We’ve seen a slew of sideways pages recently.
This past summer, for example, I posted a selection of sideways sports pages from the Des Moines Register. We’ve also looked at sideways sports pages by Fargo, N.D., and Boise, Idaho. Here’s a front page from Fond du Lac, Wis., from the old blog. And last Friday, Poynter’s Julie Moos looked at a sideways front page from Maysville, Ky.
Here’s yet another one. It’s by the Idaho Press-Tribune, a 19,909-circulation daily in Nampa.
The bad news: This is essentially a huge web refer. Not only that, but it plugs the name of the company that provided the equipment. Over and over again. Too many times for comfort, in fact.
The good news: This is indeed one hell of a big photo on the front. And granted, it just about has to be a talker today. Which, I’m sure, was the point.
Click for a much, much larger view:
The text accompanying the huge photo says, in part:
Idaho Press-Tribune Web Editor Greg Kreller captured this high-resolution photo using the GigaPan system Saturday during the second half of the Boise State football game against Air Force from the top of the Stueckle Sky Center at Bronco Stadium.
This is not your typical photograph
- It is composite photo using 600 images (50 columns by 12 rows)
- It took more than 40 minutes to capture
- If printed (at 200 ppi) it would be over 41 feet wide and 7 feet tall
The entire operation is aimed at getting readers to log onto the paper’s web site to check out the GigaPan-branded panoramic photo. The name “GigaPan” appears on page one no fewer than seven times. Seven!
UPDATE: Eight, if you count the credit line.
On the other hand, the breathlessly ad-like tone of the copy is balanced somewhat with a bit of transparency at the end:
Because the photo was taken in 600 pieces, you can find two Buster Broncos and a few legless and headless people when you zoom in close.
There were actually three GigaPan portraits made Saturday:
All of them zoomable. And admittedly, all of them very cool for any Boise State football fan.
Find the online version of the page one copy here.
So is this cool content, displayed in an unusual — but appropriate, given the picture — way? Or is this a giant web refer? Or does it appear to be free publicity in exchange for loan of what is most likely very expensive equipment?
You tell me.
The GigaPan equipment is surprisingly inexpensive (and very cool.) It generally uses a point and shoot digital camera mounted on a motorized controller that shoots many images, which are later blended together to make the final panoramic image. It would not surprise me if the paper or one of their staffers owned the equipment.
The brand name references might be a little over the top, but the front page image is a good one, and I bet many of their readers went to the web site to look for themselves in the photo.
It doesn’t bother me. They’re doing journalism online that you couldn’t do in print. Maybe they didn’t need to plug the name of the company who provided the software so many times, though.
Hey Charles,
I hear your points, loud and clear, wondering if they’ve gone overboard, and if it’s a little too promotional for A1. Resonates with me… really does.
However, I think it’s worth giving the Press-Tribune some benefit of the doubt here. This *is* relatively new technology and it’s something different, especially for a smaller market publication. Kudos to them for trying something different that is sharply targeted to their readership’s interests. I think media websites should be doing a helluva lot more of this kind of stuff!
The GigaPan system isn’t terribly cost-prohibitive. You can purchase one these days (sans-tripod) for around $900. In the scheme of photography or multimedia equipment, that’s not outrageous at all (especially considering the technology that goes into making a system like this function).
In the realms of photographers, multimedia specialists and web folks, these are almost universally referred to as “GigaPans.” Therefore, it doesn’t surprise me they referred to it with that verbiage. It’s *not* a simple panoramic picture. It’s zoomable. You can interact with it. GigaPan, honestly, kind of redefined what panoramic imaging could be and how it could be displayed on the web.
However, (channelling my inner-AP style) on second and subsequent references they could have referred to it as an “interactive panoramic image” or “interactive panorama.”
Finally, was it worthy of such big play on A1? Here’s where I begin to agree with you that it really starts to reek of self-promotion. Why not do this on the back of the A-section? Or on an inside page? Or on the sports front?
Great idea. They just took it a little too far.
–MK
Well, I like seeing panoramas promoted on the front page of the paper. They do well on the website when they get space in print and on the homepage.
Re: an expensive system. Not really, not anymore. Entry-level Gigapan head is $300, you supply the snappycam. It’s a good tool to have in your multimedia kit.
Gary
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Gary O’Brien
Photographer
Tucson, AZ USA
http://garyobrien.com
http://panoramist.blogspot.com
“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing
view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”
–Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)
Charles, thanks for sharing our page and very good points on the overhype of “Gigapan.” But one important clarification: We borrowed the robot from our sister paper in Bozeman, Mont.
~ Vickie Holbrook, editor at the Press-Tribune in Nampa.