“The Pano Rocks!”

THIS ONE SURE DOES, AND FOR MORE REASONS THAN YOU MIGHT EXPECT

- Barry Tanenbaum

THE EXCLAMATORY HEADLINE was in an e-mail sent to me by Dr. Alan Sloyer when I asked him to forward the high-res file for this image, which he took in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on a family vacation in 2017.

Dr. Sloyer’s enthusiasm for this panorama—and in fact the idea of panoramas—stems in general from the subject matter he chooses and specifically from the quality he’s capable of capturing. 

He sees on his monitor what I see on mine: incredible clarity and detail. 

How incredible? 

Well, I can see a bag of potting soil on the deck of the first boat on the right-hand side of the canal on the right side of the image. I know it’s potting soil because I can read “potgrond” on the side of the bag.

And I can see that the sign on the bridge forbids amplified music, apparently from open boats.

And if I wanted to rent a boat in Amsterdam I’d know of the rental company Mokumboot because I just read the name off the side of the boat in the center of the photo. 

That incredible. 

Oh, there’s one more incredible thing: though he shoots mainly with a DSLR, Dr. Sloyer took this panoramic photo with his iPhone 7.