On a recent trip through the Sierras down to Death Valley  I ended up at Badwater just after sunset. The idea was to take some star trails, but before I settled into the long task of making star trails I thought I’d make a PanoPlanet of the lowest point in North America. It was a beautiful clear night and I was the only person for miles around, the moon was almost full and walking out onto the salt flats was an eerie lonely walk, lit by the moon and starlight. The only issue I had as I walked further into the salt flats the wind  was barreling through the valley making it a highly noisy  photo-shoot. Not to mention stabilizing my lightweight tripod was an ordeal in itself.

Below is the 360 panorama prior to stereographic projection

I recently made a photographic road trip from San Francisco through the sierras and down to Death Valley with the purpose of making PanoPlanets and star trails. The trip was great fun and I was able to make a number of PanoPlanets.  The first stop I made was on lake Tenaya in Yosemite.

This image was shot as 72 bracketed images processed as a HDR

Below is the 360 Panorama

On a recent trip to Seville Spain, I was out  with my camera but without my tripod, when I was struck by the scene of a courtyard by the cathedral. Even though I was only twenty minutes from my hotel room and my tripod,  I knew I should do my best to capture the scene in case I didn’t make it back with the tripod…which was a good idea as I didn’t make it back to this exact location.

When shooting handheld panoramas there are a number of things to remember.

• Firstly try to pick a scene which is parallax friendly. I f there are no major elements within 20 feet of you, you stand a better chance of getting good joins.
• Shoot vertical as you would on a tripod holding the camera close in a position you can maintain for a couple of minutes.
• I use a gridded focusing screen which helps me keep consistent overlaps
• Try to shoot a series of two or three images rotating just your trunk. then keeping the camera still shuffle you feet to the next position always try to rotate around the camera and not yourself
• Take your time, use “composition over time” to wait for the hustle and bustle of each frame to clear.
• Shoot three rounds of 360s one at level one tilted up and one tilted down (you should catch your feet in those images)
• Shoot a Nadir shot holding the camera straight down at arms length (without your feet)

In this way you can produce remarkably good results

I was recently walking around the Washington Square area in Pacific Heights, San Francisco and noticing that the gardens were coming into full bloom with beautiful  roses abounding I made a point to come back with my camera. It was a bright sunny day with no clouds. Using my usual formula for these  situations is to stop down to cause the sun to starburst  and shoot brackets to process as a tone mapped HDR image. Spending a couple of hours walking round the block I made maybe five PanoPlanets from this session. I Love the mansions in this neighborhood and can only dream about what they’re like on the inside.

I particularly love the tree and its  shadow in this image, This image is comprised of  three rounds of 24 bracketed photographs.

Below is the original 360 degree panorama

Returning from a tour of some of the port wine warehouses in Porto (well Villa Nova de Gaia to be more accurate) I spent some time  walking along the river bank of the Douro taking in the breathtaking scenes  of the Dom Luis bridge along with the Porto skyline. In between making some “normal” photographs I decided to make a PanoPlanet  of the entire scene. 

With it being an incredibly sunny day I decided to shoot a set of bracketed shots so that I could process the image as a tone mapped HDR image. Making 72 separate images to form the Panorama, I  stopped down the aperture to cause the starburst on the sun.  I particularly love the main cloud and how it balances the sun in the sky.

Below is the original panorama