Skip to main content

This 3.1 billion pixel photo of the Olympics is the ultimate ‘Where’s Waldo’

Image used with permission by copyright holder

If Nokia can pack 41 megapixels into the camera of its latest smartphone, the 808 PureView, you can imagine the myriad of powerful cameras professional photographers use to capture the 2012 London Olympic games. The best illustration of this would be photographer David Bergman’s ‘Gigapan’ of the women’s volleyball match between the United States and Switzerland teams. To create this panorama, Bergman snapped and stitched 200 individual photos into one complete frame. The result is a 98,101 by 31,747 pixel resolution image, totaling to roughly 3.1 billion megapixels.

Hosted by Sports Illustrated, this behemoth of a photo might look like your average overview of the volleyball stadium. However, zooming in will reveal the sharpest details, down to the words on a player’s top to a guy standing in the buildings in the background — things that you otherwise wouldn’t have noticed or knew was even there.

What’s even more interesting is going around the audience seating and trying to see if you can spot anything funny. Since the 200 photos were taken within a 21-minute time span, it’s possible an audience member might be caught in the middle of a laugh, a sneeze, or maybe even some nose-picking. Man, you can’t go anywhere these days and live life without being photographed. The best thing I’ve found so far is this guy in the blue doing some horse riding imitation (click the main photo to zoom). Did anyone tell him equestrian is at a different stadium?

Take a look for yourself and see if you can spot anything interesting!

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Natt Garun
Former Digital Trends Contributor
An avid gadgets and Internet culture enthusiast, Natt Garun spends her days bringing you the funniest, coolest, and strangest…
Fujifilm’s most-hyped camera has just started shipping
Fujifilm's X100VI camera, released in 2024.

The latest iteration of Fujifilm’s X100 camera started shipping on Wednesday.

The X100VI is -- as the name cleverly suggests -- the sixth in the series. Early reviews have been mostly positive as the camera builds on the successes of the already impressive earlier models going all the way back to the original X100, which launched in 2011.

Read more
How to resize an image on Mac, Windows, and a Chromebook
Windows 11 set up on a computer.

Resizing an image is something we’re all going to have to do at some point in our digital lives. And whether you’re using Windows, macOS, or you’re rocking a Chromebook, there are ways to scale images up and down on each PC. Fortunately, these are all relatively simple methods too.

Read more
Watch an acclaimed director use the iPhone 15 Pro to shoot a movie
acclaimed director uses iphone 15 to shoot movie shot on pro midnight

Shot on iPhone 15 Pro | Midnight | Apple

As part of its long-running Shot on iPhone series, Apple recently handed acclaimed Japanese director Takashi Miike (Audition, 13 Assassins, The Happiness of the Katakuris) an iPhone 15 Pro to shoot a short film.

Read more