On the way to a Marketing meeting with one of our clients recently, Rod and I briefly stopped at Washington County Lake to soak in the view, or more specifically, a virtual reality 360 degree view.
To watch 360° videos, you need the latest version of Chrome, Opera, Firefox, or MS Edge on your computer. On mobile devices, use the latest version of the YouTube app.
Virtual Reality 360 Photography Fun!
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Virtual reality 360 photography produces an interactive, extreme panoramic view of the the photographer’s surroundings. Just imagine the possibilities … isn’t technology glorious!
This isn’t new, however. The extremely wide angle 360 view idea has been around for decades. In 1955 Walt Disney perfected the film technique, Circle-Vision 360°, and presented a multi-camera short film produced using nine cameras mounted in a circle. Imagine how heavy that was! The first film, America the Beautiful, played on nine large screens arranged in a circle. Guests viewed it while standing in the circular theater at Disneyland.
More recently, this technology has advanced and not only has the size of the camera become more portable, but the price has become more affordable as well, making 360 VR photography an accessible option for everyone. I used an inexpensive Vivitar 360 Camera to explore this interactive wide angle technology.
No longer do you need to view the finished product in a large circular room, YouTube is more than happy to present the VR 360 video for you in the confines of your computer/phone/tablet screen. Plus, you not only get the 360° circular view by the directional movement of your cursor/mouse/finger, but you can see what is up above as well as down below … making this a truly virtual reality experience for the viewer.
Move your cursor/finger/mouse to catch ALL of the views we had!
We had a great time at Washington County Lake. The lake was frozen over and we heard amazing reverberations, like the sound of drums, traveling across it. I highly recommend playing with virtual reality 360 photography, both video and photos, and I highly recommend taking a moment from the work day to explore and enjoy the scenery!
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