I was walking around Los Gatos last weekend and I discovered the Jeff Mitchum Gallery which has a mix of high-end furniture and panoramic photos. The furniture is very comfortable (and attractive) but the photos are really stunning. He shoots only panoramics in color (on film) and offers them between 5 and 8 feet wide. You can see lots of the photos on his website but the computer screen doesn't really replicate the experience of seeing a well-lit 8 foot wide print hanging in front of you. There's something to be said about the power of a perfect, large, bright print standing right in front of you. I also found that he has a book called "Seasons of Light" which is one of the nicest printed photo books I've ever seen. His website says it uses a "state of the art publication including UV Spot printing for archival quality preservation of all of your favorite images."
The UV Spot process creates gorgeous glossy prints on matte paper pages which is a really neat effect. The pages are probably 15 - 18 inches wide and make a really nice presentation of most of his work. I was looking at the book for about 10 minutes thinking to myself that if it cost $100 or less I'd buy it in a heartbeat. It's just my luck that it costs $175 so I ended up walking away without a copy. :-)
Perhaps I'll save my pennies and head back there sometime to pick it up. The books really is so well done you could cut the pages out and have have about 90 frame-worthy prints for only a couple bucks a piece. A horrible thing to do to a $175 book, but that's one of the first thoughts that went through my head when I started to thumb through it.
FTC Disclosure: Since the original publishing of this post, Jeff and I have spoken a few times and he's provided me with a copy of the book. I will _not_ be cutting it up!
Since I now have the book and have taken a little more time to look at it, I can add some more detail. Hopefully in a later post...