Gigapan: Obama's Inauguration Photo

This is pretty amazing. I mean it is from a weird side angle and I'm not exactly sure the point of it, but it's cool. Make sure you do lots of zooming so you experience how crisp and detailed the photo really is. Here's what the site says:

I made this Gigapan image from the north press platform during President Obama's inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on January 20, 2009. It's made up of 220 images and the final image size is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels.

** UPDATE 1/25/09 -- Thank you for the overwhelming enthusiasm for this photo. I am happy to announce that high quality prints will be available shortly. To be notified, send a blank email to: pano@davidbergman.net

Gigapan of Obama's Inauguration

By the way, here's what a Gigapan is:

GigaPan consists of three technological developments: a robotic camera mount for capturing very high-resolution (gigapixel and up) panoramic images using a standard digital camera; custom software for constructing very high-resolution gigapixel panoramas; and, a new type of website for exploring, sharing and commenting on gigapixel panoramas and the detail our users will discover within them. The GigaPan website allows hosting and sharing all kinds of panoramas, and so the robotic GigaPan mount is recommended but is certainly not required to be part of this community.

1 Year in 40 Seconds

Pretty cool video that's been spreading around in the last few days. Here's the video info:

Images snapped at the same spot through one year. Showing the seasons change. For more information on how the video was made visit my web site. The audio is actual recordings from the same spot. The images are from 2008.

Nerves of Steel

Not only does this photographer almost get crushed by the out of control rally car but he doesn't even stop to thank his lucky stars before whipping out his camera and getting some good shots of the wreck.

Nerves of Steel - Watch more Free Videos

LIFE Photo Archives

So this is really cool. Google is now hosting the entire LIFE photo archive.

The Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; The Mansell Collection from London; Dahlstrom glass plates of New York and environs from the 1880s; and the entire works left to the collection from LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili, and Nina Leen. These are just some of the things you'll see in Google Image Search today.

We're excited to announce the availability of never-before-seen images from the LIFE photo archive. This effort to bring offline images online was inspired by our mission to organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. This collection of newly-digitized images includes photos and etchings produced and owned by LIFE dating all the way back to the 1750s.

Only a very small percentage of these images have ever been published. The rest have been sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings, and prints. We're digitizing them so that everyone can easily experience these fascinating moments in time. Today about 20 percent of the collection is online; during the next few months, we will be adding the entire LIFE archive — about 10 million photos. [Google Blog via RantsofaModernDayElitist]