Panorama stitch of three images in Photoshop. Bull moose in velvet antlers walks along a tundra ridge line in the late evening sunshine with the Alaska range mountains in the distance. Canon 1Ds Mark III, Canon 500mm f/4L IS w/1.4x (700mm), 1/250 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 400. I used live view to quickly lock up the mirror and reduce vibration shake since the focal length was quite long.
Alaska’s big landscapes are hard to fit into a 35mm 2:3 ratio format. Sometimes, they beg for a 3:1, or more commonly referred to as a panorama format. I used to use a Fuji 6x17cm film camera especially designed for this, but now I simply blend images with a stitch program. Currently that is Photosphop 5. During my early August trip in Denali National Park, in the last hours while driving out of the park, I spotted this moose walking along the ridge. After a quick stop and rush for the tripod, I threw on my 500mm with a 1.4x converter and shot a sequence of frames, swinging the camera along so I could generate a panorama later. The clouds were quite interesting, along with the manner in which the sunlight was generating great contrast to separate the moose from the background. Here are the three images and the final blended panorama shot.
Frame 1 of 3 used to stitch the panorama
Frame 2 of 3 used to stitch the panorama
Frame 3 of 3 used to stitch the panorama
That is wonderful Patrick!
We just have to move to Alaska! Great image Patrick-you rock the house photography wise!
Loving all the shots from Denali! Keep them coming, for sure!
Patrick,
Nice captures! I like number 2 the best. What did you do with your 6×17? Still got it? Mine is holding down some errant papers (magazine rejections, I think?) here in my home office while all my 120/220 film rots in my freezer! You’re living the life. Keep it up.
Jim
Hi Patrick,
Via a tweet I received this photo update. Great shots!
We just returned from a 6 weeks journey through Alaska and Yukon and will publish our photo results on our three website projects:
http://www.michelhammann-photography.com
http://www.album-editions.nl
http://www.alaska-editions.nl
Enjoy!
Michel
Hey guys, thanks for your comments. Ive got another trip to Denali on deck so I’ll be sharing some more stuff from there in early Sept.
Jim, the Fuji 617 is long gone…
Fantastic, love the final product. Did you shot the entire time the moose was visible?
Mike,
Yes I did shoot while the moose was standing for a while, then walked across the ridge which offered a background with better contrast. Eventually it sauntered off the back side of the ridge. Then a caribou showed up a little further up the ridge, but the light had dropped off some by then. These scenes of late night sun with mixed clouds offer tiny windows of shooting it seems.