Be it New York, Paris or the Victoria Falls in Africa, chances are a company from Russia has made most stunning panorama visuals of them. AirPano developed a unique technology to visually reinterpret sights we’ve seen a million times, but hardly ever in such, well, realistic virtuality. We had a quick talk with Sergey Semenov, the driving force behind AirPano, about his work. Read his answers further below.
The company consists of 12 people, nine photographers and three technicians, specialized in producing 360° arial imagery. In the beginning they used planes and helicopters to get the shots, by now nearly everything’s done with drones. Altogether AirPano’s collection consists of some 230 panoramas of natural monuments, landscapes and cities, allowing anyone to take virtual tours of this world’s most beautiful sights.
Want to see Antarctica? Join AirPano’s interactive Antarctic expedition, accompanied with proper music. The virtual trip takes you to 25 locations, at the click of some buttons. How impressive is that. BTW, check these videos on your mobile device, that’s gyroscopic motion sensors in action…:
The fascinating travel list goes on. 360° fullscreen aerial panoramas and 3D virtual tours around the globe from the comfort of your chair, with high-resolution panoramas, 360° videos, background stories and stunning galleries. Sergey Semenov and the people behind AirPano deserve a a ton of awards for showing the beauty of our planet so easily accessible and in such splendor.
Here’s a link to the top 20 virtual tours, and if you scroll to the bottom of the page you might see some sights and places in the footer that you want to visually rediscover. Here two of my favorites, the best of Iceland and… too difficult to choose, they’re all plain amazing. Head over to AirPano and see for yourself.
Now here’s our short interview with AirPano’s Sergey Semenov.
What’s driving you Sergey, why this technically highly complex and challenging style of photography?
Unlike viewing a traditional photograph limited by its frame, or watching a film that follows its director’s idea, a spherical panorama gives you a freedom of being on location, where you can turn around 360° and have a closer look at every detail.
Your work certainly makes a faraway world look very real.
When viewed on a large screen the panorama technology creates a complete illusion of a personal presence on the spot, it makes you feel as if you are in the sky above New York City, underwater, above the raging waterfall, and even inside a microwave oven. You can take time to move in closer and study interesting objects, or “fly” to a new place by simply moving your hand.
Even if I travel to these places, your amazing technique makes them even more special.
Some people have no possibility to travel, some people travel, but it’s not easy to see all these beautiful places. Our motivation is to show people amazing locations, where they, probably, will never be. Also our motivation is to make unique photos of popular places.
What cameras you use?
We use top models of Nikon, Canon and Sony cameras.
A word about the technique used?
We take photos from helicopters, radio controlled drones, airplanes, dirigibles, hot air balloons. Also we use Nodal Ninja panorama heads and poles.
Thank you for your time, Sergey.