Today the 360 virtual tour of the Tardis which I shot for the BBC has gone live. The BBC have used the virtual tour to provide lots of exciting content to Doctor Who fans, including a short film giving users a tour of the Tardis, special messages from characters, Tardis facts, wallpaper downloads and conceptual art. The interactive images allow users to navigate around at leisure, feeling as if they’re inside the Tardis and zooming in on details that interest them. Hopefully this gives Doctor Who fans a really good chance to get up close and personal with the Tardis – something that’s not so achievable with a still image or even watching on screen.

As I mentioned on my last blog post, I’m a child of the 70’s and have been a Doctor Who fan since the days of Tom Baker and his (I thought then) very cool scarf. Getting the opportunity to shoot the Tardis was massively exciting, and I hope that the images give other fans a chance to get closer to the world’s most famous time machine.

Click the link to explore the Tardis virtual tour (link opens in a new window). I hope you enjoy it!

Earlier this year, I travelled to Louisville, Kentucky and had the opportunity to spend a little time wandering around the city. Louisville is famed as the home of the Kentucky Derby, but sadly as my visit didn’t coincide with the racing, I was left to find other locations of interest in the city. Being fascinated by architecture, my attention was caught by the massive Humana Building skyscraper. This building was designed by architect and designer Michael Graves, and was named as one of “the 10 best buildings of the decade” in the 1980s by Time Magazine.

The style is postmodern – characterised by the blending of pre-modern features (such as columns and ornamental detailing) with modern materials and techniques. This was a reaction against the stark functionalism of the modernist buildings of earlier years. I think that there’s a definite nod to ancient Egypt in the pink granite columns.

Click the link to view the Humana Building virtual tour

All images © Will Pearson

A few weeks ago I was shooting out in Abu Dhabi, UAE. One of the locations I shot was the incredible Sheikh Zayed Mosque – which is stunning for its beauty and equally stunning for its sheer scale. It’s the third biggest mosque in the world and has the world’s biggest carpet (47 tonnes – all handmade) and biggest chandelier (10 metres wide by 15 metres high). (more…)

Cohen and Steers is a a London-based investment firm. They commissioned a number of large panoramic prints to decorate their offices, and you can see how this looks in situ here in this virtual tour. If you click on the hotspots within the tour, you can see close-ups of the panoramas. (more…)

Image © Press Association

The new virtual tours of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle were launched yesterday, 12 February 2009. The high-definition panoramic tours are part of the revamped Royal website, which was redesigned by Bang Communications, with virtual tours photographed and implemented by yours truly. (more…)

Image © Will Pearson 2008

When I go on trips I always try to capture lots of virtual tour footage as well as taking panoramic shots. When I get back, often the project’s demands mean that all of the other shots are left dormant until I have time to work on them. (more…)

Image © Will Pearson 2009.

I have just launched a version of my portfolio of interactive 360 virtual tours on the iPhone, so they can be viewed wherever you are.

(more…)

Image © Will Pearson.

I travelled to Salvation Mountain. Having got lost on the way, I stopped in a back street in Niland and asked a young woman the way. She gave me perfect directions and said ‘Say “Hi” to Leonard for me.’ Everybody knows Leonard Knight.

(more…)

Image © Will Pearson 2008

The Salton Sea is an incredible place. An enormous inland sea, created by accident when irrigation went hopelessly wrong. The Americans did their best to make good of the disaster, marketing the Salton Sea as a holiday destination – which worked for a while.

(more…)

© Will Pearson 2008

I had time to spend visiting some of Southern California’s glorious beaches (Venice Beach, Santa Monica Beach and Malibu Beach to name a few that I remember!). These virtual tours and panoramas show some of the views on these famous beaches.

Click the link to see the Los Angeles beaches virtual tours.

Another in my series of American panoramas, these virtual tours are from Death Valley National Park in California.

© Will Pearson 2008

The Devil’s Cornfield Virtual Tour
The Devil’s Cornfield in Death Valley at dusk.

(more…)

Image © Will Pearson 2008

I have been working on the series of virtual tours and panoramas from my trips to the USA over the last year, and I’ll be adding some to the site over the next few days.

This shot is of a caravan I came across in the desert outside the ghost town of Bodie, California. It has seen some action – it looks like it has been used for shooting practice, and has been set alight at least once too. However, it’s holding out against the assaults for now.

Please click the link to see the abandoned caravan virtual tours.

A short while ago I was in LA, shooting fashion panoramas for alternative designers Mother of London.

(more…)

All images © Will Pearson.

The Guardian’s Great Modern Buildings series uses one of my virtual tours to showcase ‘The Gherkin’ (the Swiss-Re building at 30 St Mary Axe in the City of London). You can see the article and the virtual tour at www.guardian.co.uk/panoramic/page/0,,2189984,00.html.

All images © Will Pearson

The latest issue (31) features a short article about my virtual tours of Cullen Pet Cemetery on the Scottish coast. You can read the full article at www.vrmag.org/issue31/Cullen_s_Pet_Cemetery.html