The Historic Pantiles, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, UK by Man Garnier

A partial panorama of the beautiful Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells.
I was shooting East to include much of the Pantiles area including - Mottrams Kitchen Shop (great to visit!), the Duke of York Pub which I believe also owns the Ragged Trousers Pub opposite (one of my favourites) and of course, the pretty Tourist Information Centre (which I hope is retained with the lovely staff during this period of recession - budget just announced!).

The unusual and historic post box is Victorian - see if you can see the unusual motif and time of the next collection! (Clues: Clock time & box collection plate).

There are the usual ghost images here but the definition is good enough to window shop at Mottram's. I'll take the lovely spherical white tea-pot please! I must check to see if it has a strainer integrated as I'm keen to use fresh loose tea rather than the tea-bags we generally use...

This is a delightful area to take tea or visit an English pub. I have a GigaPan Epic system (purchased for initial tests but which with the Lumix TZ10 will provide a useful back-up system) but am also about to use an Automate which will hold a heavyweight Canon DSLR and the 200 and 300mm (maybe 400mm) lenses I intend to test out (after I get the pda working and fathom the controls!). Currently, I'm waiting for the rain to stop too - England!

It took 20 minutes to shoot this panarama and about the same to stitch it using new software from GigaPan. Since this image I have acquired a Gigapan Pro machine - so it's likely we'll see some higher res of the Pantiles soon. It's November 2010 now... There's a great opportunity to take a 360 degree here too - that's if we don't get moved on by some official (quite likely when a tripod is used and the 'highway' is partly obstructed). Have you noticed how there are an increasing number of people who object to being in your picture even though taken from a public place?

In London - I used to be able to shoot views with impunity but it is soooo difficult now. Often you may have to apply for a permit and pay a £400 fee for shooting in say, Trafalgar Square (no thanks!) but pay the same amount again if you wish to shoot in one of the Parks or another part of London.

I've obscured faces as a matter of course in this panarama and deleted some of the ghosts (a double set of dismembered legs were cloned out and I have to admit to cleaning up the flagstones a little.

Best of luck with your own Gigapans. I'm keen to try out the new Gigapan Epic Pro - but so far have received a negative from GigaPan USA as it apparently is in high demand and no units available for me. Ouch! I have the AutoMate to test out and of course there are other systems. Google them and see which you might prefer. I'll let you know which I find more appropriate for my work in due course.

Oh - and one more thing... hurry up!

March 29th 2010 (Since taking this I've tried tests in my garden and some new Stitching software from Gigapan was launched. Speeds up the Stitching process - however I'm still obtaining the odd glitch to iron out. Check our website www.farmcombelane.co.uk  if you need a place to stay while in Tunbridge Wells - it's just for two people but a hop, skip and a jump from the Pantiles & High Street + we have free parking, wifi etc. Separate entrance too.