My visit to GigaHQ

Blognosticator Head

Last Friday I ventured out into the world and visited the headquarters of GigaPan, the maker of the motorized camera mount that I have been using for a half-year. GigaPan is based in Portland, Oregon.

At the GigaPan HQ are the marketing, engineering, manufacturing and web site GigaPeople. The software GigaPeople are in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and parts come from a variety of suppliers around the world.

Portland

This is my GigaPan image of the Portland waterfront. The image is made up of 715 individual images, each 60.2 MB in size. You can view the 26 GB version of the image at the GigaPan web site.

I was in Portland for the 65th annual conference of the Technical Association of the Graphic Arts, a scientific and technical trade association. I am on the board of the organization, and I was also acting advisor to the student chapter of TAGA from Cal Poly.

I took my GigaPan head and my Really RIght Stuff carbon fiber tripod with me to Portland, and while there I made one GigaPan image from the east side of the Willamette River looking back to downtown Portland. This is a 715-frame image that covers slightly more than 180 degrees. Behind me was a freeway fly-over which is not very attractive, so I limited the range of my panorama to leave that out of the photo.

Portland has eight bridges over the WIllamette River. My photo includes two: the Morrison and the SW Hawthorne. My photo also includes the Portland Fire Department’s waterfront facility and a small boat tied to a public (?) float adjacent to the east shore of the river.

My plan was to take a nighttime panorama from the same location, but the weather did not cooperate, so I didn’t make that one, preferring to stay indoors for the rest of my evenings in town.

GigaPan makes three models of their camera mounts, each designed to hold a camera of a certain weight and size. Mine is the biggest of them, the Epic Pro. I have written several blogs about my work with that device; my GigaPan images can be viewed at the company’s web site.

I was nicely received by the GigaPeople. They hosted my arrival with Elgar’s GigaTrumpet Fanfare (not really) and a welcome mat that said “Welcome GigaBrian!” (not really). I did get a chance to meet most of the GigaPeople, and had a tour of their manufacturing operation (photos not allowed).

I enjoyed my visit, and look forward to extending my friendship with the folks who make these wonderful camera mounts.

The Portland waterfront GigaPan image turned out very nicely, and so did the TAGA Conference.

About Brian Lawler

Brian Lawler is an Emeritus Professor of Graphic Communication at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and was a Guest Professor at Hochschule München from September, 2021 to September, 2022. He writes about graphic arts processes and technologies for various industry publications, and on his blog, The Blognosticator.
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