Wider Than the Sky

“I can see for miles and miles.”

— The Who —

I have already shared my thoughts on the two aspect ratios of my choice in the Salty Silence gallery, and the images in this gallery are but a few more examples of why I love the ultra-wide 6×17 panorama format.

With a field of view of almost 3:1, I find that it creates great peripheral immersion and inspires a strong sense of “actually being there.” It allows for vertical distractions to be stripped away, locking the eye into a bit of a horizontal scanning motion.

Unlike most of the other strictly regional galleries on this website, the images here are from multiple trips to various parts of what I would call my two “spirit countries”: Iceland and Scotland. While my first instinct on location is always to compose for a square image, some scenes are just so in-your-face panoramic that I cannot pass them by. And the examples here are some of my all-time favorites from that category.

Most of all, these images remind me of brilliant trips with fantastic people, some of whom have become good friends over the years through the common language of photography. While most landscape photography is, by its very nature, a solitary experience, we are still social beings. And a dedicated photography trip with close friends, long days outside in beautiful scenery and joint post-processing sessions at night over a couple of drinks for, uhm, inspiration is very close to my idea of a good time.

Fun fact on the side: The 6th image in this series shows an ant-sized environmental portrait of my friend Karsten in the highlands of Iceland. I had carefully set up my tripod for a landscape composition when he photobombed my frame. In hindsight, his presence in the frame adds a great sense of perspective. Also, including this “portrait” of him here is my way of thanking him for taking my portrait on the About page, shot in Argentina back in 2024…