Area doctor creating photomosaic
By Sarah Stover
NORTH PALM BEACH -
His picture has the potential to raise millions of dollars and set a world record.
That is, when it's broken down to 1.92 million pixels and attached to 6,650 pieces of plywood.
Todd Bradford, who lives in North Palm Beach with his wife, Shelley, son, Devon and daughter, Michaela, plans to set a world for the largest photo mosaic. The current record is held by the Institut Municipal de Cultura and Elche Council of Elche, Spain, whose photomosaic measured 4,878 square feet and was composed of 60,828 individual photos, according to the "Guiness Book of World Records."
Dr. Bradford's ambitious plan came to him one night about a month after he shot a photograph of the shuttle Discovery shooting by the Jupiter Lighthouse last December. The shuttle launched at night, and Dr. Bradford, who has made photography a hobby over the past three years, got an amazing shot with a 20-second exposure.
"Initially, I just wanted to get a nice picture to hang on our wall," he said.
As Dr. Bradford showed the photo to people and they started sending reprints to family and friends, he realized he had something special on his hands. However, it wasn't until he took second place in a photography contest held by the Town of Jupiter and people copied the photo for a chalk drawing contest in Lake Worth, that he realized just how good it was, he said.
Then the idea came to him to make it into a large piece of art to set a record, which then grew into helping the community through his project.
Individuals can sponsor a pixel for $12 through his Web site, www.powerfulpixel.com.
Schools and nonprofits can sign-up to use the project as a fundraiser. Organizations will get a referral number, and for each person who sponsors a pixel under the number, the organization gets $1. There are also bonus levels.
For example, if 500 pixels are sponsored for a school's fundraising effort, the school not only gets $500, but an additional $500 for reaching that level, said Dr. Bradford.
"We decided to give back as we're moving forward," he said.
After reading an article in Hometown News about Jupiter High School's marching band trying to raise money for their trip to the Sugar Bowl in January, Dr. Bradford set up an account for the band himself. Its referral number is 276 for those who would like to help, he said.
People also get rewarded for their sponsorship efforts. If a group earns enough points, it could win MP3 players, digital cameras, trips to Florida and a zero-gravity experience.
Everyone who sponsors a pixel gets a gift certificate with their pixel number on it, and their name goes on the Web site with their city and state. The Web site has only been up for a bout a month and already at least 16 states are represented, said Dr. Bradford.
While the sponsorships are coming in, he continues to look for warehouse space so he and his family can make his dream a reality. Dr. Bradford has the work broken down. He has divided the photo into 53 rows and each row will consist of 133 pieces of plywood, he said.
The local physician has about 1,000 hours into this project, so far and has estimated that it could take up to at least 40 weeks of 40-hour workweeks to actually create his masterpiece. However, he does not know when they will actually begin making it, but when it's completed it will be 400 feet wide and 533 feet long, or close to 5 acres or three and a half football fields, said Dr. Bradford.
All the hard work will take place in one day. Afterward, the Bradford's will recycle the photo paper and give the plywood to Habitat for Humanity and other nonprofit organizations that create shelter for people in need, he said.
For more information, visit www.powerfulpixel.com.