How to join the Teton Range and the Alps (was: Joining 2 images)

[Wilhelm Sanke]

I have been touring through the German "National Park Berchtesgaden" 
(about 12 miles from Salzburg, where Mozart was born and lived part of 
his life) for the last two weeks. While I was able to monitor the 
discussion about "Joining 2 images" via my cellphone, I was unable to 
contribute anything to this thread - being busy with climbing up and 
down the snow-capped mountains and having no computer at my disposal.

I was impressed and fascinated by this beautiful part of the Alps, and 
much of it reminded me of the Teton Range in the "Grand Teton National 
Park" in Wyoming near Yellowstone Park. I thought this to be a good 
starting point for a belated contribution to thread "Joining 2 images".

I put together a sample stack

<http://www.sanke.org/Software/JoinOverlappingImages.zip>

focusing on joining and partially blending two images, using an image of 
the Teton Range (not by me) and a photography of the Watzmann Peaks from 
my recent series, the second highest German mountain. When a blending 
range of 300 pixels is applied (given the size of the sample photos in 
the stack) IMO it seems to create a very presentable melting of Teton 
Range and the Watzmann part of the Alps.

Apart from the "blending" script the stack contains Mark Smith's 
"joining" script of May 3 (use-revolution list) and an alternative 
"joining" script by myself on card 2.

Mark's script is surely the fastest solution possible when joining two 
images by "appending" lines of bytes/chars. Such an "appending" approach 
- using "put after" - is useful and possible with lines or successions 
of chars when either the char values remain unchanged or each char of 
the imagedata is modified in the same way and by that independantly of 
any other char or its own position in the imagedata.

If, however, you have to compute new char values by taking into account 
for example surrounding pixels (like with filter scripts; compare my 
"blur" filters in stack "Imagedata Toolkit") or you wish to embed a 
smaller image into a larger one with a perfect blending etc. etc., then 
you have to apply a technique where the location of the individual chars 
is clearly defined by their horizontal and vertical positions inside the 
imagedata. My alternative script on card 2 - although very much slower 
for the purpose of just joining two images - demonstrates such a 
positional approach.

My script for combining two images with a definable overlapping area 
also uses this positional approach.

For those who do not wish to download my sample stack, but would like to 
have a quick look at the script, here is just the text of this script:

<http://www.sanke.org/Software/JoinAndBlendImages.txt>

==========================================

And for those who are just interested in the processed photos and the 
combined result, here are these images in a somewhat bigger format:

<http://www.sanke.org/Software/TetonRange.jpg>
<http://www.sanke.org/Software/Alps-WatzmannPeaks.jpg>

 and the resulting blended image:
 
<http://www.sanke.org/Software/JointTetonAndAlps.jpg>.

While it appeared to me that the "National Park Berchtesgaden" and the 
"Grand Teton National Park" have so much in common, I have to point out 
that there are still some differences. Take - as an example - the 
following buildings in Berchtesgarden:

<http://www.sanke.org/Software/ChurchMariaGern.jpg>

You surely will not find such churches and farm houses in the Teton region.-

=========================================

Other less visual differences that come to my mind:

The best way to reach the Teton region is to fly to Jackson Hole and 
rent a car from Alamo to be able to tour the region.
The best way to reach the National Park Berchtesgaden is to come by 
train and then use your "Kurkarte" (which you get when you have booked a 
room for your stay) for "free" traveling with public transport in the 
whole region.

There are some trails in the Teton Range and Yellowstone Park where you 
are asked to leave your address and phone number for better 
identification of your remains - for the case that you would be 
approached by an unfriendly grizzly.
In the Alps a single brown bear was spotted last year - possibly coming 
from the Balkan area - who was immediately "eliminated", which raised a 
heated discussion in the European press.

While it feasable to communicate in an English-like language in the 
Teton region (at least when you listen closely), in Berchtesgaden you 
have to take into account that the so-called "free state" of Bavaria 
(still part of Germany) to which the area belongs, has certain 
privileges and peculiarities, among them an indigenous vernacular, a 
Bavarian dialect that is nowhere else taught and understood in Germany 
or elsewhere. This influences political proceedings in Germany to a 
substantial degree, because it makes it difficult to speak "with one 
voice" in international matters.

Before you enter a restaurant in the Teton region, you have to make sure 
that the restaurant has a license for liquors. Otherwise you might end 
up digesting your steak with biologically correct water or, what is 
worse, Coca Cola.
Mormon country is near.
But there is hope: Even in Salt Lake City, not far from the Tabernacle, 
there is (or was?) a Mexican restaurant - favoured by students of 
Brigham Young University (Devin Asay will surely know) - that serves 
spicy dishes along with alcoholic beverages.

In Berchtesgaden one of the favourite drinks is "Enzian", a liquor made 
form the roots of a blue or yellow flower with a distinctive earthen, 
but wonderful flavor.

Best regards,

Wilhelm Sanke
<http://www.sanke.org/Metamedia>