Vancouver, British Columbia & Panoramic View from Stanley Park...

This is one of the first opportunities I had a chance to try out my new Nikon 28-300mm lens, absolutely perfect for travel! I had a chance to sit in the co-pilots seat on a seaplane bound for Victoria, British Columbia. What a view, and what fun to be able to listen to the pilot, tower, and other seaplanes in the area on my headset. If I could be a pilot, the De Havilland Otter would be my seaplane.

A view of the cityscape from the pilot's window. The 28-300mm lens allowed me to create a wide variety of shots, no lens changing for me! I normally carry a 24-70mm and 70-200mm. This lens will easily replace both, much less weight to carry when I travel.

This is a panorama that I made at Stanley Park overlooking Vancouver with my new lens. This has to be one of the most photogenic places anywhere on the planet. I hope to go back one day soon! For panos, orient the camera vertically and overlap images by about 1/3. Photomerge was used to combine the images. Have fun shooting! ~ Deb

Create an ultra wide view with a panorama...

When you have a wonderful view, consider making a panorama! These panoramic photos were taken in Cuba overlooking Havana. I like the color and texture of the architecture and wanted to capture everything about the uniqueness of this area. Creating a panorama is easy. You may already have stitching software in your digital camera. There are also some fun apps for smart phones that create great panoramas such as 360 or You Gotta See This, which creates a multi-layered type panorama. For the digital photographer, it's easy to shoot a panorama that can be assembled by PhotoMerge in Photoshop, or Elements. Here's how you do it... 

• Use a tripod, level the camera, remove polarizer, this makes it easier when merging to match the color in the sky.
• Choose aperture and shutter speed. Consistent aperture retains depth of field throughout the images.
• Choose a white balance setting, cloudy, daylight, etc. so that color temperature remains constant.
• Shoot in portrait orientation, vertical images overlapping by about 1/3. Shooting vertically allows for more sky, and extra room when the image is cropped.  
• PhotoMerge - automatically stitches together panoramas for you. For long pano's, try choosing Cylindrical which helps with "bow-tie" type distortion that might occur.
• Experiment, have fun! Panoramas are easy for the anyone with a digital camera. 

Panoramas aren't limited to long and wide. A panorama can be as simple as two images put together to create a square. Vertical panoramas are also beautiful. You can create a panorama by cropping as I did with the first 16mm fisheye image above. If you are very ambitious, you can create multilayered HDR panoramas, or 360 degree interactive panoramas!

For inspiration, visit the site of Pep Ventosa. His fractured panoramas are absolutely stunning. He does creative work with the idea of collective snapshots too. Another fantastic site with amazing 360 degree panoramas is 360VR. Have fun shooting! ~ Deb