The Singing Tower
Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales, Florida
Bok Tower played a part in Nancy's regular childhood trips with her family from Miami to visit relatives in Georgia, but not so much since then; her previous trip was when she visited as a teacher with her school's camping club in 2009. In 2016, we were exploring the area just after an art festival in Lake Walesschedule and decided to visit Bok Tower Gardens. On this trip we brought our new Gigapan unit.
Opening in 1929, the 205-foot tower was built on Iron Mountain, part of the Lake Wales Ridge and the highest point on the Florida Peninsula (295 feet above sea level) by Dutch immigrant and editor of the women's magazine Ladies Home Journal, Edward W. Bok, after a winter trip with his wife in 1921. The tower holds a 60-bell carillon, and the gardens have tens of thousands of plants, many birds and some wildlife, trails, and a visitor center.
Inspired by Bok Tower and trying to capitalize on Florida's early booming tourist industry, two other tall towers were later built along the Lake Wales Ridge; first the Florida Citrus Tower in Clermont, a 226-foot tower was built on ground about 200 feet above sea level in 1956, and then the Lake Placid Florida Tower, a 270-foot structure on land a hundred feet above sea level opened in 1961. Neither of these had nearly as much to offer as Bok Tower and each of these towers was less successful than its predecessors.
This image is 72,838 pixels high by 52,744 pixels and spans around 130° by 94° of view. For a better close-up view of the full-size image, go to our Gigapan.com page. There you can even read the sundial which, although tricky to read, was accurate (within a minute) in this case.
For more information, check out the following blog post:
"The Singing Tower" Is Our Second Gigapan Image
To comment on a possible new format variation, check out:
"The Singing Tower" - A New Framing Idea?
Photographic details: Canon EOS 7D Mark II camera w/ EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens set at 135mm mounted on Gigapan unit. 336 photographs were used in 21 rows and 16 columns. The capture took sixteen minutes. Flash was not used. Camera was on f/25 for 1/30 sec at ISO 100.
To order a print of this image, hit the button to the left. Before you do, you may want to check the maximum size estimates or what's currently in stock below. Each item in stock has its own order button.
| Print details: maximum size | Medium | Printed | Estimated | (In-house) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fine Art Paper | 15" x 11" | 30 ft x 22 ftO | (59" x 43") | |
| Canvas | 36" x 26" | 43 ft x 31 ftO | (51" x 37") |
Currently In Stock
Although we can print to your specifications any size up to the above limits to the nearest 1/16" with any mat and moulding combinations, the below prints are available immediately:
Although the resolution and sharpness of the image should allow for this, we would need to send an image this size somewhere else to get it printed. Our printer can print up to 44" across, meaning that practically, we can print an image on paper up to 431/2". On canvas, we could only go to 371/2", to make room for wrapping the edges. Thus our in-house size limit for this image is shown above in parentheses.