For most of his life, Mel Theobald was a painter. His creative interests shifted dramatically in the summer of 2001 when he first put his hands on a digital camera. In progressive stages, he began to see the potential for images that would combine the content of his paintings with the freedom to explore the creative manipulation of a photographic surface. With paint and canvas, the texture of the surface is as absorbing as the subject. Using the computer and mouse as an extension of the brush and paint, it came as a great surprise to Mel that he could think as a painter and work in a photographic medium. To that end, Mel Theobald began shooting multiple images across a horizontal panorama using a telephoto lens. This enabled the subject to remain flat without the normal distortion of a wide-angle lens. Combining these images made it possible to retain a vast amount of surface detail and yet generate a composition that was natural to the scope of human vision. Please be sure to take a look at Mel Theobald’s entire collection of horizontal panoramic photographs. They are stunningly beautiful and very large at 72 inches wide.