Taking In A Wide View

I enjoy taking panorama photographs. When I look at one it’s as if I can scan the horizon from left to right or from right to left and experience an entirety of what’s in front of me. A panorama is wonderful way to capture landscapes and scenic subjects. 

I have a couple of cameras that are able to automatically take panoramas. My cellphone camera also has this feature. The amount of detail that is recorded in a panorama is quite amazing. Keep in mind that the enlarged panoramas displayed here have been reduced in overall size to fit on your screen – about 1600 pixels wide. Most of these original panoramas are more than 10,000 pixels wide!

Below are a few panoramas that I’ve taken over the years.

Click on any of the images to view the enlarged panorama.

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Arches National Park, Utah 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Badlands National Park, South Dakota 2016 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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Cannon Beach, Oregon 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Crater Lake, Oregon 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Dantes View in Death Valley National Park, California 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona 2020 iPhone 11 Pro Max cellphone

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Gerald Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan

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Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming 2008

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Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, Montana 2021 iPhone 11 Pro Max cellphone

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Mono Lake, California 2016 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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Monument Valley, Utah 2019 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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Painted Desert in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona 2016 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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St Louis Waterfront in St Louis, Missouri 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Trillium Lake and Mt. Hood, Oregon 2017 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin 2013 Sony NEX-7 camera

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Rim of Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 2017 Sony ILCE-6000 camera

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If your camera or cellphone can capture a panorama have you tried it yet? The high quality of the images will amaze you.

Written by: Arnie Lee

With A View up to 180 Degrees

The fisheye lens is an interesting accessory. I have one that zooms from 8mm to 15mm. At 8mm the lens can take in a full 180 degree view. At 15mm it has a 175 degree view.

At the 8mm setting my lens produces a circular image and at 15mm the image is full frame. Regardless of the zoom setting the images are distorted and produce a panoramic effect. You can often recognize one of these images by seeing that straight lines appear curved.

I’ve used this lens both in the field and in the studio and get a kick out of some of the fascinating results.
 
 

We’re Mere Specks on Earth

I grew up in the New York metropolitan area and didn’t get to travel to the more remote areas of our country until later in life. To me, the skyscrapers of New York City were about the tallest or largest scenery to which I was accustomed. That changed after college when I visited my first national park – Yosemite. Since then, I’ve made been lucky enough to visit many more.

One thing that I encountered early on and continues to amaze me to this day is the extensive amount of our country’s tracts of land. Look as far as your eye can see and there’s plenty more beyond. From a distance, gaze at a geologic feature or land mass and you may not comprehend its size until you draw closer. In short, it’s the scale of these features that are astonishing.

As individuals, our size is insignificant compared to the earth’s magnificent landforms.

Below are a few photographs that try to illustrate scale.

A couple hiking at Death Valley’s Mesquite Dunes look miniscule.	You can barely see the dozens of visitors congregating around Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.
Here’s a visitor enjoying the shade of Delicate Arch.	This is the same photograph at full size. You can see how the size of Delicate Arch towers over the visitor.
These craggy mountains in the northeast portion of Yellowstone National Park are home to mountain goat families.	We’ve enlarged the photo on the left so you can pick out the animal on the ledge high off of the surrounding terrain.
This young girl is having fun exploring the rocks in Monument Valley.	In the full size photo you can see her standing in front of a huge monument.
This young girl sits at the entrance to the Tunnel Tree in Yosemite.	My fisheye lens captures the entirety of the Tunnel Tree which rises 225 feet above the ground.

The scale of many of nature’s wonders is so humbling to me and affords me the chance to record them on film (so to speak).

Written by:
 
Arnie Lee
 
 

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