1. An image processing apparatus, comprising: an acquisition unit that acquires a first image and a second image consecutively captured by an image capturing unit, while the image capturing unit is moved; a division unit that divides the first image acquired by the acquisition unit into a plurality of areas; a characteristic point detection unit that detects first characteristic points in the areas respectively and second characteristic points in the second image, the second characteristic points corresponding to the first characteristic points respectively; a vector calculation unit that calculates vectors between the first characteristic points and the corresponding second characteristic points; an area selection unit that selects a particular area from the areas, based on the vectors calculated by the vector calculation unit; and a combining unit that combines the images, based on a vector included in the particular area selected by the area selection unit.