** CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE PRINTS OF MY INAUGURATION PHOTO. **
For more information, send a blank email to pano [at] davidbergman [dot] net.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is not sleeping.
President Bush is not sending a text message.
Yes, Oprah Winfrey is blocked by a camera tower.
We’re still looking for Waldo.
Just wanted to clear that up.
Covering the inauguration of President Obama was one of the biggest thrills of my life. Little did I know that it would be topped by the reaction to a photo I made that day.
Unless you’ve been away from a computer for the last week, you’ve probably already seen the Gigapan image I created during the inaugural address. With the ability to zoom in and move around the photo, it turned into an international game of “Where’s Waldo.”
In the first 5 days, the image was viewed by more than 2 million people in 186 countries. I’ve now seen my name in Russian and on a Japanese web site.
I did an interview on CNN and the resulting web traffic brought my site down for the rest of day.
I’m happy to announce that prints are now available for purchase. I’ve partnered with Pictopia to handle the large format printing of this historic photo. (Update: smaller prints and custom images are now available from my new print site.)
There are three sizes available – 3 feet wide (36 X 18 inches), 4 feet wide (48 X 24 inches), and a whopping 8 feet wide (96 X 48 inches). Contact me through my portfolio site if you want to special order something even bigger. For editorial or commercial licensing, please contact Corbis.
To make the print, I asked talented panoramic photographer Ron Pepper to compile a new version and fix the handful of stitching errors found in the web version.
I can’t thank everyone enough for all of the enthusiastic comments, emails, and Facebook notes I’ve received about the image. The wild thing is that I almost didn’t shoot it.
I was covering the inauguration for Corbis and had all of my normal photo gear with me — three Nikon camera bodies and five lenses including my favorite – the 200-400 zoom. I normally use a roller bag, but with the anticipated crowds, I decided to use the Thinktank Shape Shifter backpack. It’s a fantastic bag, but it was heavy.
I knew that I wanted to make a wide, panoramic shot of the crowd in addition to my traditional coverage. I brought the Gigapan Epic with me to D.C., but really didn’t know if I had room to carry more gear.
At the last minute, I decided to strap it to my waist using the Thinktank Skin Chimp Cage and pro speed belt. I don’t believe the designers at Thinktank knew that the “skin chimp” would be the perfect size for a Gigapan.
After a cab ride with Peter Turnley, three security checkpoints, and a lot of walking, I was finally in my photo position. I was in the very back row of the platform, standing on a chair behind an AOC photographer. She was nice enough to allow me to attach the Gigapan to the railing next her.
The unit takes a series of overlapping images one at a time. In this case, I set it to shoot a grid that was 20 photos wide by 11 photos down. It took about 15 minutes to complete.
During the event, I made it through 4 1/2 sets of photos before the batteries died. For the final image, I used all 157 frames from my fifth set and 63 frames from the fourth to complete the entire scene.
I sure am glad I brought the Gigapan with me.
So, what’s next? I’m out of town for two jobs that have been booked for months. First, I’m working with Drew Carey and the Improv All-Stars to document their show in Las Vegas.
Then, on Sunday, I fly to Miami to get on the annual Barenaked Ladies rock cruise. I’m the band’s tour photographer, so I’ll be presenting a photo seminar on board and posting pics to TourPhotographer.com.
Every year I shoot a group naked photo of the band with their fans. Last time we had nearly 1,000 people.
I think I’ll refrain from using the Gigapan for that one.
Below are some of my other images from Monday and Tuesday.
