The Taj Mahal holds one of the most important places in the list of "The New 7 Wonders of the World".
Despite its Muslim origin, this white marble Necropolis has actually become a symbol of India. Serious safety measures are taken in order to preserve it. The 500 meters area around the complex is equipped to serve as a special protection zone.
Cars have to park 2 kilometers away from the entrance so the tourists can get there with rickshaws, carts or electric vehicles, as it is believed that the exhaust gases can make the marble cladding go yellow. Even on the other side of the river Yamuna, on the banks of which it is located, the area is protected with a barbed wire fence.
Security guards' numbers are in their hundreds.
In 1997, the famous Frenchman Bertrand took a picture of the Taj Mahal from a helicopter. For 15 years after that there was no permission granted to shoot the monument from above. But AirPano has managed to achieve the impossible: we have received this permission, and at this moment our photographers Dmitry Moiseenko and Stanislav Sedov are on their way back to Moscow with the footage. A virtual tour of the photo-shoot will appear on the website in May.
On June 17, the results of the 24th Shanghai International Film Festival 2021 were announced. We are proud to inform that our film "Kizhi. The wooden wonder of Russia" became the winner in the VR category. The Shanghai Film Festival is the largest in China. Although we couldn't go to China, our representative Jasmine Li received a winner certificate on our behalf.
Especially for the festival, we voiced the film in Chinese, but here you can see the English version.
The third AirPano German-language book, Europabilder, has finally been published! This is a unique catalogue of the bird's eye views of the most remarkable landscapes and sights of Europe presented in excellent quality. The book contains 200 pages with 100 illustrations, backstage stories and interesting facts. This fabulous deluxe edition is available on Geo and Amazon websites.
The previous AirPano German-language books are Weltbilder and Neue Weltbilder.
9 years in a row AirPano has won in the main categories of The EPSON International Pano Awards. This year our photographers make the Top 20 list in the 360° category of the best panoramas of the year and Oleg Gaponyuk has become the VR photographer of the year and won the first place for his underwater split-panorama from Palau archipelago.
It is worth noting that Oleg had to spent more than two months in Palau due to the world lockdown. But this made it possible to take a close look for the underwater world of the amazing archipelago.
1. Oleg Gaponyuk — Split in the Cave, Chandelier Cave, Palau
5. Oleg Gaponyuk — Inside a Coral Cave, Komodo Islands, Indonesia
7. Ádám Plézer — In the Middle of Pacific Ocean. Caroline Atoll. Kiribati
11. Sergey Rumyantsev — Winter on the Top of Kuntivaara, Finland
16. Ivan Roslyakov — Hidden Side of Annapurna Sanctuary, Himalayas, Nepal, Grand Barrier
18. Stas Sedov — The Biggest Wooden Church in the World, Kizhi UNESCO Heritage Site.
Here is a good example of using 360° panoramas made by AirPano: the “Supernatural” VR game for Oculus Quest. This is a fitness application, where you do sports in the most beautiful places on the planet and with unusual interactivity. A trailer and more information can be viewed on the Oculus website.
Sergey Semenov took a third place in the "Japan: a country where everything is different" photo contest. he contest was organized by the Moscow office of the Japanese National Tourism Organization and took place on the official website of the National Geographic Russia.
"A spontaneous trip to the area of Khibara turned out to be an unexpected success. While the maple leaves were turning red in Tokyo, the first snow fell there. After a long night trip, nature gave us a great gift — a delightful frosty sunrise and a soaring lake," — this is how photographer Sergey Semenov describes his shot.
Oleg Gaponyuk took a second place in the Wide Angle nomination at a very prestigious international underwater photography contest «Underwater Photographer of the Year» — UPY 2020.
Judge's comment: "One of my favourites from the entire competition. The idea of a panoramic frame to present this image is very forward thinking. The even spread of light from all four corners, top to bottom is superb. The lighting in particular, very subtle indeed. Last but not least, the outline of a diver and torch way behind in the blue water background. All of these elements together create huge depth perspective throughout. I find this particular image nothing short of magnificent!" — Martin Edge
The winners of the The International Landscape Photographer of the Year 2019 contest were announced yesterday. Sergey Semenov’s photo “Northern Lights on Barents Sea” has become one of the 100 best landscapes of 2019!
For eight consecutive years we have won in the main categories of The Epson International Pano Awards. This year three of our works make the Top 20 list in the VR nomination of the best panoramas of the year: Stanislav Sedov and his panorama of Hong Kong, Oleg Gaponyuk with a split panorama of a whale shark, Dmitry Moiseenko — 360° photo of a bald cypress swamp in Louisiana. And the photo taken in Northern Ireland by Sergey Semenov — “Giants Have Gone” — is in the Top 50 list of the Open Awards nomination - Nature / Landscape, and also received a special prize!
2019 has been declared the year of Theatre in Russia, so TASS News Agency has launched a special project "Theatre Day. Virtual 360-tour to four Russian theatres". We are glad to participate in this project and introduce the first virtual tour to Russian State Academic Drama Theatre named after Fyodor Volkov in Yaroslavl. It is the place where Russian professional theatre was born in 1750. We managed not only to visit Russia's oldest theatre but also capture the teamwork: see all behind-the-scene things and dressing rooms, visit rehearsals, witnessed the stage scenery installation and, of course, enjoy the excellent performance of "The Seagull"!
Filming this kind of projects requires specific equipment and facilities, so we needed to have several shooting spots and an extra camera, for which we want to thank our partners Insta360. Insta360 Pro2 cameras have proved to be reliable in both theatrical performances and the cold at the altitude of 3,500 meters... But that's a story about our different project that we will uncover soon!
For more details go to the TASS website (and watch a 360° video).
#insta360, #insta360pro2, #insta360russia
The second part of the special project “Theater Day” has been published on the TASS news agency website. This time a 360° virtual tour we have been working on is dedicated to the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and the process of making the play “Blessed Ksenia. Love story". Fascinating bird's-eye views of St. Petersburg, rehearsals, preparing the stage and the auditorium before the performance, dressing rooms and much more - all behind-the-scene things that you are curious to know and see with your own eyes, are now available in a virtual format. Come and enjoy!
We were filiming from several points from different cameras. Special thanks to our reliable partners from www.Insta360.ru for the camera.
#insta360, #insta360pro2, #insta360russia
Laval Virtual Asia 2019 – an Exhibition and Conference on VR&AR and Immersive Techniques took place in Qingdao, China from June 27th to 29th. This year 3000 visitors, 180 exhibitors and 150 speakers attended the conference. AirPano was represented by Sergey Semenov and our Chinese partner Jasmine Lee from JSMVR.
On March, 27, the Pico Interactive company released their new virtual reality glasses — Pico G2 4K. The company used our high-quality content to demonstrate the capabilities of its latest development.
Victoria Falls, The Pearl of Africa Video by AirPano took the first place in Forbes List of 15 Top VR Videos of 2018.
Our cooperation with Insta360 company continues. During our October trip to China we've received the Insta Pro 2, InstaOne X, the FarSight transmitter kit and the StateFlow stabilization system.
The updated Insta Pro 2 model will help us shoot 360° stereo videos in 8K resolution, and 360° mono videos in 8K with 60 fps. Insta One X is the most compact option for shooting 360° videos in 5,7K resolution and that gives us the possibility to work in the most difficult and extreme conditions, where it is better not to risk losing or damaging professional equipment.
By using the FarSight set we will be able to see on-line what the camera is capturing, even when it is on the drone up in the sky. The StateFlow stabilization system will help us get smooth pictures even when the drone makes fast maneuvers, or when there is strong wind.
The winners of the most prestigious panoramic photo contest Epson International Pano Awards have been announced. Oleg Gaponyuk took first place in the VR/360 nomination with his split panorama of Jellyfish Bay. Oleg is the winner of the VR category for the third year in a row! Sergey Rumyantsev took the fifth place with his panorama of the Baikal Lake. Apart from that, 4 panoramas by Oleg and 1 panorama by Ivan Roslyakov are in the Top-20. AirPano has been winning in this contest since 2013.
1st place. Jellyfish Bay. Split panorama (Raja Ampat, Indonesia) — Oleg Gaponyuk
5th place. Milky Way above Baikal Lake (Russia) — Sergey Rumyantsev
12th place. Milky Way above Himalayas (Nepal) — Ivan Roslyakov
14th place. Southern Maldives from above (Mahaddhoo Island, Maldives) — Oleg Gaponyuk
15th place. Jellyfish Bay (Raja Ampat, Indonesia) — Oleg Gaponyuk
18th place. Manta Rays. Underwater panorama (Maldives) — Oleg Gaponyuk
We've received National Geographic Traveler with our photo inside. The photo of the Great Wall of China made by Dmitry Moiseenko for AirPano.
Astronauts see the Earth as glorious blue ball. But you don't need to fly to the Space to see the beauty of our planet. Just watch our video, where we have combined the best "planets" of Russia. There will be a following of the most interesting planet views of the world.
Together with Pico company, we participate in the «China International Film & TV Programs Exhibition», where «Pico Interactive» uses AirPano content to demonstrate their VR helmets. The annual CIFTPE is a major event for film/TV program transactions in Asia, attracting global production & distribution companies as well as broadcasters. This year marks the 15th anniversary of CIFTPE with a theme of "New Era, New Accomplishments, New Chapter" showcasing how Chinese media has entered a new era.
Today our video was featured at the Cannes Festival! A 37-minute movie called «Journey around the World» about the most amazing attractions of nature (including the Arctic and Antarctica, America and Asia) was presented in a special VR section.
AirPano photos have been published in the National Geographic Traveler Russia. Below you can see panoramas of Dubai, New York and Barcelona, printed on the double pages.
The most prestigious panoramic photo contest “Epson International Pano Awards” can finally announce its winners. Oleg Gaponyuk took the first place in the VR/360 nomination with his underwater panorama, taken in Cuba. He also got the second place. He repeated his success in 2016, when he won in the same contest. The third place goes to Stanislav Sedov with his panorama of the Angel Waterfalls in Venezuela. You can find 6 works by AirPano in the Top-10. AirPano has been winning in this contest since 2013.
LG uses AirPano ultra high resolution panoramas to demonstrate high quality of LG screens. On the photo: panoramas of Raja Ampat archipelago in Indonesia with 124 and 292 megapixels resolution on CES exhibition in Las Vegas.
This year we have published our second book on German: Neue Weltbilder. The book includes new stories of our shooting and more beautiful photos around the World. The book is quite popular: on Amazon.de it became the Best Seller.
You can check our first book on German here.
GEO France has released the second issue of the GEO Collection magazine, completely dedicated to the works of AirPano! Look for them at news-stands of France! Besides the print edition, new apps with virtual tours in 360° format have appeared in the AppStore and Google Play Store.
Rose Calendars has released interactive calendars with our panoramas. There is new panorama for every month, with QR code to this panorama in 360° format. These calendars won Gold at the World Calendar Awards in the USA, the Trophy for Communicative Products at the Promotional Gift Awards held in Europe and Best Innovative Corporate Calendar at the NCA Awards in London.
AirPano took part in the celebration of the Yaroslavl city day. On May 27 one of the local malls presented a 9x2 meters stand. The visitors of the mall composed our panorama with their photos that was demonstrated on this stand “I am Yaroslavl!”
Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation has published our 360° video of the preparation of Victory Parade in Moscow.
We express our gratitude to the Department of information and mass communication of Ministry of Defenсe of the Russian Federation for the opportunity to film the preparations for the Victory Parade 2017.
The 1st of March was a remarkable day — during this day our web-site received 2,73 million visitors and it was for the first time in the history of AirPano. Seven million people visited our site since February 26 till March 7!
Our panoramas of Egypt are shown in binoculars by Polden Studio at the 24th Moscow International Travel & Tourism Exhibition. It takes place on Expocentre Fairgrounds, Moscow from 14 till 16 March 2017.
There is an exhibition called "Primordial Russia" with AirPano photos that is taking place in the Central House of Artists, Moscow from 20th January till the 11th of March. "Primordial Russia" is one of the biggest and interesting photo-festivals in Russia. It started 2014 and became an annual event and each time attracting more and more connoisseurs of Russian nature. During the first month unique photos made by nature photographers are demonstrated in Moscow, then the exhibition moves to other cities and countries.
From 2 till 5 February Moscow held an exhibition called "Moscow Dive Show 2017". Some of the best underwater photos of the founder of AirPano project Oleg Gaponyuk and our friend Maxim Guzovsky has been presented on this exciting event.
AirPano's Chinese representatives — the UtoVR company — are taking part in the NAB Show Shanghai 2016 (December 7-9). On UtoVR's stand you can see our best videos and learn about the specialties of filming 360°.
A new edition of GEO France Collection appeared yesterday at the news-stands of France. This issue is dedicated to the filming of 360° content and completely consists of AirPano photos! The magazine also released the new app in French language which you can use to watch our best photo panoramas from around the globe on your iPhones and iPads.
Our 360° videos are in the Top-10 of the most popular videos in this field on Facebook. National Geographic published our videos of Victoria Falls, Bears and Volcano of Kamchatka, and each of them reached more than 7 millions views. You can see the Top-10 on Business Insider and AdWeek.
The final jury meeting of the Russian Geographical Society photo contest “The most beautiful country” took place on September 21. Sergey Semyonov was a member of the jury. Sergey Shoygu, Sergey Gorshkov, Konstantin Ernst, Oleg Tabakov, Elena Gagarina, Dashi Namdakov, Timur Bekmambetov, Ivan Kislov and Dmitry Vinogradov evaluated the works with him. 110 000 photos of Russia were presented to the contest. Winners in 12 nominations were selected and one more “Public chosen winner” nomination is put to the vote on the web-site of the contest. The winners will be awarded on September 24. The video report can be found on the First Channel web-site.
Hurray! We have just found out that two of our photos won second place in the AdMe Photo Awards 2016. The jury liked the photo “Westerdok” by Stas Sedov in the “Travel happiness” category and the photo “How the ferries are seen off” by Oleg Gaponuyk in the “Our smaller brothers” nomination.
At the present Stas Sedov having been invited by the China State agency for tourism is overseeing the beauties of the Gansu province of the country. The Silk Road festival is taking place there. Gansu is one of the most gorgeous provinces in China. The Silk Road goes right through it. The province is famous for the Yueyaquan oasis in the desert, the ancient Jiayuguan Pass of the Great Wall, The Zhangye Danxia colored landforms.
"My Chinese journey continues. Up till now I have seen herds of camels, climbed to the top of a high barchan on top of which I saw a great view. I have also experienced a sand storm that changed into a storm with sand and rain. The Sleeping Buddha in a 45-meter high cave seriously impressed me". Stas Sedov, AirPano drone operator.
The Russian Photo Week started yesterday, on July 7, in Moscow. In the frames of this event an exhibition of the works of winners in 35AWARDS - 100 Best Photos of 2015 is taking place. AirPano is amongst them. The exhibition is held at the Gallery of Classical Photography until 17 July. Come and see it for yourself!
On the 14th of July in the frames of Russian Photo Week AirPano will be giving a workshop at the Gallery of Classical Photography (Moscow) from 2:00 to 3:30 pm. Sergey Semenov is going to speak about VR, 360 technology and drones.
Today the CEO of AirPano Sergey Semenov participated in the opening ceremony of the Russian Geographical Society photo exhibition, which consists of works of the winners and finalists of the "The most beautiful country 2015" contest. Sergey is also the member of the jury for this contest this year. These photos can be found in the Moscow metro at the "Vystavochnaya" station and will be hanging there till August 3.
The Global Arctic Awards exhibition has opened today at the Photo Center on Gogolevsky Boulevard in Moscow. Best photos of the Arctic taken during the last two seasons by 70 photographers from 15 countries are presented there. You can also find AirPano masterpieces at this event.
Our panoramas have been viewed more than 25 million times on Google Maps! Thank you for staying with us.
There is an exhibition called "Primordial Russia" with AirPano photos that is taking place in the Central House of Artists, Moscow from 22th January till the 25th of February. "Primordial Russia" is one of the biggest and interesting photo-festivals in Russia. It started 2014 and became an annual event and each time attracting more and more connoisseurs of Russian nature. During the first month unique photos made by nature photographers are demonstrated in Moscow, then the exhibition moves to other cities and countries. More than 2 million people have visited this festival in 70 counties in the past 2 years.
We have published the book "AirPano. Best photos of the world from above"! It is our first printed book and we keep our fingers crossed that our followers would like it as much as our virtual tours at our web-site.
Language: Russian.
Size: 24x27 cm, 192 pages.
We have gathered our best photos from all most interesting parts of the world. Each of them also has a particular description of the place it illustrates.
This year we have published book "Weltbilder" in Germany. It includes our best photos and storis of shoots. The book is quite popular: on Amazon.de it became the Best Seller #1 in "Picture books around the World" category. "Weltbilder" is available for order here.
The Eastern Economic Forum took place in Vladivostok on 3-5 September. The AirPano Team presented 3 stands with panoramas of Eastern Russia. We were demonstrating our content in a new way: the monitors were surrounding the viewer, so there was a complete illusion of personal presence on the spot.
One of our stands was a combined with eight LG TV-screens instalation, where we were showing panoramas of Sakhalin. For demonstrating Kamchatka panoramas we used a touch panel and combined 3 huge projector screens. Even Hollywood star Steven Seagal was impressed with our works!
GEO calendar with our panoramas is available now! Small calendar includes 365 photos, taken by AirPano photographers. Beginning of every day is an invitation to journey to the most wonderful places around the World.
Also there is available a calendar with 12 our best photos in a big format — 137x60 cm.
Flawless prints, exclusive photos - this is, undoubtedly, the most beautiful calendar, which you can find for 2016 year.
In 2014 AirPano Team again did a great job at the Epson International Pano Awards. We deicded to create a video of our panoramas, which took part in the competition. Now there are more than 1 000 000 views on YouTube!
Our new Photosynth from Indonesian Borobudur Temple was featured by Microsoft!
The results of AdMe Photo Awards 2014 were announced yesterday. AirPano photographers won in two categories! The photo "Central Park" by Sergey Semenov took the first place in "Architecture" category. The photo by Ivan Roslyakov, "With exclusive view on Everest" took the second place in "Epic selfie" category.
In a few days we will publish a virtual tour of Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano eruption taking place right now in Kamchatka. Today we would like to recall once again our shooting of Plosky Tolbachik volcano eruption in 2012 and show the video about our work in Kamchatka, created by "The Weather Channel".
Today the results of National Geographic Russia "Wild Nature of Russia — 2014" competition have been announced. AirPano photographers have won in several categories! The photo "Land of Bears" by Stas Sedov took the first place in "Reserved Russia" category. The photo "Beech forest" by Sergey Semenov took the second place in "Landscape" category. Some other photos by Sergey Semenov, Stas Sedov and Sergey Rumyantsev are being shown at the "Wild Nature of Russia — 2014" exhibition.
Half a year ago we released AirPano Travel Book application. During this time our app was #1 in Travel category in more than 50 countries. Also, the application has been listed amongst the best apps in the AppStore. Today AirPano Travel Book is in the Apple list of the best apps of the year.
We are thankful for everyone, who supported us, downloaded the app and recommended it to friends!
The AirPano Travel Book application is now available on the iPhone! The first version of the app was released in the summer of 2014 and was suitable only for the iPad. Now, owners of iPhones can download this great application too. The AirPano Travel Book is #1 in the Travel category by number of downloads. Also, the application has been listed amongst the best apps in the AppStore. You can download the app here.
Apple have published a short article about AirPano Travel Book application in AppStore Twitter. Let us recall, that earlier we represented iPad application with best spherical photo panoramas, created by our team in recent years. Now AirPano Travel Book is in the list of the best new applications in AppStore.
AirPano took part in CubeArt exhibition in Moscow. The exhibition will feature a unique kind of modern art made by CubeWorksStudio and panoramas made by AirPano. Exhibition will be in the Center of Design "ArtPlay" from 30th May till 30th July.
Photographers of AirPano project teach to make a beautiful photo, shoot panoramas, landscapes, city scenes and portraits. There are also video tutorials about usage tripod, photo filters, flash, about necessary photo accessories and about shooting in difficult weather conditions. Sergey Semenov, Sergey Rumyantsev and Dmitry Moiseenko give useful tips on shooting and demonstrate their use. Video tutorials are available on Russian here.
Recently AirPano begins cooperation with TV channel "My Planet". Worth noting, that "My Planet" is the main Russian educational channel about travel, science and history. Now you can see our virtual tours and read our articles on Russian on their website.
Exhibition of photocontest "Golden Turtle" moved from St.Petersburg to Moscow. This year 3 photos by Dmitry Moiseenko and 1 photo by Mike Reyfman became winners and finalists of the contest. Exhibition presents 200 of the best photos of participants from 77 countries, including photos by AirPano project. Festival of Wild Nature "Golden Turtle" will be in the Central House of Artists from 28th June till 20th July.
AirPano Project presents to your attention iPad application AirPano Travel Book. It contains the best spherical photo panoramas, created by our team in recent years. You can get more information about AirPano Travel Book here.
There will be the 8th "Long Night of Museums" in Moscow on saturday, 17th May. Panoramas of AirPano project will be broadcast on the wall of Center of Design "Artplay" from 11 p.m.
On Saturday, 8th February, AirPano team held a master class "Spherical panoramas. Foundation of shooting, stitching and retouching". Dmitry Moiseenko and Ivan Roslyakov told about the basics of shooting spherical panoramas and panoramas preparation for the demonstration. There is a video of this master class in Russian, on YouTube.
On 28th Februaty was a ceremony of announcement of results of the 8th photocontest "Golden Turtle". Photo "Awakening of the volcano", which was taken by Dmitry Moiseenko for AirPano project, is one of the laureates in the category "Landscape". We also congratulate Dmitry Moiseenko on the fact that another his photo "As yet... ugly penguin" is a laureate in the category "Portrait of an animal". Photo "Bryce Canyon" by Mike Reyfman, who made this photo also for AirPano project, was in the final of the contest. The best photos of the competition are in the exhibition in St. Petersburg, Russia. Exhibition presents 160 of the best photos selected from 15,000 submitted to the contest from 59 countries. The exhibition will be in St. Petersburg from 1st March till 18th May. This exhibition will be in Moscow from 27th June till 20th July.
On 17th December the Metro newspaper published an article about our virtual tour over the Moscow, Russia. «Grand tour of Moscow, Russia» includes 107 aerial panoramas. FYI: the Metro newspaper is the most read daily newspaper in Russia.
On Monday, 16th of December, we published virtual tour, which have been shooting over the most famous sights of Moscow. Also we created a brief summary «Moscow, the best», which contains 22 panoramas of the most interesting places of the city. For today «Grand tour of Moscow, Russia» is our largest project, it includes 107 aerial panoramas. There was no similar shooting in the history of Moscow.
«Russia-1» TV channel published a video reportage about the «Grand tour of Moscow».
GEO published large panoramic calendar «Der Blick ins Weite» for 2014 («Gazing into the Distance» in free translation from German). This calendar contains only photos taken by AirPano (authors of the photos are O. Gaponyuk, D. Moiseenko, S. Rumyantsev, S. Semenov). When author's copies came from a custom house, we found out that 10 calendars weight nothing less than 70 kilograms. German puctuality is amazing: calendar complect includes set of details for fastening on a wall and even a rope.
Anyone can buy the calendar here:
http://shop.geo.de/geo-panorama-kalender-2014-der-blick-ins-weite.html#3
http://www.amazon.de/GEO-Panorama-Der-Blick-Weite-2014/dp/B00AYVPXJ8
http://www.teneues.com/shop-de/kalender/marken/mohn-media/geo-kalender-aussergewoehnliche-fotografie-aus-aller-welt/geo-panorama-der-blick-ins-weite-2014.html
Note: calendar is printed in German.
"EchoNet", a daily show on a biggest Moscow radio station focused on interesting and useful web resources, talked about our project in June 2013. "AirPano (traveling online)" article is available on their website.
At the end of August VGTRK (RUSSIA TV channel) crew filmed a story about AirPano shooting aerial spherical panoramas of Kremlin. On Saturday, September 7th the story was featured in "Saturday News" on Russia-1 channel.
Also on September 7th "RIA Novosty" website published an article and a video story about AirPano project and the virtual tour above Kremlin dedicated to Moscow City Day.
4th Epson International Pano Awards 2013 http://www.thepanoawards.com/ ended with impressive results for AirPano team. Dmitry Moiseenko was first in "VR / 360 Photo" category, he also won 1st and 3rd places in "Architecture" category for professional photographers.
AirPano team members took all three awards in "360 Pano" category:
1 - Dmitry Moiseenko
2 - Dmitry Moiseenko
3 - Ivan Roslyakov
Top 10 of the Best of Show contains 7 photographs from AirPano: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th and 10th places. Moreover, Best 50 Spherical Panoramas of 2013 include 24 panoramic pictures taken by AirPano team! You can view the top VR/360 video slideshow presentation here.
It is worth mentioning that Sergey Semenov took the first prize of the competition in 2012, and Oleg Gaponyuk was named the panoramic photographer of the year in 2011.
This year display of extraordinary award-winning images of Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards 2012 opens at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
Our colleague Mike Reyfman is a winner in a landscapes category with the work "Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, Seljalands, Iceland". The annual Windland Smith Rice International Awards program become one of the most highly-respected and visually compelling nature photography competitions in the world. Approximately 25,000 entries are received and judged this year in the Awards competition.
Here you can see all winning works.
Our photographer Ivan Roslyakov went up to 7100 meters (23294 feet) in a helicopter. This is an absolute record for rescue helicopters in Nepal. In order to make the flight, a pilot even sacrificed Ivan's oxygen tank. Despite the life-threatening conditions, the photographer managed to shoot several aerial panoramas of Mount Everest from unique angles.
To everyone's surprise, a humorous panoramic photo shot by Sergei Semyonov in front of a window of a 37 floor Millennium Hotel in New York (7 million views) left behind our most popular and unique panorama shots in the skies above the pyramids of Egypt (3 million views) and Taj Mahal (2 million views)...
The laureates of people choice award of Runet 2012 were announced on the 21st of November during their official award ceremony. The projects AirPano, Yarmarka Masterov, This is Horosho and Warface were awarded 4 kilogram statues covered with gold. Thank you so much to everyone who was voting for us during the November 2012!
Video from the awards ceremony:
Mike Reyfman's panorama of Bryce Canyon, made under AirPano project, was published on exclusive insert of National Geographic Russia special issue - Best Photos of 2012. Our congrats!
German GEO magazine launched a new iPad application dedicated to New York City. The application features our spherical panorama of Manhattan shot back in 2007.
The Taj Mahal holds one of the most important places in the list of "The New 7 Wonders of the World".
Despite its Muslim origin, this white marble Necropolis has actually become a symbol of India. Serious safety measures are taken in order to preserve it. The 500 meters area around the complex is equipped to serve as a special protection zone.
Cars have to park 2 kilometers away from the entrance so the tourists can get there with rickshaws, carts or electric vehicles, as it is believed that the exhaust gases can make the marble cladding go yellow. Even on the other side of the river Yamuna, on the banks of which it is located, the area is protected with a barbed wire fence.
Security guards' numbers are in their hundreds.
In 1997, the famous Frenchman Bertrand took a picture of the Taj Mahal from a helicopter. For 15 years after that there was no permission granted to shoot the monument from above. But AirPano has managed to achieve the impossible: we have received this permission, and at this moment our photographers Dmitry Moiseenko and Stanislav Sedov are on their way back to Moscow with the footage. A virtual tour of the photo-shoot will appear on the website in May.
AirPano.ru became the subject to the reportage shown in news program Vesti, Russia-2 TV channel. The heroes of the reportage are Sergey Semenov and Stanislav Sedov. You can watch the online version of the reportage on "YouTube"
Tomorrow our photographer Dmitry Moiseenko is flying to get a shot of Everest. The photo session from 6500 meters is going to be extremely difficult. The outsite temperature is expected as low as -35 °C (-31 °F). Good luck Dima and we hope the good weather will be with you!
As soon as the articles on UFO on Bolotnaya Square appeared in the Internet
http://newsru.com/russia/13dec2011/ufom.html
http://www.utro.ru/articles/2011/12/13/1016613.shtml
CNN called us and Sergey Semenov gave them an interview by Skype. After that CNN made the reportage "UFO takes awesome pictures". You can also watch this reportage on "YouTube"
Oleg Gaponyuk (Olevka) won in the prestigious contest of Ru.Net - Photosight Russian Awards 2011, nomination Our Cities with his creative work Kuala Lumpur. Photosight is the largest Russian Internet resource devoted to Author's Art Photography.
The winners of the national contest Landscape of Russia were announced. There are three creative works by Sergey Rumyantsev and Sergey Semenov among the finalists. The photo by Sergey Rumyantsev "Fishing. Series - Children of the Outskirts" took the second prize in the category "Man and Landscape". The creative work "In the Morning" by Sergey Semenov was honoured with the special prize of the National Geographic Traveler.
The open air exhibition of the best creative works is opened on Manezhnaya Square between the Moskva Hotel and Okhotniy Ryad shopping mall from September,01 till October,15.
On September 7, 2011 at 7p.m. in the exhibition hall of the Center of Development and Entrepreneurship of Moscow Eastern Autonomous District (Srednyaya Pervomayskaya st. 3, floor 3) will take part the SECOND MASTER-CLASS by the leading photographer and stitch&processing master of AirPano.ru - Sergey Semenov. Admission is free. Advanced booking is needed.
On 29-th of June at 7 p.m. in the exhibition hall of the Center of Development and Entrepreneurship of Moscow Eastern Autonomous District (Srednyaya Pervomayskaya st. 3, floor 3) will take part a Master-Class of the leading photographer and stitch&processing master of AirPano.ru - Sergey Semenov.
The master-class is devoted to the basic techniques of Art Landscape Photography and special details of panoramas' shooting beginning with the basic principles, correct choice of proper equipment (tripod, panoramic head and objectives) as well as camera's adjustments and ending with conversion of files, stitching and processing of panoramas. Also, the difficult cases will be discussed: shooting when camera is out of the window or roof, 360⁰-shooting, HDR panoramas shooting, shooting of spheres, gig-panoramas, shooting under fast-changing conditions and in trips as well as aerial photo shooting of panoramas and spheres.
The Entrance Is Free
To attend the master-class your personal information such as your first and last names as well as tel. number and e-mail address is needed to be sent to konkurs@photovao.ru or karpovaev@crp-vao.ru.
Additional information is supplied by tel. number: +7 (495) 780-92-98
In July edition of the Photomasterskaya Magazine (N74, 2011), Expert section, the article about AirPano project along with a feature story by Sergey Semenov were published. His feature story is dedicated to the planet stitching methods from plain projections of spherical panoramas in Photoshop.
From April 1 till April 30, 2011 there will be the personal exhibition of Oleg Gaponyuk named Sides of the World in the Central House of Journalists (Moscow, Nikitsky Boulevard, 8a). Except traditional landscape photography, the creative works shot in the sky over the unique places of our planet's five continents will be exposed on the exhibition. On the two-meter canvases the landscapes are becoming alive completely opening an amazing nature beauty.
The exhibition's coordinator is Sergey Semenov. His tel. number: +7 (903) 215-1263
The «World seen by the Russians» open air exhibition, in which AirPano.ru from the part of Oleg Gaponyuk takes part and which are holding on Tverskoy Boulevard, will go on till the 1-st of June. Welcome! The entrance is free! Here you can see the reportage from this exhibition right on the screen of your monitor.
We took part in World Wide Panorama in Forgotten Places contest.
Here it is our panorama shot in the Alps at a height of 4700 meters. It is accompanied with the sounds of wind gusts and helicopter (it is recommended to turn the volume up).
Here it is a full screen version (unfortunately, it isn’t accompanied with sound but it’s convenient to be viewed).
After Moscow and St. Petersburg the open-air exhibition «World Seen by the Russians» , in which AirPano.ru represented by Oleg Gaponyuk takes part, is moving to Veliky Novgorod, in the Kremlin. It will last from August 3, 2010 till August 23, 2010. Welcome!
Hold in CHA from December 22 till January 9. The authors are Dmitry Arkhipov and Olefrom the grand opening g Gaponyuk
The photo-exhibition of Dmitry Arkhipov and Oleg Gaponyuk named Five Sides of the World will take place in hall 9 on the second floor of the Central House of Artists. The zest of the exhibition is, undoubtedly, a size of the exposing works. On the 2-meter canvases the landscapes are becoming alive and fully show us an amazing beauty of the nature .
Address: CHA, Krymskiy Val 10. (Underground stations are Oktiabrskaya or Park Kultury). Open hours: daily from 11:00 till 20:00; it is closed on Mondays. Tickets' price is 80-200 rubles, tel.: (499) 238-9634, exhibition coordinator is Anastasia Fedina (916) 160-2240
Invitation: Dear Friends, we invite all of you to visit the grand opening of the exhibition, which will hold on December 24 at 18:00. On December 24 from 16:00 you can visit the exhibition free, having printed our invitation.
The authors are Dmitry Arkhipov and Oleg Gaponyuk. December 22 till January 9. 
On December 24, Friday, the grand opening of Five Sides of the World of Oleg Gaponyuk and Dmitry Arkhipov, landscape exhibitions, took place. The exhibition will be opened till January 9 in the Central House of Artists on Krymskiy Val. Here is the virtual tour from the grand opening .
This year five works by Oleg Gaponyuk, Sergey Semenov and Sergey Rumiantsev reached the finals and ending exhibition of Golden Tortoise 2010 contest. The finalists' works will be exhibited from the 11-th till the 27-th of March 2011 in New Manège, Moscow city.
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