some end of the year panoramic photos

Going through all of the photos that I've taken for the Patterson Irrigator over the past year is quite a daunting task. For the past three and a half years that I've been at the Irrigator we've done an end of the year re-cap of top stories and top photos, and this year was no different. So I narrowed my selection of photographs down to about 30 news photos and 10 sports photos. I'll be posting them along with a story I wrote to go along with it on this blog site here soon.

But going through all the photos I came across these 13 panoramic photos and two sequences that I put together for the newspaper. Of all of them, half were published, but all of them I thought should receive some sort of special posting considering alot more time and post photographic effort went into making them.

So what constitues as a digital panoramic photo?

For me, they are multiple photos that are stitched together with the help of Photoshop to create one very wide angle of view.

Double click on the photos themselves to get a larger more detailed view of the scene at hand, but remember these photos are all copyrighted by either the Patterson Irrigator or me, Elias H. Funez

In this photo of the Hacienda Arteaga fire on Hwy 33 in Patterson August 21 2008, four images were taken at the same shutter speed, aperture setting, and focal point with the idea in mind that I would be stitching the photos together later. A tripod is recomended for taking these types of photos, but a steady hand and careful photographic technique should get you away from the tripod and out in the field.
This shot of the sunrise along side the McMansions of Diablo Grande one morning in October, was a stitching together of three photos. I turn to panoramic shots of things that require a wider more encompassing view, when my wide angle lens won't capture everything, or I wish for more detail and a larger photo.
This photo of students at PHS getting out of a day at school on the 9th street side was only two photographs.
When members of the General Plan Advisory Committee were confronted by landowner Jeff Arambel, and his desire to develop this area of Del Puerto Canyon just West of Interstate 5, I trodded out to the open range for a wider view, something that showed the entire area in question. This one is about 5 photos, and if you look closely on the upper right hand corner of the photograph, a truck can be seen on I-5 and the Kohl's distribution center can be seen beyond it.

Two photographs stitched together for the P.R.I.D.E. (Patterson recognizing individuals determined to excel) brochure that is handed out to perspective scholarship donors and those in attendance of the P.R.I.D.E. scholarship awards night.
Here's a sequence of seven shots of an amazing Patterson sk8er by the name of Dominic Verducci. It took him a couple of attempts, but by the second try he successfully ollies and clears the PHS auditorium 10 -stair. Some photos were needed for a story on the fact that the city has no designated skate area or skate park for area skaters to utilize. It was kind of a last minute assignment, so I just drove around until I found some skaters doing their thing. The skate park has been approved as a part of the Patterson Community Center master plan and a designer (Wally Hollyday) and some initial concepts have come forward as a result.
This was three photos taken off of Jennings road just east of Patterson on a partly cloudy day in January. I really love those old oak trees along the river there. Its scenic beauty always makes the drive to or from Modesto a little more peaceful.
The Irrigator received some numbers that showed the population of the city of Patterson slowing drastically. So I traveled to the empty corner of the Patterson Garden's subdivision in early May, where I climbed the fence for a wide angle shot. However even standing on top of the fence there I couldn't get it all into one shot, so again a panorama. Looks like alot of space to wait for Patterson Gardens to build out. Ahhh, the highly anticipated coming of TACO BELL! Two photographs stitched together. They don't all work out seamlessly though. If you look closely there is a slight discrepancy in the shadow that is created from the car that is ordering at the drive-thru speaker. That photo of the two cars at left, was placed over the photo used on the right and some of the information gets lost a little bit, but the high angle drive thru parking lot shot was still successful in my mind.

The first major morning fog in town for the 2008-2009 winter season prompted me to scurry out my front door one morning and rush to find some subjects to photograph before the fog lifted. Got a shot of the highschool baseball field in the fog, then off to the rail right of way and a shot of the train tracks disappearing into the fog. I could tell the fog was lifting fast and ran to the second story of the City Hall building where some friends in the planning department kindly let me onto the balcony there, where I took these two photos and stitched them together.
This shot was created after Pacific Sod announced that it was closing it's business in September, showing some of the acres and acres of sod in place off of Loquat ave in the north Patterson Colony.
This one could be deceiving. Not many people think that this is multiple shots, but there was no way I could cram the entirety of the scene into one picture, considering I was already crammed against the backyard fence of a Heartland Ranch home where the weeds were as tall as I was. This was taken in three photos.

Two photos were stitched together to create this panorama of the Longs Distribution center in the Patterson business park, after Longs had announced the sale of their corporation to CVS pharmacy.