Panoramas

Panoramas are special and unique in photography, especially when displayed large.

Sometimes the wide view of a panorama suits best and it certainly makes a more dramatic piece of artwork. More about a subject can be given to a viewer than usual and the scenes are more continuous and whole compared to a single frame image. There is simply more to see and it seems the eye works most naturally going with a longer horizontal sweep.

Using a panoramic bracket, all the panoramas here but one were created from multiple consecutive frames stitched together in the computer. As a product of modern digital photography, some were made from up to 12 vertical shots and others as few as five.

As with many things, panoramas are far simpler to make today. Back in the film era, there were highly specialized cameras and cumbersome print splicing techniques that were used. It had to be a labor of love. There were also specialized cameras in the film era that would shoot an entire panorama whole in-camera in one go.

In my own work, there’s a particular tool called a panoramic bracket that attaches to the tripod which was used for the outdoor shots. This very specialized tool has a measured angle scale that allows an image to be made at regular intervals from left to right. Simply shoot a picture and turn the bracket a specified amount to create the next picture, then repeat.

Other pictures such as the rocks were created in the studio by sliding the subject on a homemade sliding wooden trolley under a fixed downward-pointing camera to make the consecutive pictures.

Overall, these specialized long panoramic pictures have always been fun to create; they’re something unique and different than the typical photograph. Most of these panoramas are available as 12×36 or the larger and more dramatic 20×60. I always enjoy them and hope you do as well.