On my recent trip to Bremen, I had a chance to meet with Willy Kaemena, a Bremen local who has travelled the world. He brings us an interesting perspective on travel – he takes those amazing 360 degree photos, or panoramas. Fun, eh? If you think Google Street is cool, wait until you see this!
Read on to hear about Willy’s story…(and be sure to move your mouse around on the pictures below….they’re not static! RSS Readers, you will have to click through to the post in order to see the images.)
You’ve lived all over the world, from Brazil to Germany and more. Want to give us a bit of an overview about where you’ve been and why you are so well travelled?
During my professional life as an construction site manager, I had the chance to work and live in many countries. Among others in Brazil, Argentina, Iran, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Syria, Dominican Republic, Malaysia, to name a few. One of the advantages was to stay and work in these years for a longer period of time which was something from about 1 to 4 years. That gave a god chance to learn these countries not only from their touristic point of view but also to get in contact with the population and the everyday politic of these countries.
Here are a couple of panoramas from these locations:
Is there someplace you’ve lived that was really inspirational and that you’d highly recommend travellers pay a visit?
One of a very interesting and recommendable countries which I really loved was Syria. It is not well known on the touristic trails due to it’s political insulation obstructed by the USA. I found it a remarkable country with a rich history, friendly people, and a country where the tourists can feel quite safe. What you will notice immediately is the relieving absence of the “typical” brands known all the world over, which are mostly US based institutions that are normally decorating the streets of most metropolises.
What would you say to tourists who don’t such good language skills such as yours? Can a few key phrasewords go a long way?
English is the means of communication in almost all countries of the world, or at least in the tourist sector like hotels and such alike. But it can make a big difference if you could learn and use some keywords of the local language beforehand. This comes very handy if you try to deal with the locals and it can be a real door opener because your intention will be highly appreciated by locals.
But the very best is of course if you could peak the language of the country visited, but this might continue to be a dream…
Your ’360 degree’ photos are a lot of fun – can you give us a bit of insight on how you take them? How did you get started in doing these?
The making of 360 degrees interactive panoramas is my obsession, For me it is the ultimate photography as you capture the whole surrounding. There is nothing like “framing” or looking for the best view. You always get it all and as such it put the observer later right into the spot where the panorama was taken and let him feel to be right there again. I started with this kind of interactive photos way back in 1997 when with Quicktime VR the technology was available to show this on a computer and internet. Nowadays the high quality digital SLR cameras paired with specialised software makes it possible to produce very high quality panoramas in high resolution. The easiest way to take the pictures for these panoramas is to use a fisheye lens which can cover a field of view of 180 degrees, with these the required number of photos can be as low as 4 covering the whole 360 degrees around as well 90 degrees up and down.
What’s your favourite ’360 degree’ photo you’ve taken, and why?
Since I began making high quality panoramas with a SLR camera, which was back in 2004, I produced more than 2500 interactive panoramas and it is hard to say what is my favourite one. But one of my favourites is a panorama made in Munich showing the Olympic Park of the 1972 Olympics which puzzled a lot of people, as it was not obvious how the photos for this panorama were taken.
Wow, Willy, those are really cool! I have to admit, I’m still at a loss to exactly how you do it, especially the Munich one. But I think I’ll stay that way – I like the feeling of ‘magic’ that they have. Thanks as well for the travel tip – sounds like a great off-beat destination.
To see more of Willy’s pictures, check out his profile on 360cities.net.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Willy is a very special person.
A talented one, a nice guy, a funny guy too, and his way of deal with different cultures is very very nice. I’m from Brazil and I had the chance to meet him in person and to spend Christmas and a new Years Eve with him shooting together.
He’s 10 !!!
sincerely
AYRTON