Panorama Picnic

Just playing around with my iPhone again. 5 pictures across in 4 rows.

Today I finally got around to processing an image I shot on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. You can see my image on their gallery here. I used the cameras I intend to bring to Penland, a 5 qt paint can with 6 pinholes. It will take 8×10 B&W photo paper. Here is an image I made today using that same camera.

I haven’t had much time to post here yet but seeing Dan with his infrared D-70 makes me want to show off my new panorama camera and images. For this I used my iPhone with three separate apps, ProHDR, AutoStitch, and PhotoShop Mobil. I even built my own panorama grip head to mount my phone to my tripod. I hear ATT doesn’t get good reception up at Penland but who needs a phone when your have such a good time.

When Sara Bailey licked cancer in the early 1990s her line was “The rest is gravy along the way.”  This is a photo mosaic portrait of her weed-whacking along one of the ways of her many flower gardens.

Though the technique of arranging many still photos to create a larger image has a long, varied, and rich history in photography, David Hockney in the 1980s brought the technique to the forefront.  He used Polaroids primarily to create exquisite portraits and still lives.  You can find some great examples of his work on-line.  Here are some on his own website.

We will look at his photo collages, along with other photographers, during the class and students may want to work in this tradition.  Creating these types of panoramas is a very different process than stitching together images to create a seamless image from one place.  In working with photo mosaics, the photographer usually moves around in the scene, discovering details.  It’s a very active process of seeing and recording.

This is a rough schedule on how the course will unfold.

The first 3 days will be getting everyone up to speed with the lab, cameras, software, computers, panoramic heads, etc.   It will be pretty structured in terms of demos and workshops.  By the end of Wednesday, everyone should be comfortable with the process of  shooting, basic stitching and processing of images in software.  Thursday and Friday we will take a slight breather from technology and work with Chris Peregoy’s (our studio assistant) Pinhole Blender panoramic cameras.   For more information on these cameras check out Chris’ information in the upper tab and the side bar of this website.

Friday and through the weekend will be loaded with lots of time for individuals to work on their own work.  We will probably do a couple of field trips and/or “photo safaris” to see the area’s landscape.  One will definitely have to cover night photography and light-painting.  The school will also be celebrating the Fourth of July, which is a huge event.  This will provide lots of potential for photography.

The second week will focus in on more advanced techniques in multi-shot photography – definitely we need to at least look at High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography.  We will also look at methods for outputting work.  The lab will have 3 printers setup for printing images, but we will also cover some screen-based methods for publishing work.   It’s assumed that students will be regularly working on their ideas using whatever methods are appropriate – from the highly technical to the pinhole.

Critiques will be an important part of the course, as well as looking at other artist’s work.  The session ends with “Show-and-Tell” for the whole school.  Everyone, from all the studios, shares what they have created in a gallery or open-market setting.  It’s a wonderful wrap-up to two full weeks of work, play, and creativity.