestion and comments, do let me know what you think.

[You can find very good resources  here here and here]

I was searching for waterproof camera and found a very interesting article. Ofcourse If you are using SLR then I would recommend the waterproof kit[kind of plastic bag] for you. If you like photography and like to buy new waterproof camera then you must check out this comparison. [source:http://www.popphoto.com/Features/The-5-Best-Waterproof-Compact-Cameras]

1. Canon PowerShot D10
$330 street, 12.1MP; 3X optical zoom; waterproof to 33 feet
Canon’s first foray into waterproof digital compacts looks like a cross between a Digital ELPH and a diving bell. With a waterproof rating down to 33 feet, it’s among the deepest divers in this category, but its 2.5-inch LCD and optically stabilized 35–105mm (equivalent) f/2.8–4.9 zoom lens aren’t at the front of this pack. Like the other cameras here, the D10 is freeze- and shockproof, in this case surviving temperatures down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit and falls of up to 4 feet.
www.powershot.com

2. Fujifilm Finepix Z33WP
$200 street, 10MP; 3X optical zoom; waterproof to 10 feet
Borrowing design cues from Fuji’s teen-targeted Z30, this underwater shooter is one of the tiniest and most stylish, as well as the most affordable. Its 2.7-inch LCD is as large as they come on this type of compact. But it’s waterproof only to 10 feet, and its 10MP and 35–105mm (equivalent) f/3.7–4.2 optical zoom aren’t groundbreaking.
www.fujifilmusa.com

3. Olympus Stylus Tough 8000
$400 street, 12MP; 3.6X optical zoom; waterproof to 33 feet
Olympus offers some of the most rugged compact cameras you can get, and its latest fits the mold. You can shoot down to 33 feet underwater, drop the camera from up to 6.6 feet, and use it in temperatures down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Plus, its metal construction can withstand up to 220 pounds of pressure. Sensorshift image stabilization combats hand shake, and the zoom, while not league-leading, spans an equivalent 28–102mm f/3.5–5.1.
www.stylustough.com

4. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1
$400 street, 12.1MP; 4.6X optical zoom; waterproof to 10 feet
Panasonic has stepped up to the pool in a strong way with its first waterproof digital camera. Its optically stabilized 28–128mm (equivalent) f/3.3–5.9 zoom offers a nice balance of wide angle for underwater and midrange tele for land-based adventures. At 12.1MP, it affords plenty of resolution, and it has an ample 2.7-inch LCD. While we wish it could go deeper than 10 feet, its 720p video recording should make playing in the backyard pool more fun than ever.
www.panasonic.com

5. Pentax Optio W60
$250 street, 10MP; 5X optical zoom; waterproof to 13 feet
Pentax was one of the first to offer dunkable digital cameras with its WP series years ago, and now it’s a major force. This model has plenty of room to the left of the lens to hold onto, and we like the 720p video recording, though we’d rather have a faster rate than its 15 frames per second. Its Super Macro mode should be a boon below the surface, letting you focus as close as 0.4 inches from the front of the 28–140mm (equivalent) f/3.5–5.5 lens.
www.pentaximaging.com

Royat-e-Halal committee ka masla hal kernay… Agiya Agiya Perfect telescope
A girl near Fantastico(Sofia, Bulgaria) is making money by showing moon and Jupiter from her telescope…
Two leva for sighting moon… Although I gave her One leva and one leva was compensated by taking her picture…

The St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (Bulgarian: Храм-паметник „Свети Александър Невски“, Hram-pametnik „Sveti Aleksandar Nevski“) is a Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Built in Neo-Byzantine style, it serves as the cathedral church of the Patriarch of Bulgaria and is one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world, as well as one of Sofia’s symbols and primary tourist attractions. The St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia occupies an area of 3170 m² and can take 5,000 people inside.
source: wikipedia

Bulgaria is country located in Europe near Turkey and Romania. People of Bulgaria speak Bulgarian and Bulgarian Language had Cyrillic Alphabets. The Capital of Bulgaria is Sofia. I was awarded the scholarship by the EURECA and was selected as an exchange student by Sofia University. I came to Sofia on 1st September, went to hostel and got the room instantly.
Quite few people in Sofia can speak English, and if you don’t know Bulgarian then it would really hard for you to live here. Luckily for us we found Indians who previously came to Sofia as an exchange student as well. They are very nice people and helping us a lot in settling down in Sofia.
Its been three days now I have not explore Sofia because I was busy in registration process of hostel, university and things like shopping. We have a plan to visit various places and to explore Sofia in coming days. I found Bulgarians very sweet and helpful.