1.1. Stage 1

1.1.1. Before taking the pictures

The day was bitterly cold (5°F, −15°C), so I paid close attention to my equipment. I fully charged the two Canon batteries and kept a spare battery warm so I wouldn't run out of power. I used crampons to walk safely on the mountain and move around behind the icefalls, which I reached after a half-hour hike. The space between the rock wall and the curtain of ice was fairly shallow (about five feet). Because of the limited space, and my desire to frame the mountain in a window in the ice, I had to use an extreme 14mm wide-angle lens mounted in front of the Canon's 24 × 36mm CCD sensor.

Shooting the pictures properly is the most important stage in any successful panorama.

The best feature of the Canon EOS 1Ds is its 24 × 36mm imaging area (equal to a standard 35mm SLR), which makes it possible to use the 14mm lens's full 114° field of view. Horizontal coverage was determined by the number of shots I would need to cover the full width of my chosen view—in this case, four photographs to cover an arc about 200°.

The Benbo tripod is handy for a variety of shooting situations in the field. In this case, I set up the tripod and camera so the mountain could be seen between the icefalls. I attached the Canon vertically, made sure the lens's nodal point was above the rotation axis of the Manfrotto panoramic head, and used levels to check the horizontal and vertical alignment.

Despite the 114° vertical field, the frame still didn't include the ...

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