Kahiltna Glacier Panorama

5 handheld shots were stitched in Photoshop, then touched up where an overlap didn't jive

(so it isn't "real" in a tiny section). I wanted to do lots of panoramas on this

expedition, but problems with my solar battery charger forced me to conserve power.

Denali (McKinley) is the peak on the far left, 12,000 ft. above.

Jim, I'm a long-term fan of your work, and know very well the challenges to shot in these conditions. So let me say that this is among your best shots (even though some old slides from the Alps make me shiver at each visit, like the storm on the Triolet)

Nitpick, the stick in the lower left corner... for the rest: it's outstanding. You have definitly motivated me to try and go for (hand-held of course) panoramas upon next-summer mountaineering season.

If you have some time, I've some interested questions, here. It would be great if you could address them (maybe with a dedicated report in the nature-forum, so to be searcheable?)

On the panorama:

- Which focal lenght (Digital, or 35mm corrected, please advise) did you use?

- Did you made any corrections before the stiching properly said?

- Which frame-to-frame overlap did you use when shooting?

- Did you shot everything at the same aperture settings or changed while following the different sun angle?

- Was this fully polarised?

On the conditions:

- How long was the trip?

- Which was the day/night temperature?

- Was the camera stored outside your gear, thus more cold-exposed?

- Did you have a spare battery close to the body to try and preserve charge? This usually works for me.

- What was wrong with the solar charger?

Salvatore,

Thanks for your comments again, I appreciate your input. To answer some of your questions: the stick on the left is a wand put in a camp site at 7,800 ft. to mark someone's cache that they will retreive on the way back down the mt. - I like it as a tiny human element in this incredible mountain relm (like I felt!).

I shot these at 26mm with a Sigma 18-125 on my Rebel XT which translates to a 41mm equivelent on a 35mm frame. The exposure was 320 at f13 (slightly underexposed). I actually brought a very light weight tripod on the trip, but only got it out a few times (the light was so bright that my shutter speeds were high enough to hand hold almost all shots).

The problem with my solar charger was me! I forgot the adapter for my camera battery, so the damn thing was usless for anything other than my iPod Shuffle (I left it in our cache here). Luckily I had 4 extra batteries, turned the viewing screen off, and my Rebel had power to spare after 20 days, but I didn't know that on day one.

I kept the camera in a padded bag in the tent at night, on my pack waist band when climbing. In the morning I would take the battery out and put it in my pocket when getting ready, so it was warmed up by the time I left camp and put it in the camera.

This was my first expedition with a digital camera, and was quite a learning experience. I'm working on an article on the trip and will let you know when it is published.

Cheer, Jim