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Monkeying around with a lens and some software

Every once in a while, when I’m feeling particularly adventurous, I get out the camera and try something I’m not particularly good at. Last Saturday, it happened to be a panorama shot.

A panoramic shot of the South Runway Complex (runways 25L and 25R) at LAX. It’s made up of five different raw images shot from the Hill at the Jim Clutter Overlook in El Segundo. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

What plane spotters call “The Hill” is actually an official place called Jim Clutter Overlook just south of Imperial Highway in El Segundo. I pop in every now and again because there’s always something happening and it’s an incredible place to watch airplanes. The other great thing about it is that there’s something to take pictures of every few seconds, with planes landing, taking off, and moving about the taxi ways.

I’m not sure about my effort. It would have been nice if I had the patience and skill for a central subject in my shot — like say a massive airplane hurling itself into the sky. I guess I’ll have to leave that for my next visit. The enthusiasts at the left side of my frame are pretty interesting, but I discovered that in retrospect, after I’d run the five individual frames through the software to stitch them together into one big shot.

Well, that’s the nature of the process — to live, do and learn.