Little Boxes, University Mound, San Francisco, CA, 2024.

All the pixels, none of which look the just the same, at flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54

Captured with the Rodenstock 138mm/6.5 HR Digaron-SW lens (@ f/7.1), Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 50, 1/125 sec), Cambo WRS 1250 camera. Stitched panorama of two images, shifted left and right +/- about 18mm.

This view reminded me of Malvina Reynolds's famous 1962 song (though she was inspired by nearby Daly City). If you look closely, the houses don't quite "all look just the same", but somehow, viewed on the hillside, there's more uniformity than there is up close.

This is an image that works best at the highest resolution. The Rodenstock 138mm lens has extraordinary edge-to-edge sharpness and a general lack of distortion that makes it especially well suited to wide stitched panoramas like this one.

The effect is sort like Where's Waldo; the whole is shown mainly to invite you into the details.

I am, by the way, a terrible hiking partner and dinner guest. If there's something interesting on the horizon or view out the window that catches my eye, I tend to reflexively set up the tripod* and geek out in my own little world while everyone else is trying to move on down the trail or sit down to eat.

* (Yes, I carry a tripod on hikes and to dinner parties. See above.)

Henryk Plötz

@henryk@chaos.social

Hahaha, I had that experience when, ... uhm, exploring a ... lost place with some other people. I brought tripod and camera, and it was night so I was doing 2 minute exposures, while most everybody else was trying to move on. Except one guy: He didn't have a camera, but he did bring a ZOOM recorder and was fascinated with recording long stretches of the ambient sound of the place. ;)

August 22, 2025 at 7:59:40 PM

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