Mathew Farris Senior Portfolio: Artist: James O. Phelps

James O. Phelps takes seamless 360 degree panoramic photos that were displayed this past 'First Friday' at Corporate & Museum Frame, Inc. There were at least 20 or so photos displayed, all fairly small around 30" x 6". Quite a few of the shots were of historical locations, such as battlegrounds, museums, or the UVA campus. These were less interesting to me, but the shots of landscapes and Richmond locales were amazing. Most of them had the kind of foreground and background terrain elements that make panoramics so engulfing to look at, and the sky's were often dramatic. The network of underpasses near the Main st. station looked incredible as a panoramic, and Hollywood cemetery was shot from virtually the same spot that I did my panoramic of that location from.

The shots were printed in sepia b&w, which made them look artistic and professional as well as brought attention to the vastness of the technique and fit the historic backdrop. I spoke to him about the process, and in order to create seamless panoramas he actually used a special camera that I hadn't heard of. The lens is reduced to a vertical slit, and the camera spins around, exposing an actual panoramic negative seamlessly. To me it seemed almost like a video camera, as you only adjust the aperture and the shutter speed is determined by how fast the camera spins around. A longer exposure, at dusk for example, would be a slower 360 degree spin. The result is a perfect panoramic, stretched and skewed at places to maintain a seamless state, similar to the effect of a wide angle lens. This was all very interesting to me as I hadn't heard of this type of camera before. Needless to say , I'm impressed at what the artist has done with it.