A Thousand Stories in One Photo

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Thousands of people gathered on a beautiful May morning in Santa Rosa to celebrate the graduation of friends and loved ones.

My job was to capture images that would tell the story of the day. My iPhone X was one of the many tools that I used that day. And this panorama of the crowd before the ceremony tells a thousand stories in image.

To create this 30-second video, I first captured the panorama with the iPhone. I then opened the image in Photos for macOS and created a slideshow with just the one shot. I chose the Ken Burns theme, slowed down the timing a bit, then exported the panorama as a movie.

You can also see a still photo version of it on Flickr. You might want to zoom in a bit to appreciate the individual behaviors of the audience.

Before the Graduation

Panoramas of crowds are seldom perfect because people are moving during exposure. But I think they are incredibly interesting despite their imperfections. And they tell a story that would be difficult to convey as a regular photo.

You can share your thoughts at the TDS Facebook page, where I'll post this story for discussion.