The Veiled Chameleon: June 2004: New site up, Day 2

New site up, Day 2

There's only a few things left to do at this point:

1) Get all of the weblog pages into the style format of the rest of the site, and
2) Get the hiking section up and going.

This second part is proving to be annoying, in that I'm having to learn many ins-and-outs of using The Gimp. I am attempting to put together several photos which form a 360_deg circumference of the view from the top of a peak, and I didn't plan on doing this when I took the photos. It just isn't working well.

I'm guessing that there are advanced techniques to keep in mind when it comes to taking photos for this purpose, such as:

1) Consistent exposure. (Maybe not using auto-exposure? Or perhaps auto-exposure is essential, because some photos may be facing the sun and some not? I just don't know.)
2) Always using a tripod (seems obvious).
3) Having a camera which displays whether the camera is level or not.
4) Other things?

Should anyone happen to be an expert on any of this, I'd appreciate a note.

Thanks.