This weekend, the results of the panoramic photography competition The EPSON International Pano Awards 2022 were announced.
It was a hard year but we are again very proud our photographers. The founder of the AirPano project, Oleg Gaponyuk, won the gold medal (for a underwater panorama "Night diving with 100 nurse sharks. Maldives") and has become the «VR Photographer of the Year» for the sixth time. Another our author, Ivan Roslyakov got the third place (for Tengkoma summit, 6125m, with 3rd Worlds Highest Mountain - Himalayas, Nepal). Congratulations to all participants and winners!
2021 has been declared as the "Year of Science and Technology" in Russia. This weekend the VDNH (a huge exhibition center and amusement park in Moscow) hosted the "Technosreda" festival dedicated to science and technology in our country. This is not the first time when we collaborate with Georgy Molodtsov, one of the most active VR and 360 promoters in Russia. Georgy Molodtsov prepared a very intense 360 film program, from Russia and abroad. On our behalf, we demonstrated the Kizhi movie (Laureate of the Shanghai Film Festival) that has been created in cooperation with the Kizhi Museum Reserve.
This weekend, the results of the panoramic photography competition The EPSON International Pano Awards 2021 were announced.
This year is significant for us. After all, we have been participating in this prestigious competition for 10 years already! Progress is not static, the possibilities of panoramic and VR photography are expanding more and more every year, we are very proud that this year the founder of the AirPano project, Oleg Gaponyuk, won the gold medal (for a split panorama from Jellyfish Lake in Palau) and has become the «VR Photographer of the Year» for the fifth time. One of our authors, Alexey Matveyev got the second place (for Mutnovsky volcano at sunset, Kamchatka), and the works by Ivan Roslyakov (sunrise at the Himalayas) and by Stas Sedov (Cape Town in mist) entered top 20. Congratulations to all participants and winners!
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.
We have received an award from YouTube for passing 100,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel, where we publish all our 360° videos.
Hope to receive the next award for 1 million subscribers soon.
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!
The Norwegian film festival Nordische Filmtage Lübeck 2019 took place in Germany from October 29 to November 3.
Our 360 video from Norway was represented at this festival in the dome cinema! Watching the northern lights in such a format is an incredible pleasure. The audience enjoyed it a lot!
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
Our 360 movie was shown at the Cannes Festival the other day! The largest yachting festival in the world, the Cannes Yachting Festival 2019, ended in the Gulf of Cannes. Our friends and partners from the Dream Yacht Charter traditionally participated in this event and demonstrated there our panoramic video in the virtual reality glasses!
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.
Yesterday, in the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, the "Golden Turtle" International Wildlife Festival presented an exhibition of the best works of photographers from around the world. The exhibition "Planet Earth. Fragile Perfection" is dedicated to World Earth Day, the main goal of which is to involve the public into environmental issues. Two works by Sergey Rumyantsev — "Gannet colony after rain" and "Water billiards" — and one work by Mike Reyfman are included in this unique collection.
LG Uplus, one of South Korea's main mobile operators, has released the first 5G smartphone and 5G-based VR service, allowing you to enjoy exclusive 3D VR content, as well as 4K UHD VR images that are four times brighter than Full-HD. The vivid content, developed by LG Uplus and leading worldwide manufacturers of 3D virtual reality, will provide its customers a unique experience of VR. And we are incredibly happy to be a part of this revolutionary development, because LG Uplus uses our content too!
5G service allows you to download your favourite movies in seconds, manage a drone without leaving your room, feel the unforgettable atmosphere in the heart of a sports match, look at the smallest details in your favourite TV programs and much more!
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.
Oleg Gaponyuk has become a silver winner of the prestigious underwater photography contest Deep Indonesia in the Reefscapes nomination with his panorama of the coral reef in the Queen's Gardens archipelago. Also the photo of the "Jellyfish Bay", taken in Indonesia was highly appreciated. And we must mention the contribution of Ivan Roslyakov, who stitched these panoramic pictures.
Dive Show – the biggest diving exhibition in Russia and Eastern Europe is taking place in Moscow January 31 – February 3. There you may find our underwater content: photos by Oleg Gaponyuk and Max Guzovsky and 360 videos, which visitors can watch in a VR headset.
Victoria Falls, The Pearl of Africa Video by AirPano took the first place in Forbes List of 15 Top VR Videos of 2018.
The international exhibition and conference Laval Virtual Asia 2018, dedicated to the technologies of augmented and virtual reality, has opened today in China. AirPano CEO Sergey Semenov went there to represent our project.
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.
The anniversary and final exhibition of the largest photo exploration in Russia — The Best of Russia — takes place from 22 March till May 13 in the center of contemporary art "Winzavod" in Moscow. Sergey Semenov has become the winner in the category "100 best photos throughout the history of the project" with his photo of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.
The Inc. Russia Magazine has published a big article about AirPano. You can read about our story of success here.
There is a Moscow Dive Show 2018 from 1 till 4 February. Besides underwater photos by Oleg Gaponyuk, there are underwater 360° videos in VR headsets, filmed by our great author Alexey Tishchenko.
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.
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!”
Recently we've released our new app AirPano City Book for iOS. Now the app is featured in App Store!
AirPano City Book is a collection of unique spherical photo panoramas of the most amazing cities in the world shot from a bird's eye view. City Book takes you on exciting journeys through some of the most photogenic places on Earth, using virtual tours. The company's aerial panorama technology lets viewers experience soaring through the sky above the some of most beautiful cities in the world, with tours of New York, Paris, Barcelona, Dubai, Amsterdam, Singapore, Rome, Shanghai, Buenos Aires and Moscow.
You can download AirPano City Book here.
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.
On 2nd July at the Trip Secrets festival in Moscow you can watch our 360 videos from Kamtchatka on Samsung Gear VR. Entrance: free.
Sergey Semenov Las Vegas representing AirPano in Las Vegas, at the world's largest event NAB Show 2016 which is covering filmed entertainment and the development, management and delivery of content across all mediums. Sergey is planning to examine tendencies and novelties in the VR content world and meet members of Google, GoPro and other concerned companies.
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 is an application with AirPano panoramas in the Russian Samsung Apps store. Now it is possible to watch our panoramas via Samsung Smart TV. There is a function in the application to use AirPano panoramas as a screensaver for Samsung Smart TV. Application is available in the Russian Samsung Apps store for free.
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.
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.
In August 2013 our photography team consisting of Sergei Semenov and Stanislav Sedov went to Africa to shoot crossing - the antelope migration. The most dramatic moment of migration is river crossing by thousands of animals. This photo expedition was a challenging one for AirPano team...
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.
Recently Dima had a helicopter flight over the half of Iceland but the volcano was covered with clouds and he wasn't able to shoot. This time he was able to rich the Grimsvotn volcano crater by the car and on foot. So, read the second part of the story from Dmitry Moiseenko.
When on the 24-th of May I was informed that I urgently had to leave for Iceland and shoot the Grímsvötn volcano which had begun its eruption a couple of days before, it seemed to me that such lucky chance happened once in the lifetime...
In spite of the active stage of the volcano's eruption has already finished and there is only a stream of 100 meters height left from 20 km steam and ashes jet, we, however, decided to fly till the volcano as we were able to reach Iceland. Below you can find D. Moiseenko's story about the flight.
On Sunday, May 22, in Iceland the eruption of the Grímsvötn began. The height of a smoke and ashes cloud was up to 20 km. On Tuesday when we decided to send Dmitry Moiseenko for the shooting the height of the ashes cloud became 5 km. On Wednesday, in the morning, Dima left Moscow but the cloud went down to 2 km. And when DIma landed in Reykjavik the low-down volcano became extinct :)
Frankly speaking, last year another volcano named Eyjafjatlajökudl (the name rose from my memory) had almost finished its eruption too when we were close to its crater. So, we could only enjoy the steam clouds. On Hawaii red-hot lava stopped flowing onto the sea when our helicopter flew there. We left and next day the lava flow recommenced.
Such kind of bad luck we have with volcanoes. :)
This winter Stas Sedov has become a member of AirPano.ru team. Stas is a pilot with a great practical experience as well as a constructor of flying radio controlled platforms for photo and video shooting. We met Stas in May last year and the result of our mutual cooperation was the shooting of our first spheres in Moscow. Stas is a head of Radio Controlled Models Department of AirPano. An elaboration of a computer-aided flying system for a spherical panoramas distance shooting, the shooting of aerial movie and TV-project scenes, a 360 video methods creation and the aerial photo shooting which supposes the use of professional equipment are in our plans. In short time we'll represent several interesting projects shot with the radio controlled model.
Had a look to calendar, we understood that the World Cup Football Championship will begin in several days. We thought that it would be great to represent on the site something pro-football as a sign of such an interesting event. In the archive the SPHERE which had been shot in Cape Town in the beginning of 2010 was found. It was shot right over the Green Point Football Stadium which was being built that time and it is devoted to the World Cup Football Championship.
There are still bulldozers on the project site in the sphere, but now the stadium is completely ready and on June, 11 at 20:30 it will be the match between the football teams of Uruguay and France on it.
We have tried to shoot Moscow for a long time, but we never succeeded in shooting the city we live in, thought we did our best. The case is the flights over Moscow are forbidden except those of Russian Federation Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Response and Russian police. Taking in consideration these administrative restrictions we applied our creativity and resolved this problem by the following:
1) First, we made a virtual tour over the interchanges of Moscow Encircling Highway (MEH).
2) The sphere was shot from the height of 1000m. The most part of Moscow and its region can be viewed from that point.
3) In May 2010 near Crocus-City Moscow panorama of high resolution (approx 1 Gig pixel) was shot from the height of 1000m.
4) In Moscow itself we realized several photo-sessions with a radio-controlled helicopter.
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 .
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