This was more or less a test shot for an upcoming project that I'm starting. I shot it with a GigaPan machine, which allows you to create enormous panoramic photos with your SLR. I hiked up past Ponytail Falls and found a spot where I could get some good vertical depth, looking down on Oneonta Creek. For this test I was curious about a couple of things: how well the stitched panorama would look with a scene involving some variable lighting, and also how difficult it would be to hike with all of the equipment required.
To the first question I think that overall, there's good consistency with the lighting, even though there was some shift in the sun for the 30 minutes that this took to complete. I dealt with the sun as best as I could think of on the spot, preferring to just blow out the upper left-hand trees and maintain the consistency of light, versus severely underexposing that area and then trying to make it fit in with the rest of the photo.
To the second, it was much better than I thought; my pack ended up close to 30 pounds with only the barest of non-camera stuff in there, but at least not the 40 or so that I had originally assumed. . . still, I might have to find a lighter tripod.