Shooting Challenge: Polar Panoramas [Photography]

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image..._polarshot.jpgMaybe you're a good photographer, but you're horrible with Photoshop. Maybe you're great at Photoshop, but you're a horrible photographer. Don't worry, both camps can excel at this week's Shooting Challenge: Polar Panoramas. I promise.
The Challenge

Make a polar panorama (or a planet made from a panoramic photograph)—which involves shooting a panorama, then bringing those shots into Photoshop. After about 5 minutes of work, with the help of the Polar Coordinates filter, you'll have something resembling our lead photo.
The Method

Photojojo has a superb step by step tutorial online, as does Instructables. The basic point to keep in mind is this: frame your base photograph so that the top and bottom 25% are fairly devoid of detail (sky and ground, for instance). Also, while we normally ask submissions to avoid post processing wherever possible, this week is obviously a little bit different. So go nuts to make your final shot look great (within ethical reason—no adding fake buildings or whatever).
The Rules

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos need to be taken the week of the contest. (No portfolio linking or it spoils the "challenge" part.)
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings and technique used to snag the shot.
4. Email submissions to [email protected].
5. Include 800px wide image AND 2560x1600 sized in email. More details on these below.
Send your best entries by Sunday, February 7th at 6PM Eastern to [email protected] with "Polar Panorama" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs or GIFs, and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg (800px) and FirstnameLastnameWALLPAPER.jpg (2560px) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email.


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