Surrounded by Art

Over a three day period during October 2013 the Birmingham Hippodrome theatre held a free event entitled "Illuminate". As the name suggests things didn't really kick off until after the sun had set. Photographs of local people were projected onto the side of buildings, pop art style. You could walk amongst a life sized terracotta army, but these were made out of plastic and lit with bright colours from the inside. Or you might come across a roaming performance as you walked from one art installation to another.

My interest was to visit the 360° panoramic cinema. Over the first two days a busy schedule was arranged with sessions lasting from 45 to 75 minutes. Each session containing many short films from a variety of creators. The 360° format provides a very unique canvas to work with. Conventional film has left and right edges that constrict the available space, something that just doesn't exist with 360°. Watching the films is amazing, content constantly moves around you and sometime your split trying to watch multiple directions at the same time. A very unique format to watch.

This panorama was shot between sessions while a static image was being projected. It was a great time to chat with the organisers and find out more about the setup. The whole project was a collaboration between many people and allowed people to experience 360° panoramic films. Some of the organisers continue to engage with the public showing panoramic films through their Dome Club.

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Europe / UK-England

Lat: 52° 28' 28.7" N
Long: 2° 54' 46.22" W

Elevation: 370 ft

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Taken with a Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G fisheye lens. 8 hand held shots taken and raw files then processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.2 before being stitched together using PTGui Pro 9.1.8 and converted using Pano2VR 4.5beta.