My name is Jon, and I'm a panorama addict

[jsecordphoto]

Last night my girlfriend, my buddy Ben and I hiked up to Mt Jefferson, the 3rd highest mountain in New Hampshire at just over 5,700ft. It was pretty cold at around 40 degrees, with winds around 30-40mph, but the light was insane! Just before sunset, clouds started forming and rolling over the summit, but I was able to grab quite a few frames in between them. This was about half an hour before sunset, when rays of sunlight start breaking through the clouds.

I've been going through this phase lately where I always end up shooting frames to stitch panoramas. Rather than use my UWA lens, I'll pull out my 24-105 and shoot between 70-105mm. I really like getting the compression of a zoom, but keeping that wide field of view. 105mm isn't bad but I really want to pick up a 70-200 soon. Anyway's I'm rambling- thanks for having a look!

 

[Derrel]

Outstanding subject matter, lighting, and very solid technique! What a gorgeous image. Soooooo much more interesting than the boring, far-away-and-meaningless-background type of ultra-wide angle landscape stuff so many people shoot!

 

[jsecordphoto]

Outstanding subject matter, lighting, and very solid technique! What a gorgeous image. Soooooo much more interesting than the boring, far-away-and-meaningless-background type of ultra-wide angle landscape stuff so many people shoot!

Thank you Derrel! I got really bored of using my UWA, and started reaching for my zoom more and more often. Now I pretty much only use my Tokina at night. Especially lately, doing a lot more hiking, shooting at 16mm makes the mountains seem so small and insignificant.

 

[paigew]

I agree this is really beautiful!

 

[jsecordphoto]

I agree this is really beautiful!

Thank you Paige!

 

[BFiggy]

Very nice shot! I love how the mountains go from light to dark and the rays from the sun look amazing!

 

[Derrel]

Outstanding subject matter, lighting, and very solid technique! What a gorgeous image. Soooooo much more interesting than the boring, far-away-and-meaningless-background type of ultra-wide angle landscape stuff so many people shoot!

Thank you Derrel! I got really bored of using my UWA, and started reaching for my zoom more and more often. Now I pretty much only use my Tokina at night. Especially lately, doing a lot more hiking, shooting at 16mm makes the mountains seem so small and insignificant.

I know what you mean; ultra-wide angle lenses make distant landscape elements appear mostly insignificant. I'm sooooo tired of seeing so,so many ultra-wide views on landscapes, the kind of shots where anything beyond 10 feet looks like a miniature set. Ever since the 12-24 and 10-20 and 10-24mm lenses for APS-C cameras hit, the world has been flooded with boring landscapes where the landscape is just...small and hard to see. Artificially expanding distance is the exact OPPOSITE of what looks the coolest in these types of shots. What using a longer lens does on these types of shots is to "stack up" the distant hills, and emphasize the repeating landscape forms, and further enhance the effect by making things BIG enough and clear enough to actually SEE and appreciate them! Using multiple stitched images also tremendously elevates the megapixel count, bringing with it hugely enhanced detail in full-res shots. Win-Win-win!!!

 

[runnah]

I would crop out the top bit IMO.

 

[jsecordphoto]

I would crop out the top bit IMO.

I hear you. I tried a few different crops, but wondered if cutting off the clouds would make the sun rays look weird- not having them come out of anything. I wondered if somebody would say that, I kind of agree with you but wasn't sure.