I’ve been wanting to create a full 360° gigapixel panorama of Vancouver for a very long time now. It hasn’t been done before. I also wanted to shoot it from one of the tall buildings in the downtown core.

On November 9, 2012, with clear blue skies, I was able to execute this project from the roof of Shaw Tower in Coal Harbour.

The image was created in 4 sections – a panorama set was captured from each of the 4 corners. These 4 sections were then merged together to create the full 360° view. The 5,396 megapixel image is made up of 676 photos. However, because the glass panels of the building were in the way, not much of the view looking down towards the city was captured.

Special thanks to Hweely Lim, Stanley Chan, Jason Harmston, and Chris Chan of Westbank.

I was looking for someone who could shoot some behind-the-scenes photos for my Helijet Gigapixel Experiment. I came across Ashley’s website and found out that she has done something similar previously.

She expressed her interest not only in capturing photos of my project but also displayed genuine enthusiasm to venture into gigapixel photography technology.

Ashley is a remarkable person! She’s smart, responsible and a professional.

After some discussions, some orientation and seeing that she was sincere in pursuing and engaging in the technology, I decided to mentor her and take her in as an associate. We are both excited to be working together in creating many amazing gigapixel images.

RELATED POST : New Opportunities and another HeliJet Adventure

Continuing with more tests in an attempt to create a gigapixel photo from the air, I chartered another Helijet flight on October 25, 2012. For this attempt, I mounted the Clauss RODEON VR Station (now called the RODEON piXpert) robotic panohead inside the helicopter and had the doors removed.

Because the German-made Clauss RODEON VR is one of the fastest panoheads available, I was hoping to shoot a gigapixel photo under 3 mins. And by using a fast shutter speed along with the fast rotation of the RODEON VR, I’d be able to compensate for the stabilization and vibration issues of the helicopter.

Photos by Ashley Drody

Unfortunately, we didn’t anticipate the wind factor. The wind was pushing us around giving Capt. Dudley Jacobsen (in the photos above) a difficult time trying to maintain a steady hover. In my attempt to resolve the stabilization issues, I over-compensated and set the Clauss Rodeon to shoot too fast. These 2 factors caused missing frames in the panorama.

Another attempt will be made in the coming weeks weather permitting. I have to recompute the rotational speed based on the lens and camera exposure settings.

Thanks to Capt. Dudley Jacobsen and Helijet for their invaluable help and assistance for this project. Special thanks to Ashley Drody for the behind-the-scenes photos.