The Making of Paris 360°

While in Prague, I got in touch with a very close friend, Carmela Borgers, whose husband, Alain Borgers, was the General Manager of Shangri-la Hotel Paris. Since it was their last year in Paris before her husband gets re-assigned to another Shangri-la Hotel property, I asked if I could visit her and also shoot the view from one of the hotel’s suites. She gladly welcomed me over and confirmed that the suites were available, that is, they weren’t booked and I could shoot from one of them. From Prague, I made a detour to Paris.

Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel PhotographyThe building of Shangri-la Hotel used to be the residence of Napoleon Bonaparte’s grandnephew, Prince Roland Bonaparte. Many parts of the hotel were fully restored to its old stylish elegance. I was suppose to head up to the suites at 4pm but I met Carmela first in the hotel’s lobby lounge a couple of hours earlier for some tea, to chat and catch up with each other. During this time, Carmela checked with the hotel staff and made sure that everything for the shoot was a go. The Assistant Front Office Manager, Hubert Savouré, came back with some bad news: at the last minute, all the suites got booked. What a bummer! I’ll miss my one and only chance to shoot from a unique view.

Fortunately, the Resident Manager, Matthias Terrettaz, provided me with an alternative – the roof of the hotel. Are you kidding? The suites being unavailable at the last minute actually turned out to be a blessing! I ended up shooting from a much better vantage point than what I originally came for! Furthermore, Shangri-la Hotel Paris doesn’t give access to their roof to anyone not even the public. WOW!!! I got even more excited for the shoot!

Accompanied by Messrs. Terrettaz and Savouré, we headed up to the roof. Carmela was able to go up as well and see the view for the very first time.

I was blown away by the spectacular, breath-taking view: not only do you get a full unobstructed 360° view of Paris and the River Seine, but you can also see the entire base and 3-legs of the Eiffel Tower (a very rare view). Next to the Shangri-la Hotel was the residence of Gustave Eiffel. According to history, Gustave stipulated, as part of his contract to construct the tower, that he has an unobstructed view of the Tower from his residence. To this day, the city of Paris continues to honor the contract. And because Shangri-la Hotel sits right next to Eiffel’s residence, it also enjoys an unobstructed view of the Tower.

Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography
Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography

After admiring the view for a few minutes, I set up my camera and my GigaPan EPIC 100 and captured a full 360° view of Paris. It was a very cold and cloudy day but was still a spectacular view. I’m glad I made the trip to Paris for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The final image turned out to be an 11,191 megapixel image (278,117 x 42,838 pixels) composed of 1,638 individual photos stitched together.

I was able to capture a smaller gigapixel image at night.

 

A very special thank you to Shangri-la Hotel Paris for the roof access, in particular to Alain Borgers, Carmela Borgers, Matthias Terrettaz, Hubert Savouré.

Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography

Prague 2013

I’ve always been intrigued and fascinated by Prague in the Czech Republic. Because it is the epitome of classic, elegant Europe, it has always been the #1 place for me to visit in Europe. After my tour of Germany, I spent 4 days in Prague and soaked in its rich culture, architecture and history – from the Romanesque period, flourishing by the Gothic and Renaissance eras and most of all, it was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire.

Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography
Mánes Bridge and Prague Castle
Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography
Capturing a gigapixel image of the Charles Bridge
Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography
on the Charles Bridge
Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography
A local bakeshop

 

Here are the gigapixel images I captured in Prague:

Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography

Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography

Clauss Reseller’s Meeting

Being the exclusive distributor of Clauss Image and Data Technology GmbH in North America, I was invited to a reseller’s meeting planned for the last week of March at the company headquarters in Zwönitz, Germany.

Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography
Morning in Zwönitz, Germany

It was a very very long trip from Vancouver to Zwonitz: a 10 hr flight to Frankfurt with a 1 hr connecting flight to Dresden, and finally a 2 hr train ride from Dresden to Zwönitz. Zwönitz is a small remote town in the district Erzgebirgskreis, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany.

It was great to finally meet the people behind the company and put a face behind the respective names and email addresses. Susanne Clauss, Product Market Manager, was our main host. We had orientations on the whole product line: turntables, panoramic heads and surveying technologies. We toured the factory and saw the attention to detail, the high quality and precision involved in the manufacturing process of each Rodeon device (authentic German-engineering). Clauss does not make any compromise in the quality of their products, that is, each part is carefully manufactured with extreme precision using aluminum or steel materials (no plastic parts), and each component is manually tested and calibrated.

Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography
Clauss Rodeon VR
Susanne Clauss, Product Marketing Manager
Clauss Rodeon VR
Roland Clauss, Software Development & Support

 

After the 3 day meeting, Susanne and Michelle (Reuther) took us on a day tour to nearby Dresden. Then from Dresden, I headed to Berlin by train to spend 2 days touring the city as well. I was able to capture an 837-megapixel photo of the Reichstag Building (below).

Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography
at the Zwinger (Dresden, Germany)
Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography
at the Semper Opera House (Dresden, Germany)
Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography
at the Reichstag Building (Berlin, Germany)
Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography
at the Berlin Wall East Side Gallery (Berlin, Germany)

Ronnie Miranda Gigapixel Photography