GigaPan via PhotoSynth: A Walk in the Gorge

Wahkeena Creek
See this Photosynth on Bing Maps

This image was one of the most precarious GigaPan placements I've made yet, in the middle of the stream near splashing cascades on a moss and fern covered stump.


Differing from most of the waterfall streams in the Columbia River Gorge in that it drains from a natural spring on the rim of the Gorge, Wahkeena Creek tumbles over a steep incline on its way to the spectacular Wahkeena Falls near the bottom of the Gorge. It is also spelled "Wahkeenah" or "Wah-kee-nah" or other variations. All spellings of this word are dubious, because the word is merely an English transliteration of a Pacific Northwest Native American (reportedly Yakama) phrase meaning "most beautiful". Wahkeena Creek is along the Historic Columbia River Highway, about 13 miles (21 km) east of Troutdale, Oregon. A short hike uphill from the parking lot at the base leads to the stone bridge that crosses the main part of the falls. That trail continues on east to Multnomah Falls, the next falls down the road.

BBC Brings Viewers Onto The Set of Ideal Via yellowBird 360 Video

Over in the UK, BBC Three, who pride themselves on never being afraid to try new stuff, has opened up the set of Ideal to the 360 degree video cameras of yellowBird. 

Now in its sixth season (or series), Ideal is a sitcom about a small-time dope dealer and his strange collection of acquaintances who drop by to buy cannabis and chat or both.  The title is a pun, in case you missed it, as in "I deal". 

Through the yellowBird video, fans of the show are transported into the middle of the conversation in Moz's, the lead character, living room.  As the actors banter their lines back and forth, the viewer can choose to follow the conversation or watch the reaction of the others in the room.  It appears that this video was shot during a dress rehearsal and provided as a featured blog post at the BBC Three website.  The show's crew can be seen throughout the video, and, thus, the "fourth wall" is broken beautifully which makes this intimate offering all the more endearing to fans of the show.

It is an excellent example of how engaging 360 video content can be when there is actual production value involved.  It is also representative of the advancing quality that yellowBird's production platform is getting out of its Ladybug 2 cameras from Point Grey Research.  The varying lighting conditions of the set are well handled and the resolution being delivered in the quickly loading Flash player from yellowBird is better than anything seen before in this new medium.

Today, yellowBird stands virtually alone in the production of quality spherical video content.  With this summer's implosion of Immersive Media, the company that first brought spherical video to the web and recently decided to transform itself from a digital media company to an energy industry investment firm (WTF?), yellowBird is brilliantly positioned to expand its service base across a huge variety of industries.  Hopefully, they will learn the lessons from Immersive Media's ambitious failures and continue to keep their focus on producing quality content, only entering a market once they have built a solid offering.

It seems as if they will continue to do exactly that.  Another yellowBird project recently launched with in-video navigation to provide viewers with a virtual tour of a medical facility.  It's not in English, but you can take the tour and see it all at this link. 

There will be much more background on the implosion/conversion/sabotage of Immersive Media to come here on the 360 Video Blog as information becomes available, but today is all about congratulations to yellowBird for another job, very well done.  Check out their company website at their famously long URL:
http://www.yellowbirdsdonthavewingsbuttheyflytomakeyouexperiencea3dreality.com/
or just enjoy yellowBird's fantastic Showreel below