Winter and Summer
Stamsund
Simple Panoramics with Tilt/Shift lens.
Simple Tilt/Shift panoramic technique.
I like using a Tilt/Shift lens for my panos because the post processing is super simple and I don’t have to carry a separate rotating tripod head specifically for panos. Though I do have to carry a specific lens, my Nikon 85mm F2.8 Tilt/Shift is also a macro lens, so I can sort of kill two birds with one stone. If all is done correctly, I can put an image together in around 1 min or less. When moving elements enter the scene, such as water, that is where the fun starts; I’ll post on this in the future.
Requirements:
- Tilt/Shift lens
- Tripod
- Cable release (not necessary, but helpful)
- Photoshop
In the field:
Be sure the camera is in manual exposure mode. The camera can be used in either portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) orientation, depending on subject and what you want to do. If shooting horizontal panos in landscape orientation, only 3 shots are necessary, left, center, and right. When shooting vertical panos in landscape orientation, I will usually take 4 shots, as the overlap is a bit thin with only 3, so 4 will give you a bit more to work with if there is any complex blending required (this depends on subject, and in general 3 shots are adequate). You can also experiment with utilizing focal plane shift in combination with panos for some cool and creative results.
(more after the jump)
Stamsund
The first time I saw this view (without the snow) was in the summer of 2001, sometime around 2:00 in the morning. It’s from a little mountain on the way to Steinetinden. It’s a very easy hike in summer, which gives an amazing view from the summit. When it’s covered with fresh snow, it’s a bit more difficult, but the view is better and worth the effort, though one wrong move near the top would mean a fall of around 700 feet.
kinlochleven – kinloch
Kinlochleven, Scotland. October 2006
Kinloch, New Zealand. December 2005
Language lesson: ‘kin’ is a Gaelic prefix for ‘head’ or ‘top.’ Hence, ‘kinlochleven’ = head of Loch Leven.
stamsund
7 shot pano of a wintry Stamsund, taken while on the way to Steinetind on a cold snowy spring day.
arthur’s pass
One of the coolest places in the world! I’ve been busy going through my archives as I’ve been submitting to a new stock agency and looking for images to send in (its my ambitious goal to reach 1,000 images by the end of the year). I shot a lot of panoramics while in New Zealand, but never really took the time to process them. So its kind of cool sorting through photos that I haven’t really looked at for over a year; brings back lots of cool memories.
sunset
Normally I don’t take much interest in shooting sunsets, but sometimes I can’t resist. I took this shot about 4 years ago, and quite by accident. The previous day we had gotten some cool clouds in Santa Barbara (and for those of you not from Santa Barbara, it’s not too often that we get any sort of ‘interesting’ weather), so this day I had driven up to La Cumbre peak, as I had some old film and felt like taking some pictures to see how things would come out. As time progressed, the light got nicer and nicer. As I wasn’t planning on shooting anything serious, I was lucky I had a roll of film that wasn’t expired by 5+ years, and thus able to take a few decent shots. Just digging through some archives and came across this shot, perhaps a bit bored as well…
Halloween…
Two years ago, I was in the town of National Park, a small little town on the edge of Tongariro National Park. A few days prior, my buddy Mikkel and I had hitched there from Taupo, after a few crazy adventures there. Still being early spring in New Zealand, we got some unfortunately cold weather. Our climbing of Mt. Tongariro the previous day involved lots of snow and near zero visibility in the clouds. So bad that we had actually walked over the top of the mountain and started heading down the other side until we realized we had gone too far when the clouds parted for a brief second.
Upon our arrival in town the first day, we were invited to participate in National Park’s yearly rugby game against another town in the area. Needless to say, this opportunity could not be turned down and a few bruises, kicks, jabs and tackles later we found ourselves treated to a few free drinks at the local pub for our participation (one of the players worked there) and suffering.
Nov 1st I Hitched east to Napier for a few days and then on to Wellington and then to the beauty of the South Island, never to return north again. I guess it’s a bit of a shame really, some cool stuff up north, but I couldn’t be drawn away from the Southern Alps once I’d seen them.
Just some random memories from a cool little place. Still seems like yesterday…
Lofoten
Such an amazing place…
Summer 2006:
Spring 2007:
Seasons On Lofoten Winter eBook
Seasons On Lofoten Summer eBook
