I wanted to highlight a pretty cool application for experiencing photos called Deep Zoom Pix .  This is an experiment done by some Microsoft developers and designers that shows off capabilities of Silverlight Deep Zoom technology as well as the Windows Azure Services Platform.

The thing I really like about Deep Zoom Pix is, if you have tagged your photos with EXIF metadata, the service will create a tag cloud for you out of your photos, allowing a filtering based on tags.  You can also add tagged information to your photos through the Deep Zoom Pix interface. 

Below is an example that I made with Deep Zoom Pix based on a series of drawings scanned in that were done by a 4 year old. I like how the Deep Zoom capability allows someone to really see the texture of the crayons.  And, if you go full screen with the application by clicking the arrow in the upper right corner, you will see the tag cloud, in which you can filter the photos, in this case based on the animals in the photo. For example, click on deer in the tag cloud view.

The other nifty thing about Deep Zoom Pix is that all of the storage and bandwidth for the experience is provided through Windows Azure Services.  And, embedding/sharing the experience is made easy.

To learn more about Deep Zoom Pix, check out their FAQ. And, if you are a developer or designer that wants to build your own version that uses this kind of technology,check this page out.

BTW,congrats on the Silverlight and Expression teams on shipping Silverlight and Expression 3!