Offline in Patagonia: Panoramic and Photographic Update
Filed Under: Wondering why we’ve been quiet recently? Here are some clues as to what we’ve been up to.
Click on the box at the far right (4 arrows) and move inside the image using your cursor or the arrows.
A spherical panoramic sunrise view of Las Torres at Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia
Patagonia: another of those names that suggests a far-off land where the Earth bends and guys like Butch Cassidy and Che Guevara blazed iconic trails. For us, it now means a canvas of wind-stroked muted brush studded with glacier-fed lakes and massive hunks of uplifted granite.
We just finished trekking Torres del Paine National Park (the “W” for those of you familiar), camping in Chilean Patagonia for six days and tramping 100 kilometers across boulder-strewn hills and through rainbows, admiring the shape of nature and abiding a few notoriously violent Patagonian windstorms along the way.
After exiting the deep woods, we took in the Perito Moreno glacier outside of El Calafate — a glacier now so famous that it feeds the existence of El Calafate, once a frontier sheep town, now home to over 20,000.
Perito Moreno Glacier near El Calafate in Argentina’s Patagonia region
At the moment, we have our eyes towards the hills and granite towers surrounding El Chalten, Argentina. After poking around, we’ll head north, snaking into and out of Chile and Argentina along Chile’s Carretera Austral and Argentina’s legendary Ruta 40.
More on the meaning of all this later. Stay tuned.
March 26th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Wowowow. The photos are amazing, and I love your 360′ shots. I can’t imagine not going there now. Thank you!
March 26th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by umarket: Offline in Patagonia: Panoramic and Photographic Update (includes Torres del Paine & glacier) http://su.pr/24ATJS #lp #travel #photography…
March 26th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Amazing photos, thank you for sharing! Patagonia, Perito Moreno and trekking in Torres del Paine is one of my greatest dreams. Did u go trekking by yourselves?
March 26th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Incredibly gorgeous! Love the spherical photos…
March 26th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Wow! Cool panorama. I did a couple of barrel rolls and a loop the loop.
March 27th, 2010 at 9:31 am
Way cool Patagonia sphere!!!! OK, now you’ve gotten me doing a load of surfing to figure out how to do that–amazing!
March 27th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Looking forward to more photos and panorama!! It looks amazing
March 28th, 2010 at 4:10 am
The dork in me is curious as to what you need to get that spherical picture together. Can you enlighten us?
March 30th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
@Deborah: Torres del Paine, the Perito Moreno glacier and hiking around El Chalten is beautiful, but I also recommend looking into smaller, lesser known parks and villages. More local flavor and a bit less touristy.
@Simon: There’s no need to go with an organized tour to Torres del Paine – you can easily rent camping equipment in Puerto Natales and get a bus out to the National Park to get started. There are many trekkers along the way and in campsites so you won’t get lonely
@Lisa, Pete and Shannon: Glad you enjoyed the pano! Internet permitting, we hope to have some more up later.
@Olivia and Kyle: We’ve been planning a post on how we do these spherical panoramas since we keep getting emails about this topic as well. Simply put, we take 4-6 photos with a fisheye lens, stitch them together using special software and then create a “tour” through software as well. Stay tuned for all the other details!
March 30th, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Your panoramic Patagonia sunrise view is unbelievable! What a thrilling blog photography feature! I can’t wait to see more.
March 31st, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Goodness, that is one snazzy plugin you’ve got! Patagonia – another mysterious location to me. Look forward to more revealing moments!
April 4th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
@Sonya: Glad you enjoyed it. More stories, photos and panoramic photos from Torres del Paine and the rest of Chilean and Argentine Patagonia coming soon.
@NomadicChick: When you say “plugin”, I assume you are referring to what we use to create and display spherical panoramas on our site. We are planning a post or two on how to do that. Unfortunately, it’s not quite as easy as a 1-click plugin. Regarding Patagonia and mystery, I think it’s one of those locations that has done well in terms of both its marketing and its mentions in popular culture.