2016, in smartphone panoramas

Photographs are magical.

A photograph, in the most abstract sense, captures a slice of space and time and projects it onto a 2D manifold of space. In taking a photograph we gain a durable record of that particular cross-section of space-time.

This trade-off of temporal resolution for permanence has emotional consequence. Some photographs I took years ago remind me of events in my personal history, long after they’ve faded from my biological memory. Other photographs reinforce significant events in my biological memory - often mentally returning me to the point in space-time they depict - whenever I view them.

I can only wonder whether people back in 1845 thought this way. But anyway… panoramas.

In 2016, I went on more vacations than I did in previous years. More vacations means more photos of scenery. More photos of scenery means more panorama photos taken. More panorama photos taken… means more crappy panorama photos taken?

I’ll let you judge for yourself how good these are.