Obama in 1,474 megapixels!

This has been written about elsewhere on the web, but for anyone who missed it, David Bergman has posted a 1,474 megapixel image of the Presidential Inauguration.  Click here for a full screen version, which I highly recommend.

As David explains on his web site, it's actually 220 images stitched together, for a total of 59,783 x 24,658 pixels!  Zoom in and you can see some interesting details.  For example, Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas appears to be taking a nap, and George Bush can be seen sitting behind the President with a scowl on his face.  In the distance, men are visible atop one of the buildings.  Snipers, perhaps?

The photos were taken with a GigaPan Imager.  The Gigipan is a robotic device that you attach your camera to, allowing you to create insanely large and detailed stitched images.  The Inauguration photo was taken with a Canon G10.  Gigipan doesn't have a model that supports DSLRs yet, which is a shame.  As cool as this photo is, the small sized sensor in the Canon can only capture so much resolution. 

Barack Obama Grant Park Rally

I had the honor and the privilege to attend Barack Obama's Grant Park Rally on Tuesday night.  I was not anywhere near close enough to take any photographs of the candidate President-elect himself, but here are a few shots of the crowd and on Michigan Ave beforehand:









These were all shot with a Nikon D90 and a 50mm lens, usually set at f1.8, with ISOs between 400 and 800.  I chose black and white for these shots to eliminate the orange color caste from the city's sodium vapor lights, which I personally do not find appealing.  I also think it gives the photos a bit of a timeless quality.