360Cities – Panoramic Photography Blog

We invite you to take a virtual tour of Tikal. To start a tour, click on one of the blue pins on the map below.

Imagine your are in Guatemala and that you are just visiting Tikal, the ruins of one of the largest cities the great Maya civilization has ever built. The site so extraordinary that it was chosen by George Lucas as one of the filming locations for Yavin 4 in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. There are literally thousands of buildings everywhere around you in the jungle, still waiting to be discovered. You can feel the energy in the air, the breeze of the wind in the trees is almost like shamans whispering ancient secrets to everybody who is willing to listen.

Start your tour at Acopolis del Norte, in front of Gran Plaza in Tikal. There is a hundred of structure just on this single plaza. The most magnificient Templo I (The Temple of Grand Jaguar) can be seen on the left side of the plaza and Templo II (The Temple of Masks) to the right. Feel free to climb on the Templo II, it guarantees a satisfying view of the plaza and of the Templo I.

Screenshot of the Tikal virtual tour

Just about 10 minutes of walk from here you will find the 58 meters (190 foot) high Templo V. If you dare to climb the steep stairs it will reward you with an amazing view of the surrounding jungle. For those not so brave, you can take a look at the shelter next to the temple, which has pictures of how the temple looked when it was found by the archaeologists for the first time.

From here you can either go to take a walk to a nearby ceiba tree, the national tree of Guatemala, or go to the Templo IV in the west, which offers another breathtaking view of the Gran Plaza. Now, without further do, enter the virtual tour yourself by clicking on one of the blue pins:

(Click to open the tour in a new window)

We have reduced the price of the 2010 wall calendar by $10.

Browse 12 amazing panoramic images, each 17″ x 11″ (43×28 cm), contributed by 360 Cities members Dimitar Torbov, Markus Matern, Bernhard Ehrminger, Ramin Dehdashti, Paul Miller, Neil Parris, Patrick Grube, Yunzen Liu, Heiner Straesser, Nikos Giannakopoulos, Lee Evans and Stefan Geens.

Specs:
Each page measures 17″ x 11″ (43cm x 28cm)
Measures 17″ x 22″ (43cm x 56cm) when hung on wall
Full bleed dynamic color
100 lb cover weight high gloss paper, wire-o bound

Buy it now for $19.99 (US)

Did you know it is possible to embed thousands of high-resolution panoramic 360 photos, directly on your own website or blog? If you have ever put a Youtube clip into a blog, then you know how to publish an interactive panorama in your blog.

Make your website beautiful with more than free photography – immersive 360 panoramic photos will “wow” your viewers. Show the best parts of your city, or the most exotic locations where you’ve never been – it’s up to you.

Take a look at how it will look like, and feel free to play with it:

Winter Dream Sunset on Krvavec in Slovenia

On most of our panoramas you will see a tab in the top left corner of the image which says “embed & share”. Click on it and follow the instructions.

For a step-by-step guide how to embed a panorama, visit our Help Center.

Stéphane Meurisse just published this fantastic panorama from the top of Mont Valier. Wow!

Sommet du Mont Valier – 2838 m – Ariège Pyrénées in France

People who follow Google Earth closely (as we do at 360 Cities) know from the Google Earth Blog about Frank Taylor, who has recently sold all of his land-based pnodaossessions, bought a sailboat, acquired some fantastic devices, gotten some partners, and set sail on a five-year sailing trip all over the world. The boat is called Tahina, and the journey is called the Tahina Expedition.

I first was introduced to Frank by Mano Marks – when I heard about Frank’s planned journey I was very excited to convince him to take some 360 panoramic photgraphy gear with him. (Luckily Frank didn’t need much convincing, as he’d already made some qtvr’s back in the days of Apple’s quicktime vr development studio.)

Later on I had the chance to meet Frank in person at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 Conference last year (I gave a talk and Frank had a workshop about Google Earth). Since then I’ve been able to help Frank get up to speed in the basics of panoramic photo creation. Prior to his departure, Frank made a partnership with both Nodal Ninja and PTGui; along with his camera and fisheye lens, he has everything he needs to make beautiful panoramas. All that’s left to do is practice, practice, practice

Frank’s first panoramas are really quite good – he obviously already knows how to take a proper photograph, which is of course very helpful. Shooting 360 panoramas requires some slightly different techniques, but a solid grounding in knowing how to expose a photo correctly by changing the f stop (aperture) and shutter speed. Shooting a full spherical image, including the nadir (the “straight down” part, where the tripod should be) also requires a few tricks to achieve perfection. Again, Frank is doing pretty well.

Here is the latest panorama from the Tahina Expedition – taken from the boat itself – this is one of the most challenging places to shoot a panorama – because the boat is rocking back and forth, and the horizon is constantly moving, it’s very tricky to get something perfect. Frank’s attempt isn’t perfect, but it’s very good!

The Pitons, St Lucia from Tahina in Caribbean

All of us at 360 Cities are looking forward to Frank’s odyssey over the coming years. It will be really interesting to see the world through this unique journey.

Jonas Nosalis published a panoramic image of New Year’s in Vilnius, Lithuania.

White Bridge in Vilnius, New Year in Vilnius

Happy 2010 Everybody!