Panoramic Photographs

Pre-Dawn Over San Francisco and The Golden Gate Bridge

My photography friend Graham and I got up very early on a Sunday morning to photograph San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge at dawn from the Marin Headlands. Graham and I arrived in the dark and found the entry gate locked. We forgot the gate isn’t unlocked until sunrise, so we parked in the dirt parking lot next to the gate and walked up to the viewing area ( about .7 miles) with our camera gear. It was very dark, windy and cold. Of course we forgot our flashlights and gloves, but then, this was our first real photography outing of 2012, so forgetting some essentials is part of the game. I set up my tripod using my iPhone for a flashlight, which didn’t help much, to adjust the settings. Funny, I couldn’t get any f-stop information on the camera. After taking some 30 images and worrying that my camera wasn’t working correctly, I stopped to think this missing f-stop problem over. The only reasonable conclusion was the lens wasn’t mounted on the body correctly. Sure enough, I twisted the lens to the left (Canon) until I heard the magic click and when I turned the camera back on, the f-stop appeared. The next hour taking pictures was uneventful with a good functioning camera. This image was shot with the camera’s lens not locked to the body but post processed nicely. This finished image is also a combination of two images merged into a panoramic.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Ben Gundy.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm F4L at 35mm

ISO 800, 1.3 seconds at f/4 (stating this as the lens would be wide open with no electrical connection with the body)

admin :: Feb.04.2012 :: California Coast, Panoramic Photographs :: No Comments »

Anasazi Progression Panel Petroglyph

During our workshop, in the four corner area of UT, we had a free afternoon to photograph anything we wanted as long as the light held out. Well, there was a place that had a petroglyph panel called the “Progression Panel” and was located not to far from where we were discussing all of this. The only problem was, it was years since one of the leaders was at this site. After about 30 minutes discussing plan A, plan B, and plan C we decided to try and find this site which was plan C as I recall. After leaving the paved road we traveled approximately 8-9 miles on this dirt road to what looked like a parking area. Now we had to decide which direction to head out…the first attempt was wrong. The second attempt found us walking through two ravines, the first having water in it and we, trying not to fall in getting our camera equipment soaked, didn’t care about ourselves. Once across the ravines we hiked up one side of a mesa to the top then through a small saddle to the other side. Once we all got through the saddle we were told to hold up while one of the leaders went ahead to scout for the panel. Well, the panel was right around the corner from where we all were sitting…great job Tom. This panel is approximately 35-40 feet long along on one big ledge of the mesa. To get this panoramic image we stood on rocks to get the whole thing in. The name “Progression Panel” is from the line of figures from one end of the panel to the other. What this panel really depicts, no one really knows…

This panoramic panel was stitched together in Photoshop CS5 from four images then tweaked in Lightroom 3 to bring out the correct color as seen through the eye. If I printed this out, lets say, 2 feet high, it would be approximately 11 feet long.

This panel would look great in a conference room or lobby. If anyone is interested in purchasing a print of this panel, please contact me.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Ben Gundy.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f4L at 55mm

ISO 200, 1/60 sec at f/11

Circular Polarizer

admin :: Dec.17.2011 :: Panoramic Photographs, Southwest :: No Comments »

Goosenecks Panoramic with iPhone4

I thought it would be fun to show a panoramic done with my iPhone4. Last September I took a workshop by Jon Fuller and Tom Till in Moab, Utah. While on a drive to point B from point A, we stopped at the Goosenecks more to stretch our legs than to take photographs. Tom mentioned to the group that if anyone wanted to take a panoramic photograph of the Goosenecks he would help. No one took him up on it, but I wanted to attempt a panoramic with my iPhone, along with an app I got to stitch multiple images together. I took four quick photographs then moved them over to the stitching app and, wow, it actually worked. I showed Tom later on in the trip and he was impressed with the results. I still had to import the stitched panoramic into Photoshop to do some color work, cropping, and resizing to get to this final image. I think it came out nicely for a first time stitched panoramic. I will definitely try this again. I will report on using the iPhone4 with an HDR app at a later date…fun stuff. Click on the image to expand.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Ben Gundy.

Apple iPhone4

Lens focal length: 3.85mm

ISO 80, 1/390 sec at f2.8