Gigapan

The Gigapan is a device developed by Carnegie-Mellon University for NASA to take multiple pictures in a very controlled manner and then stitch them together into a single high-resolution image. The grayscale image is about 580MB after flattening.

The above picture was shot several weeks ago at Great Falls on the Potomac River. This single image was stitched together from 22 separate exposures using a Canon 5D Mark II with the 24-105 L lens set at 105mm.


For those of you who are techno-geeks, the above crop shows the detail if the original image was enlarged to 11' wide.

The Evolution of Technology and Crow

Several years ago, long before the development of current technology, I was at Great Sand Dunes National Park. A woman was out on the dunes snapping pictures with her cell phone. I laughed and said to myself, give me a break! I thought this was about the stupidest thing I had ever seen.

Having seen the emergence of cell phone technology and what can be done when this technology is place in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, I am now eating a large portion of crow. (Tastes just like chicken in case you are curious!)

I recently got an iPhone and have been experimenting with the imaging software available. I am blown away by what is possible and what I now choose to photograph that I would never photograph with a conventional camera. I don't know whether I am growing as an artist or returning to my childhood. Maybe these are not mutually exclusive.

On the other end of the technology spectrum, I just got a Gigapan. Stay tuned.