For several years I had wanted to photograph wall murals of the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde. Spruce Tree House, the third largest cliff dwelling (Cliff Palace and Long House are larger), was constructed between about 1211 and 1278 CE by the ancestors of the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest. The dwelling contains about 130 rooms and 8 kivas (kee-vahs), or ceremonial chambers, built into a natural alcove measuring 216 feet (66 meters) at greatest width and 89 feet (27 meters) at its greatest depth. It is thought to have been home for about 60 to 80 people. The cliff dwelling was first discovered in 1888, when two local ranchers chanced upon it while searching for stray cattle. Today, it is known as one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in the park. Due to the protection of the alcove, 90% of the material you see such as walls, wood, and plaster are original.
Normally open to the public, in August 2015, a rock fall at Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling prompted park officials to close the site for visitor safety until an analysis and hazard assessment could be conducted. After that initial evaluation was completed in September 2015, it was decided that the entire site should be closed to the public in October 2015. The incredible resolution of this photo allows the viewer to again experience some of what it was like to be able to walk amongst the ruins. Clicking on the image above will launch a virtual tour that zooms into the photo. While the automated tour will take to a few of the areas, you can over ride the auto tour with the buttons at the bottom center of the screen to zoom and pan around the image to your hearts content.
This is an focus stacked & stitched image shot with a Canon R5, 600mm lens at f/11, 1/640th sec. exposure, ISO 400. It is made up of 2651 images with many of the images being Focus Bracketed images processed to yield 255 individual Focus Stacked images, 15 rows x 17 columns 30% overlap in portrait orientation.
The original image is:
4.47 Giga-pixels
54,348 x 82,325 pixels
181" x 274" 300 PPI (15 ft. X 22 ft., 10in.) un-cropped image size.