I've tried a few weak attempts at panoramas. Here's one from a backpack on the Ben Tyler trail last Sep.:


from Kenosha Mtns looking into Southpark.

What needs to be worked in is some foreground item, like in jwild's (the OP) photo with the tree-topped rock in the water, to make the panorama more interesting, and which I haven't done. This example was handheld, and since then I've bought a couple of lightweight, backpackable tripods that I think will be a big help. ndsol, if you get a chance, post a few shots with that built-in panoramo feature on your dslr; would love to see what they look like.

Years ago, there were all these "virtual reality" 360-degree panoramas of parks at a site called virtualparks.org, such as Erik Goetze's pic of Berry Creek Falls in Big Basin State Park in CA:

360-degree view of Berry Creek Falls done in 1997.

(use your cursor to put the circle on the right and "push" out to get it to rotate if you haven't seen this before.)

I'd love to see these done over (or more of these) with new, higher-megapixel cameras.