Original Photographs and Photographic Composition by Neil Huggett
15000 pixels (w) x 2990 pixels (h), photographic composition.
Date produced: 2006

Throughout this whole project, I have taken some series of photographs intended for showing views that are much wider than that which I can capture with just one photograph.

Sometimes, the intention is to combine the photographs into one image, and sometimes, the intention is to just present an arrangement of the individual photographs in a way that suggests the expansive view.

Computer programs that ’automatically’ combine multiple photographs into one image are called ‘stitching’ programs. For several of the images I recorded, I used a trial version of a stitching program. I have since found that I prefer to just combine the photographs manually, using an image editing program. The result takes a lot longer to produce, but the combining can be highly controlled, and the result is usually much better.

I have found that many of the drawings I’ve done in this project span angles of view that are typically about two to three times that of my wide-angle lens.

This resulting image is a manually combined composition of a series of 9 photographs, spanning about 200°. The photographs were all taken at approximately right angles to the axis of the tripod, minimising spatial displacements.

I am happy with the combined result. It took much, much longer to put together as compared to using an automated stitching program, but this is probably the best result I’ve managed so far with this type of multi-image photograph. It captures a good amount of the exposed buttress roots, and the large boughs above.

A photographic view of the subject tree in 2006 from a similar direction to that used for the photographic composition above:

Direction of viewing point shown on a map of the buttress roots and main lower boughs:

This map and the previous photograph are provided to help you to understand and/or appreciate the photographic composition more. Because the individual photographs were taken from a tripod set up on-site, if you go to the real subject tree with this display on your mobile phone or tablet, it is possible using this map of the tree to find the real place where the photographs were taken from. If you attempt to do this, please remember that the tree has changed since 2006 (but typically changed only a little).