Ben takes in the awesome sight.

The beautiful Amangani Resort in Jackson Hole. This is actually a 6-image panoramic image, shot with my trusty Nikkor 50 mm and stitched with AutoPano Pro.

While it may not be my best photo ever, this one has the distinction of occupying more disk space than any other. Comprised of 37 hand-held frames, shot with my cheapest lens due to it’s low distortion, and stitched together with the mind-blowing AutoPano Pro. The original is more than 24,000 pixels wide. The 16-bit image is just under 2 gigabytes in size. The image below links to a 6,000 pixel wide version. Get a 12,000 pixel-wide version here. (14 megabytes.)

What will I do differently next time? First, I’ll use a smaller aperture. If I had, the area behind Kelly and Ben (see her there?) would be in focus. Second, and quite surprisingly, I will not use a polarizer. The amount of filter’s effect changes with the rotational angle, so that the parts of the sky perpendicular to the rays of the sun are too dark, and the non-uniformity of the sky color in the resulting stitch is a pain to deal with. I think it looks weird, but I haven’t found a reasonable way to smooth that out without producing obviously manipulated results. Suggestions? I suppose could paste in some clouds, but that would be cheating — wouldn’t it?

By the way, if you’re at all interested in high-resolution panoramic imagery, check out this jaw-dropping 50 gigabyte image. I want to go to Vienna — now. Wow!

Here is my second attempt at recreating one of Ansel Adams’ masterpieces.

A few more of our favorite shots from our fabulous trip to Jackson Hole. As always, hover over the images to learn a little about them.

A faithful reader points out that in this shot of the canyon, the mountain on the left (Mt. Owen) is 6000 vertical feet above Kelly and the peak is just one mile as the bird flies from that spot — deeper than the Grand Canyon!

Kelly and I are heading to Jackson this weekend for mini-vacation with Chris and Ben. We’ve been wondering what kind of weather to expect, so naturally, we checked out Weather Underground, and were pleased to find a perfect forecast. The forecast for today included thundershowers, so I found the best Jackson weather cam I could find (who new there were so many?), captured a frame every 30 seconds and put together this rather cool time-lapse.

I’ve gotten lazy, so you’ll need an HTML5 browser to view the video. I recommend Chrome. Don’t worry – it’ll play perfectly on your iPhone and iPad. Maybe some day I’ll create a Flash version for the rest of you. :)

Unexpectedly perfect weather helped make our weekend with Tom and Julie thoroughly enjoyable.

You might be surprised to know that the first shot was made with an iPhone and AutoPano Pro.

If you like time-lapse photography, check out this amazing example. Incredible.

The first thing you’ll notice is that it covers a lot more ground than my previous commute. And a bridge. Compressed to 38 seconds, this works out to about 1,700 miles per hour. If only it were possible to get to the office this fast!

I love my new job! The commute? Not so much.

Click to view a neat high definition version. (48 MB)

Here’s a shot of the high-tech rig I used to shoot this. One frame every two seconds. I would have liked to shoot one frame per second, but the camera’s intervalometer maxes out at 1,000 frames, and I can not possibly make this drive in under 1,000 seconds. The trip took 1904 seconds this Sunday morning.

By far.

I have a new friend who is pushing the limits of image editing software. Here’s a glimpse into a 73,000 pixel wide image. Details to follow.

This is amazing in so many ways. I suggest you view the HD version full-screen at Vimeo.

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Pals Andrew and Jeri just sent this breathtaking shot of the Yosemite Valley. Here’s another of Bridal Veil Falls. And here’s a great one of Jeri and the kids under a big-ass tree. Wow. So flippin’ beautiful! I guess Kelly and thedude need to take a road trip soon!