Chasing the light….

I once heard professional photographer Nick Rains call the panoramic format of photography a “window to the landscape”. My summation of that quote is that panoramic photography allows the audience to see the landscape in context in a similar way that they’d see the landscape if they were the photographer. However, this got me thinking, that if a panorma is a “window”, then what is a vertical pano?

A vertical panorama allows the photographer to lead in the audience’s eye into the frame by placing strong compositional elements in the foreground of the image, that is near impossible with a standard panorama. In the below image, I was able to include the marshmellow like texture of the snow, the flow of the river in the mid-to-foreground and the scattered snow covered rocks in the midground to the brooding alpine clouds and layers of snow covered hills in the background.

In many respects, the vertical panorama is akin to a “doorway to the landscape” inviting the viewer to walk into the scene and appreciate the landscape. The vertical panorama is a skill that is hard to master as it requires strong compositions and an appreciation of textural elements of the scene.