A perfect match

Pano's that's short for Panorama. I've been a photographer for all my life, longer in fact than I have been riding motorcycles. I remember my first camera back around 1960 I purchased one of those NEW SLR's - a Minolta SR-1 . By first I mean my first "real", quality camera not counting my Kodak Brownie (which I got as a present when I was 8 years old) . Over the years I have belonged to many camera clubs, worked in a photo lab hand developing Black & White, had my own darkroom, enlargers and a camera collection as a previous member of the Western Canada Photographic Historical Association. I have always been interested in panoramic images and currently own several rotating lens panorama film cameras, both in 35mm (24mm x 64mm) and 120 (6x12 format). , as well as several 4x5 field cameras where I am able to shoot both 4x5 (or 6x12). Only recently has digital "caught up" with film in quality and I had been a faithful film user until the end, however I like very large photos so when I am away on a trip I still bring along my Mamiya 7 outfit (6x7 format).
One of the reasons that I mainly shoot digital is cost. With digital there are no film nor developing costs, and you are able to see your results immediately. However for those special scenic pictures I remain a film user.
Saturday started out very stormy with threatening periods of rain, which I could not avoid, but for photos it was the perfect light. Sort of overcast and bright filtered light. The rain has a way of making your images look Crisp.


(Gastown, Gassy Jack Square, Vancouver, BC)

This image was taken early morning. I like the glossy sheen of the road, good for photos, not so good for traction. A few years ago I dabbled with photo-stitching but getting them printed was the challenge. I even purchased a large carriage printer (Canon i9200) so I could do my own by cutting down 20x24 to print 10x24 . Black & white was not a problem as I purchased large trays to handle 12x30 (by cutting 24x30 photo paper). I noticed that on a BLOG that I follow Steve has been posting some panoramic images so I was inspired to produce this:



I was not sure how large of an image Webshots would allow, so I have reduced it a bit. This image was produced using 5 images (landscape mode) with about 30% overlap. If I had wanted a larger image, I would have shot more images in portrait mode, perhaps 8-10 with 20% overlap which would have given me a greater height and adjusted the scaling. It would be very rare indeed to find me without camera. This year I thought that I would learn more about mpeg4 video. I thought that I would be able to do the same "panoramas" but in movie mode, rather than a static picture, so here is the same image in movie mode:



gastown vancouver bc.wmv

So here is a comparison for you: a static panoramic picture, or a panorama done in "movie mode" of the same scene. I think that the conversion process of uploading the WMV reduces the resolution a bit, as the original AVI is smooth. The source video is 480p . Saturday: skootin & photographing, a perfect match .