I wanted to feature a few pictures that I just absolutely love!!
To start, I want to get into the whole panorama style. We all have seen the apps on the smart phones that do the piecing together to make 360 panoramas. We also have the point and shoot cameras that do that as well. I feel as though the whole environment of making absolutely everything easier makes a lot of things more insignificant, or at least just not as special. It also takes out the skill required to take great 360 panoramas. Don’t get me started on the whole Instagram phenomenon. Now, everyone under the sun is a photographer, right? UGH!
All we have to do now is hold up our latest addiction called a smart phone. Swipe it across the room. Press a quick button, and in 2 or 3 seconds flat you have a brand spanking new 360 panorama photograph!! Dont get me wrong I love seeing them! I think Panoramas are awesome even if it is done with a smart phone. But I DO NOT use those apps!
When I first discovered how great a panorama photo is, I looked into how it was originally done before all of this smart phone business came into play.
Take your camera, make sure you have proper consistant prospective, exposure, and a damn good steady hand, or tripod. You later take all these photos(you usually take any where from 15-40 photos, depending on what you want to include. Sometimes even more) and than edit them together. There is specific software you can use that can seam all your photos together for you. I know photoshop has photo-merging. What I wanted to do was to seam everything together manually myself. My first panorama … geez was that hard!! I knew I needed more practice shooting it, and also editing the seams! It’s tough!!!
The above panorama was my first one. It was taken in Goa, India. Colva beach. It was shot as a complete 360, but because I wasn’t really even with my horizon some pics trailed off and weren’t aligned with the other photos and I wasn’t able to get the ends in. I loved it, I picked such a hard location. The people made it extra hard to make sure it was a smooth seaming. I had a hard time with the sky too. You can see the inconsistent color, and exposure in the sky. The sky in photos for me is the hardest to seam together. Also the horizon is a bit lop-sided. Practice was needed!! It helped me shoot better the next time around.
Why did I want to go through all this trouble?? I don’t know, I just felt I needed to learn this way first before jumping into some crazy software. I wanted to know how hard it was. Was it paying respects? Maybe. Paying my dues?? Most likely. There is a plus side to doing it all your self though. I am able to control everything, and not have to deal with the details of a software program to make very tiny changes. Cons: it just takes more time.
I have been taking a lot of photos to do panoramas. I have a page on my site that features them.
I have been working on a big one!! I can’t wait to finish it, and show everyone. It was taking me a long while to finish it. I was working on it for hours a day for weeks!! I finally decided to take a break from it. I will be getting back to it, and finishing it soon. I think taking a break from creative work, and going back to it is definitely good for the artist. Your mistakes become more noticeable, and sometimes you can see things a bit more objectively, which will only make your art better, or more of what you envisioned for it in the first place. ON the other hand it can morph into something greater than you originally though. Taking a break is never bad, well, at least not to me. Others will beg to differ.
My most recent finished panoramas are below. They have to be my favorite ones to date!!
This one was taken at the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand. An absolutely amazing place! I remember how I felt that day, and how lucky I was to see that! I felt like I was seeing perfection! I wasn’t able to get an entire 360, but a pretty, damn good 180.
I really love this Panorama! It really has to be my top pick thus far. This wasn’t a full 360 either. I could have made it a whole 360. The other side was beautiful as well, but there’s a viewing area that includes railings, concrete and cement. I’m just not into showing that sometimes. I wanted this one to be just the view, not HOW we viewed it to be included. I am not against showing the entire real environment, but this one, I wanted it to be just the view I got to take in.
You can definitely see my progression, and growth when addressing my skill in panoramas. My first to my most recent, what a difference!!!
So, for aspiring photographers, even if you think you aren’t any good at photography, or not up to par now, just know that you’ll get there, and definitely get better!! Dont give up!!
