The Gigascape

After leaving the Island in the Sky district of Canyonloands National Park, Robin and I made our way to the second entrance of Canyonlands at the Needles district. Here at the Needles district, new wonders are abound. The landscape is completely different, it was hard for us to believe that we had only driven a few hours to arrive here.

Where most iconic overlooks are easy to access by car in the Island in the Sky district, the Needles district requires much more hiking, some of it quite strenuous. The distance and rough trails are worth the effort, however. Tall red rock columns jut into the sky all around, giving the area its name. 

I had a fairly difficult time trying to create inspiring compositions here with a single frame (3:2 ratio 'standard' photograph) I quickly decided to ditch this 'classic' approach and move in a new direction. Seeing that the landscape had so much going for it horizontally and not vertically I though it best to concentrate on that progression from left to right.

Some might be thinking, 'hey, that's just a Panorama, that isn't anything new, my iPhone can do that in a second.' Well, you are right there, an iPhone can take a simple low quality panorama, but what we have here is a completely different animal. The photograph(s) above is considered a Gigarama. A Gigarama is a similar idea, except that another row or so is added. Where a Panorama might consist of five photographs stitch horizontally in a single row, a Gigarama (in this case) consists of 24 photographs (12 photographs left to right above and a second row of 12 photographs left to right below.) These Gigaramas typically surpass a Gigabyte when saved uncompressed, giving them their name.

Canon 6D, Canon 24-105L (@105mm), ISO 100, F/11, 1/25th of a second. 24 photographs total, 12 on top row, 12 on bottom row, all with camera in the vertical orientation.