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

The Rest of The Story

This article is the another in a series of articles that I’ve called “About this photo” to draw attention to a few of those memorable photos that may be hiding in a shoebox or on your hard drive.

I’ve been wanting to visit the iconic Horseshoe Bend for many years and I finally had my chance a few weeks ago.

As its name suggests, the Colorado River makes an abrupt 270 turn in the shape of a horseshoe. It’s located downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell near the city of Page, AZ. Drive 5 miles south on US89 from Page and you’ll see a gravel parking lot. From there a half mile hike on a moderately sloped dirt trail brings you to the overlook.

I arrived late in the day and found quite a few onlookers and photographers awaiting the sunset.

 

The overlook is about 50 yards across and provides a wonderfully wide view of the river – both upstream and downstream. The Colorado sits below the jagged cliffs about 1000 feet down. These spectators are standing pretty close to the edge of the cliff. And while I love the scenic surroundings, I am not a big fan of steep cliffs so I made it a point to stay behind this couple.
There’s plenty of room to accommodate dozens of visitors without feeling crowded. As you can see these photographers had lots of space in which to set up their equipment while waiting for the sun to go down. From this vantage point, the cliff on which they are standing looks safe…….
However, in this next photograph I’ve stepped away from the edge so that you can see the rock platform on which they were positioned. These people are a lot more brave than me. I couldn’t bring myself to stand next to them. I wasn’t about to stand just inches from the cliff’s edge that drops down by a thousand feet. No, not this photographer.
So how did I get this unobstructed view of Horseshoe Bend? As Paul Harvey would say here’s “the Rest of the Story”.
My shooting position was immediately to the left of the four photographers with tripods. To take this photograph, I laid on my stomach and carefully crawled to the edge of the cliff. My camera was safely hanging from my neck by its strap. Since I had a very wide angle lens (15mm), I first took a deep breath to get some courage, leaned over the edge, calmly composed the scene in the viewfinder and finally snapped about three shots.

 
So there you have it. By itself, this Horseshoe Bend photograph certainly doesn’t tell the story behind it. To inject a slight bit of humor here, let me say that I’m not afraid of heights, only of falling from them. I wasn’t going to leave the overlook until I had my shot. A little dirt on my clothes is the price that I had to pay to get it.

 
Written by: Arnie Lee

 

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One technique for turning an ordinary landscape into a more interesting landscape is to use the ground or ground covering as a way to emphasize distance.

Getting Down (to business)
This beautiful historic building, adorned with bright gold trim sits in the center of Brussels. This photo shows the structure’s intricate detail.	To add a different twist, I placed the camera close to the ground so that the cobblestones become part of an added perspective.

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