Photographs are a great way for travelers to record the places they have visited and the people they have met as an aid to memory in the future and to show family and friends where they have been and who they met.
You carefully compose the image, check the exposure and focus on your subject, but do the images provide a complete picture, your location in the landscape and what is going on around you?
360° Panoramas provide an additional dimension.
Whilst visiting National parks in the USA I made some 360° Panoramas in addition to taking “normal” photographs.
In order to “travel light” I decided to experiment with a duel lens single shot camera [Samsung Gear 360] instead of taking my usual kit [FX DSLR, Fisheye lens, NN R1 and Tripod], but the downside is that the camera is totally automatic as is the stitching of the two hemispherical images so the user is not in control of the taking and processing of the panoramas, but does have a little influence with post processing.
Another disadvantage is that the photographer cannot “hide” behind the camera as each shot is taken so I held the camera at arms length above my head holding the mini tripod that comes with the camera.
In retrospect, it would have been better to lift the camera on a pole to enable a smaller Nadir Cap and a circular bubble to ensure that the camera was level for the exposures.
Please click the images below to view the interactive 360° panoramas…