Never before

There aren't many pictures that can claim to be a world first. Obviously every image is unique, and in metaphysical terms, completely unrepeatable. But when it comes to US presidential inaugurations then most of the photos are the same each time, only the president changes.

With these days of press positions and fenced off media enclosures there is not much option for a different picture of a familiar ceremony. Two photographers in the USA Chuck Kennedy from the McClatchy-Tribune Photo Service, and David Bergman produced images from the inauguration ceremony of President Obama that show lateral thinking and the diversity of what digital photography can bring to age old traditions.
Mega panoramic picture
First up David Bergman's incredible 1.5 gigapixel image taken with his PowerShot G10. Yes gigapixel...! Using a G10 and a Gigapan imager - a robotic camera mount - David shot 220 pictures to make a hugely detailed panoramic shot that is 59,783 x 24,658 pixels! David wrote that it took more than six and a half hours to make the composite image on his MacBook Pro and the resulting file is almost 2 gigabytes.
That'll be the image you don't open in Photoshop and press CTRL/OPTION J to dupe the background layer and double the file size!

Closest ever camera at an inauguration
Then using more "regular" technology Chuck Kennedy got his camera in a position on the podium where no camera had ever been before, right on the podium for the closest camera to an inauguration ever. He used a WiFi transmitter connected via ethernet to get the image from the EOS 5D Mark II camera and triggered the shutter with a hard wired release. Seems like President Obama is a good subject for the EOS 5D Mark II. You need to scroll down the NPPA page to see the camera in it's adapted peli case.


-blabpictures-