Panoramamania

Well, as usual, I have been shooting lots-o-panos. The first one shown here was taken along Canaan Loop Road in the Canaan Mountain area. This shot is comprised of one row of 4 images stitched together. The printed the image is 12.5" tall by 32" wide.

Initially, I wasn't too big a fan of this vertical shot, but it's been growing on me. this image is comprised of 1 column with 5 rows of images stitched together vertically and its printed size is 12.5" by 27.5". This shot was also found near Canaan Loop Road. I took the shot in the morning when there was still some light coming in from the side. The morning was starting to give way to the haze that prevails in our humid summers which gives the image that slightly phosphorescent background.

I would like to have taken this image as two or more columns of images, but my equipment doesn't make that easy to do. Precision panorama photography is rather equipment intensive. To get the images to line up precisely enough for printing and subsequent close examination, you need to use a tripood with a special panoramic tripod head. In order to do single columns or rows of images, you need what is called a cylindrical head (as if you are taking a picture from inside of a cylinder), but to make multi-row/column, "mosaic" panoramas, you need a spherical head (as if you taking pictures from the inside a sphere). I have been using a cylindrical head. I will need to post a picture of me messing with the contraption. This equipment is pretty cool and makes the process of stitching on a computer much easier.

Panoramania has definitely set in for me. I find myself consumed by the idea of being able to print these images of scenery and wildlife in very large formats. You might remember some of the old wallpaper that people put up in the 70's and 80's that were a wooded scene put together with columns of wallpaper. Digital panoramic photography can provide the same sort of size, but with far higher resolution allowing the viewer to resolve details that could only normally be seen in real life. For example, in this 1x3 panoramic image of a tide pool in Acadia National Park in Maine, you can pick out lots of cute little aquatic critters. Since it is difficult to see the details on a computer monitor, I have enlarged the image to show the detail. In the image on the left, you can see the valves in the mussels. The image on the right shows a periwinkle hanging out on a mussel.