My new phone seems to take better photos than my old, as in a decade old, digital camera. I still prefer that taking a photo the old fashioned method to using a phone's screen as the photo viewfinder.
The new phone has three photo modes. Regular, Pro and Panorama.
I was unaware of those three modes until I apparently accidentally switched the phone camera into panorama mode.
The result of that accidental switch is not the panorama photo you see above. The above photo is the result of trying to take a photo in panorama mode, on purpose, after I discovered this feature. In the above panorama photo you are looking north at a panoramic view of the Wichita Bluff Nature Area.
I don't quite see the benefit of this panorama mode thing, in this form. I guess it allows one to show a much wider, albeit way narrower, view of the scene one is photographing.
Way back in the previous century, the year was 1994, I bought a new Nikon camera to better facilitate photo documenting the long road and houseboat trip I was about to embark on. That Nikon camera, pre-digital, had a panorama mode function.
To put the Nikon camera into panorama mode one opened the camera and stuck a rectangular piece of plastic at a location over the lens.
One of the roadtripping houseboaters on that trip was a professional photographer. When I repeatedly fussed with putting the Nikon into panorama mode he rather condescendingly explained something like, you do realize, don't you, that all that is doing is causing the frame to cut off the top and bottom of what is gonna be exposed to the film.
I was dense regarding what the professional photographer was explaining to me. I think it was years later til I finally understood.
When the rolls of film containing the panorama photos got processed the processor, usually Costco, somehow knew to make those panorama photos long and skinny, like the one you see above.
Ironically. those photos I took long ago with my now antique, long gone Nikon camera, are among my favorite photos I have ever taken. Even the professional photographer agreed they turned out good, when eventually he saw them.
I wonder if I have any of those old panorama photos on this computer. I would have had to have scanned them digitally, and if they exist, I might find them on the web pages I long ago made about my Hell Houseboat on Lake Powell adventure.
I shall go look and see what I can find. If I can not find photos, I know I can find a link to the
Hell Houseboat on Lake Powell webpages.
Okay, found some of the panorama photos, stuck with the files I found of the photos documenting houseboating on Lake Powell.
Except for the first photo, which is photo documenting the start of the descent down the Moki Dugway, after ending the houseboating, then crossing Lake Powell via ferry, before reaching the scary Moki Dugway, on the way to staying overnight in Mexican Hat, before driving through Monument Valley, the following day, where, if I remember right, I took some more panorama photos...
That aforementioned professional photographer was morbidly afraid of heights. When he saw the warning signs at the start of the Moki Dugway and could see the long descent, the dozens of switchbacks, and that the road was gravel, he panicked. I had to move one of my passengers into the professional photographer's van to drive him down the Dugway, whilst the professional photographer fortified his courage with an adult libation, whilst sticking his head in a pillow case so he could not see.
Above you are seeing my co-pilot, Wanda, nonchalantly looking at the view which freaked out others.
Of course, due to my unflappable driving ability I was the preferred houseboat pilot. But, I did let others do some of the boat driving, at times.
If I remember right, Rainbow Bridge is the world's biggest natural arch. It is something to see. But the float up the side canyon off Lake Powell, to reach Rainbow Bridge, well, that was one of the funnest boat experiences I have ever had.
I believe the above was taken our last night on Lake Powell, at the docking site we called Bat Cove, due to the thousands of bats which appeared when the sun began to set. This was the occasion which caused me to lose my fear of bats and instead see them as valuable allies in the fight against flying insects.
Swimming in the warm, crystal clear water of Lake Powell is a mighty fine thing. This also was at the location we called Bat Cove.
The above is also a look at Bat Cove. I took off hiking, I do not remember with whom. We got high enough that the houseboat looked far away. It was heading back as the sun began to set that I found myself surrounded by a protective wall of bats.
Looking at the above panorama photos from long ago, I think think my old Nikon camera took better panorama photos than my new phone.
Perhaps I will adjust to taking better panorama photos via this new means...
