I”m on assignment this week in Senegal with Freedom From Hunger. During my layover at New York’s JFK International Airport I photographed our Boeing 737 waiting at the departure gate.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with a new iPhone app called Pano. Pano allows you to stitch together  a series of successive vertical shots taken with your iPhone. It’s simple, effective and fun.

The image of the airplane waiting at the gate is made up of three vertical images. All of the “merging” takes place automatically in your phone, no additional work or software needed, it’s astounding!

Pano is made by Debacle Software, a three-man operation consisting of

Adam Cohen (image processing guru),

Julian Lepinski (iPhone coder supreme), and

Eric Akaoka (rockstar graphic designer).

Debacle is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Tips for shooting panos:

Practice makes perfect

Pano is an advanced tool, but sometimes you may not get the results you expect.  Try to experiment and just have fun; after your first few panos, you’ll be a natural. Here are a few quick tips to get you going:

Distance

Pano works best when the objects in the scene are far away; this helps keep angles in line at the edges of each photo. It’s a good thing ocean views and cityscapes make for fantastic vistas!

Don’t move your iPhone

Try to keep your iPhone stationary between photos; it’s best if the field of view pivots around a single point.

Okay, move it a little

Sometimes the best way to get a good match is to move the iPhone towards or away from you as you pivot.

Keep the Guide simple

The transparent Guide is where most of the processing magic happens; if you can plan your pano so that these areas have simple features, you can get better results. Try to line up vertical stuff like telephone poles trees or buildings to make it easier to match the transparent guide.

Below is a f our shot Pano

The following  simple, iPhone 3 videos are obviously not much to look at. I’m just uploading some random stuff from my walk around town after lunch here in Dakar so that you can get the feel of the place. Dakar is a bit like Bamako Mali but seems a more modern, cleaner, and more relaxed. There are plenty of late model cars and modern buses plying the streets. The atmosphere here is easy going…everyone smile and greets you with “sa va” (how are you).

Here’s a market scene in Dakar.

Here’s a street scene in Dakar.

Here’s a quick movie from my walk back from lunch…the intersection near the old Market in Dakar.