I'd like to make up a panoramic photograph of a real lighthouse to offer to you as a screen saver. (These are like the panoramic shots I did at Rosemont.) It does require a tripod with a pan head (like you use for video cameras). A pan head can rotate around 360 degrees.
If you are a pretty good photographer and are heading to a lighthouse over this weekend or in the next couple of weeks, try this project.
1. Use print film (not slide film)
2. Find a place from which to shoot the entire circle of pictures with interesting items all the way round. (Don't set it up so half the circle is the parking lot.)To block ugly things, you could position the tripod next to a bush or tree that screens that item.
3. Set your camera on the tripod so you are taking tall vs. wide pictures.
4. Make sure the top of the tripod is level
5. Using a 35mm lens on a 35mm camera (anything from 28-35 should work), Start shooting your individual pictures with the lighthouse centered in the frame of the first picture. You'll want to be far enough away from the lighthouse so that its entire height is shown in this first frame. (If you have a digital camera, email me which brand and model and I'll give you different instructions)
6. Panning your camera around clockwise, take a total of 20 pictures. Each picture will overlap the previous by some amount. Perhaps you can include yourself and/or your family in one of the frames looking at the lighthouse.
7. To be accurate in getting each picture to include the same arc, you can do this:
Watch as you rotate the pan head on your tripod and see what part of the head remains stationary. Using a piece of masking tape, wrap it around that stationary part, and mark the circumference on the tape. Then peel off the tape, measure it and divide the length by 20 (it's easiest to use millimeters). Make individual marks along the edge of the masking tape that distance apart. Now with a small piece of tape, make a marker on the part of the pan head that rotates. You can then line up the moving mark with the first stationary mark, take a picture, turn the head to the next mark and take another, etc. until you've taken all 20.
Mail me a set of prints and I'll assemble it into a panorama and email you a screen saver of your photos. Indicate whether you use a Macintosh (Berkley After Dark required) or Windows 95. With your permission, I'll make the various screen savers available to anyone who wants them.
Mail the prints to:
Lighthouse Keepers
PO Box 4742
Scottsdale, AZ 85261-4742
Be sure to include your return address so I can send the prints back to you.
And send me an email to let me know you're going to try this and which lighthouse.
[This message has been edited by JChidester.]
