For a change from my usual haunts I went for a hike in the Vosges mountains in France. It was a surprisingly sunny and mild day in November, and visibility was excellent. apart from the nearer hills of the Vosges themselves, across the mist-filled Rhine valley the Blackforest is well visible. Less prominent, but nevertheless unmistakable are the Alps towards the south, even though they are hard to see on this image unless one knows they are there.

For this trip, I did not take my fisheye or my philopod, so in order to do a full 360° HDR panorama with my EOS 450D and the kit lens at 18mm, I took 177 exposures, grouped in exposure brackets of three. Lacking the philopod, I didn't do too well keeping the NPP in place, so stitching the take into a convincing-looking panorama took some fiddling. Still I'm happy with the result, never mind the broken condensation trails in the sky - the image came out fine with a few minor glitches left to retouch, plus a few interlopers and lens reflexes to get rid off, and I feel it does the scenery justice.