Mark Widick

ARTICLES | EQUIPMENT | PANORAMAS | TRAVEL | TUTORIALS

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My first exposure to photography was growing up in Cocoa Beach Florida during the early space program. I met many of the photographers from Life Magazine during the launching of Apollo 11. My father was a NASA engineer and his best friend was close to the Life team. As a youngster of 8, I was very impressed. My first camera was a Brownie box camera which I used to take pictures of the Saturn V launches. Later I upgraded to a Canon AE-1. My hobby went on leave of absence as I went to Medical School and ENT Residency. My other interests include bird and marine mammal photography and digital panoramic photography of the places I visit. Most recently Egypt and the Nile. I live in Boca Raton Florida with two sons and my wife Jeanette.

I have always enjoyed mechanical devices and making things work. I started reengineering military panoramic cameras. Soon my obsession turned to setting up remote panoramic cameras and imaging of the Space Shuttle launches. This has proven both challenging and rewarding. I attempt to get horizontal and vertical images of the launch. The cameras are placed precisely using the orbital angle data published before the launch so that the shuttle will fly directly over the cameras. With this angle the image will continue to stay in the center of the vertical negative as the shuttle climbs into orbit. If not tough enough, the cameras must run themselves as set up near the launch pad is 1-2 days before the launch and rain is common. Digital & Panoramic Association member Peter Lorber has been invaluable in mentoring my efforts.

The Egypt Nile was shot from my hotel room at the New Cataract Hotel in Aswan Egypt with the Panasonic Lumix LX-2 and stitched with Autopanopro - 5 images. The space shots were with the Fairchild KB 56B military panoramic camera. Film was Kodak Vericolor III 5 inch perforated film frozen since 1995. Negative size 5 x 10 inches. Camera rig as shown just outside the shuttle launch site at Pad 39A. The night photo is from my Boca Raton home looking at Highland Beach over the intercostals waterway, 5 images with the Panasonic Lumix LX-2. 15 second exposures 5 exposures stitched with Autopanopro.