Jan’s Experiments

Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth which provides panoramic views of streets so the viewers can look around at any place that has been covered. What is the difference between Google Street View and handcrafted virtual panoramic photography as of today? What is stopping Street View to look as today’s best VR panoramas? What are the current and future technology constraints? How will Street View look in 5 years?

I invite you to follow my Mexpedition Diaries photoblog. A regular dose of imagery from Mexico, Belize and Guatemala I created during a trip in 2008. You can find photos as well as spherical 360 panoramas there.

(go to Mexpedition Diaries)

We started in Mexico City and headed north, then through Palenque to Yucatan, then to Belize, Guatemala and back to Mexico City. Here’s the map of the whole Mexpedition Diaries trip.

Here are very nice examples of a aerial panoramic photography I’ve found on the web. (if you cannot see the images you need to install flash). The links below each image lead to the original pano and the authors are also credited in the panos. I might post a guide how to create images like these soon

tip: hold the mouse button in the image and drag your mouse to look around

I’ve discovered panoramic 360 (spherical) photography during the fall of 2008 using the great Czech servers Virtual Travel and Hundred-Spired Prague created by inspiring guys Jaroslav and Tomas from Panoramas.cz.

Since then I’ve been having fun with unusual places and locations where a spherical panorama can be taken. I went to a trip to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala which was a great opportunity for me to find such places. Thanks again Jaroslav to lending me your fisheye lens!

I took a lot of spherical panoramas during the trip, all of them handheld, without using a special equipment like a tripod or panohead. If you are a beginner and want to know how to take a handheld spherical panorama without a tripod, check out my 7 Steps to Creating Your First Handheld Spherical Panorama In a Moving Vehicle. The short article contains some useful links too. I also recommend you to read panoguide.com for some interesting info on panoramic photography.

Now I have my own fisheye lens: Sigma 3.5 8mm, so I can experiment even more. Check out some of the panos I’ve taken so far on not so usual locations and at not so usual speeds:

GWY stands for a Guy with a camera. A GWY is somebody who has an decent camera and thinks they’re a pro but in fact they cannot shoot good photos.

Do I fit the definition? Maybe. But I know this: I love photography. I’m not an expert and I don’t know all the photography tips and tricks and photoshop effects the experts recommend. Nor I have the newest camera and a set of top-quality lenses. However I know I have a mindset and the will to learn everything necessary if I wanted to and if I wanted to spend the time. I also know I could get all the equipment I’d need.

two volcanoes and the boat

I’m actually learning those tricks slowly as I need them time to time and I’m also improving my equipment. I’m priviledged to be influenced by some great photographers I had a chance to meet recently and I’m also grateful to Jeff from 360cities that showed me some nice tricks and also introduced me to the world of HDR.

That said, I usually apply the Pareto principle to my pictures. I don’t spend too much time on them. When I first started using this approach I had a hard time with it. I wanted everything to be perfect, no matter the time spent. That’s a highway to hell, well, at least a highway to not doing other things I want to do. So nowdays I only spend time with really important pictures. 

red and lights on water

This approach brings me a mixture of great elements of life. Fun with much more experimenting than I could do if I was a perfectionist, more lessons to be learned and a warm fuzzy feeling of self-achievement because “I know I can but I don’t”.