"I captured a full multi-exposure photo sequence at f/8 and ISO 100, rotating carefully around the nodal point to create a seamless 360° panorama"

The 16th annual Epson International Pano Awards have revealed its 2025 winners – and Italian photographer Alex Wides (Alessandro Cantarelli) has claimed the top honor as Open Photographer of the Year and Nature/Landscape category winner.

Wides has become one of the world's most recognized names in panoramic fine-art photography. His breathtaking image, Last Fireworks, stood out among thousands of ultra-wide submissions, celebrating the art of panoramic photography in its purest, most immersive form.

“As the sun went down, the sky literally exploded," recalls Wides. "Layer after layer of clouds lit up, painting the desert with fire and gold." That fleeting moment became Last Fireworks – a fiery, ethereal landscape that feels infinite, almost cosmic in scale.

The gear and technique behind the shot

Using a Sony A7 IV paired with a fisheye lens, Wides captured a multi-exposure sequence at f/8 and ISO 100, rotating precisely around the nodal point of his tripod-mounted setup.

This careful nodal rotation – a key technique to eliminate parallax errors in panoramic stitching – allowed him to merge exposures seamlessly into a flawless 360° composition. The result is a masterclass in panoramic photography.

Wide's panoramic technique is the result of over a decade of experimentation. Known for pushing the limits of extreme panoramic landscapes, he has pioneered methods to capture multiple perspectives and stitch them into cohesive, immersive environments that mimic the sense of standing inside the scene.

His workflow typically involves capturing between 30 and 100 exposures, carefully aligned and overlapped with minimal movement. Post-processing takes place in Adobe Camera Raw and PTGui, where each frame is manually blended for exposure balance, color continuity, and perspective harmony.

The Epson International Pano Awards

Founded in 2019, the Epson International Pano Awards remain the world's largest competition devoted exclusively to panoramic photography. The 2025 edition drew thousands of entries across Nature/Landscape, Built Environment, and VR/360° categories, celebrating both professional and amateur photographers.

With a growing community and the 2026 call for entries now open, featuring a new Aerial category, the Epson International Pano Awards continue to showcase the most powerful ultra-wide imaging and 360° photography.

Explore the 2025 winning gallery or submit your own panoramic images for the 2026 competition by visiting the Pano Awards website.

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