Burning Man 2002

VR Tour

I've written extensively elsewhere about Burning Man. Here are my panoramas from the 2002 edition.

You can purchase custom made prints of these giant images for your walls. Learn more.

Other pictures can be found in the photo-essays of my 2002 Burning Man trip. I even have a stab at the never ending What is Burning Man? question.

At BM 2002 I had to leave on Friday, but still managed to shoot some fun panoramas, including my first working night-time ones.

This year I was shooting with the new Canon EOS D60 camera, for now at least the finest digital camera available. Aside from the 6MP resolution using Canon lenses, it also is capable of good night photography.

Don't forget that these web images are twenty times fewer pixels than the full images. To see these things you really need to see them printed out (or on big screen.) I usually show them on the Playa and at B.M. Decompression parties.

Most of these panoramas were actually built 3000 pixels high, but some had to be scaled down to be no more than 30,000 wide, which is Photoshop's limit.

fribm02.jpg (16490 x 1100 - 2363K) or VR/Zoom!	360° x 24° (Set) Full size is 44778 x 2987 (134 Megapix) (19' 4" x 16" at 192PPI)
Friday afternoon, storm approaches, from keyhole

This astounding shot is from Friday at 4:30pm. The city is in full swing, but a storm is coming in, darkening the horizon. Just too much to describe. It is shot from the Black Rock Refinery (which looked like a water tower, on the right of the Keyhole in Center Camp) with the 50mm lens. You definitely have to see this one printed at its full 130 million pixel resolution! (not a typo.)

The Refinery happens to be quite near the tower I used for the 1998 panorama and is the exact place of the 2000 First-Camp pano, just much higher.

Look real close at this clip from the full-res version and you can see Larry enjoying the view from the platform in his camp.

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BRC at night, from Keyhole

A wide panorama at night from the Refinery. Shot with a 2 second exposure at ISO 200 at f/5.6, gamma boosted a bit. The beauty of Black Rocky City at night shows well. Shot with a 50mm lens on D60, Thursday at around midnight. The spinning kaleidoscope is blurry because of the long exposure, as are any moving art cars or people.

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From Black Rock Bookmobile on circle

Here's another close-in panorama. This one was shot Thursday, mid-day, from the ladder located at the Black Rock Bookmobile, on Great Circle Road. It gives you the perspective of another location and day. It was windy and dusty but some of the kites were flying.

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Refinery by Day, Tall

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BRC at night, Tall

This is a wide angle version of the above shot, with a 17mm lens on the D60, this time with a 1.5 second exposure. Doesn't actually show a lot more than the long lens night shot above, just a bit of the stuff closer to the tower. Thursday at midnight.

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Inside center camp cafe, as people juggle

This is a circular panorama shot inside the center camp Cafe on Wednesday. That day, jugglers were performing in the center circle, so I took a shot of the entire cafe and the jugglers to boot. As a 360 degree panorama, shot from the center, it may take a bit of time to figure your bearings, but this will give you a daytime scene. It was actually only lightly populated that day.

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Group prepares for Critical Tits

Shot from the Man, this is the group photo of the Critical Tits from behind. I was actually on the Man to shoot some panoramas of the city, and the timing came out great to have this in the foreground, though I should have been shooting earlier in the day. Friday at 4pm. Sorry horny guys, since it's from behind you won't see many breasts.

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View of BRC from the Man with Critical Tits

This is a full panorama of the city, including the group gathering for Critical Tits, though I have cut out the part behind me which is just the wall of the lighthouse. Alas, the Temple of Joy can't be seen at the same time as the city from this viewpoint. I have other shots of it. The elder-fratboy with the untagged video camera wouldn't duck out of the shot like everybody else, he couldn't miss a second of videotaping the proud and glorious riders. Friday at 4pm.

Note how, from the Man, the circular arc of the city becomes a line in the panorama.

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The Esplanade, from the Man

New! This image was not assembled until 2010. It shows the full esplanade as seen from the man, as the Critical Tits ride heads away to center camp. No breasts -- just a lot of bare backs as they ride into a crowded cordon of admiring (and sadly sometimes leering) guys.

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Bookmobile Tall BRC

This is the same view from the Bookmobile ladder on Thursday mid-day, but shot with a wide angle lens (17mm) to capture the full scope. You can see more kites in the air though they didn't get really going until later.

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Center Camp from the Keyhole, Tall

A wide angle (17mm) panorama from the Refinery. At the time they had a large barrel up their for effect, it came down later. This is the shot I stitched in my tent and put up on the panorama wall during the event! Wednesday at around 1:30 pm. You can see that the Kaleidoscope is not yet completed. I darkened this one a bit too much, will fix in the future.