Megapixel Mania

I have a 5 megapixel digital camera. My previous camera was 3 megapixels, and the one before that about 1 megapixel. The camera prior to that didn't even have a number attached to it, and the one prior to that, my first digital camera, was somewhere in the single pixel range. I hope to have a shiny new 8 megapixel camera by the end of the year. (Please send in your contributions now.)

Then there's this guy. He's not really using a digital camera, but once he takes the image with his custom built, large-format, film camera, and scans it with some high-dollar scanner, he winds up with images on the order of 4 Gigapixels! There are some samples of his work on the site, and they are truly beautiful. Read a little about the lengths he goes to in order to get those images, and you realize why photographers are all a little bit mad. I think the folks at Adobe had to specially modify Photoshop just to handle the files this guy was generating. You'll see close-ups and zoomed-in sections of his photographs on the website that are every bit as amazing as the overall photograph. My favorite shot there is of the Golden Gate Bridge at sundown, with all of San Francisco lit by the golden light in the background. It makes you understand why they call it the Golden Gate. But I guess the real reason I love that shot is because I've stood on the spot in the Marin Headlands where he shot from, and seen the panorama with my own eyes, and even though it wasn't at sunset, it was so beautiful I almost cried. I couldn't capture the beauty of it with my camera, but he did.