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Romuald Vareuse, a native of Nice, France, has been living in Reunion Island since 1986, and working as a professional photographer specializing in architecture and aerial photography since 1988. His website is simply laid out offering a selection of Romuald’s architectural, character and nature panos, and in so doing brings color and life to the island and its heritage, with examples of churches, temples, schools, gardens and, of course, many panos of the island’s famous volcano. Perhaps the most spectacular is his aerial pano of the recently erupted volcano streaming red-hot lava paths down the sides of the cone.

Romuald has superbly captured some of the island’s inhabitants and character in a series of portrait panoramas of local artists – like Eric Pongerard posing in the heart of a cathedral of tree trunks, and Dolaine Fuma-Courtis hammering away at basalt to reveal the stones’ souls.

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While many are familiar with Romuald (also known as Hervé Douris) through his contributions to the World Wide Panorama shoots and his featured panos on panoramas.dk - such as the Niagara Cascade and recent Guan-Di feast - not many of us are familiar with the man himself, and his life on this island slightly smaller than the state of Rhode Island, which he describes as similar in lifestyle to that of Europe.

Romuald, you live in a part of the world that most of us are unfamiliar with; can you tell us the story of how you moved from your native Nice, France to Reunion Island in 1986, and what life is like in that remote area?

Reunion is a 2.512 square km island, located in southwest Indian Ocean, approximately 700 km east of Madagascar. It's a French department, so the life here is close to what you can have everywhere in Europe: high way of life, plenty of cars, nights full of lights - to be short !

Nobody except birds was living here before the discovery in the 17th century. The population, now around 700.000, is a mixture of African, European and Asian people who came more or less freely during the colonial age and later. Everybody is now living peacefully together; the island is a kind of ideal small world. Some places remain very wild, with primary forests, high mountains (3.000 meters) and an active volcano called "Piton de la Fournaise". My coming here is just a classical love story: I met a student at Nice university and after some years on the Mediterranean shore, she brought me back to her home.

Is it difficult to find professional assignments in Reunion?

Not really, as long as you know what you're doing. I'm specialized in architectural photography, with an eye and a camera for that. I'm working for some leisure magazines too, which allow me to move as well in urban and natural environment.

How did you become interested in panorama photography, and aerial photography in particular?

I made a first partial panorama - 12 small color prints pasted together - at age thirteen. (Just to show this is an old story.) All my pictures have to do with a natural taste for space, nature, landscape and geography. It can be applied particularly to aerial photography too. So, joining panoramic and aerial is the best way to express simply what I like.

There are obviously some significant challenges and dangers involved in getting near active volcanoes. Perhaps you could give us an example of some of the problems you've faced in getting to the areas to be photographed.

Piton de la Fournaise cannot be considered a big or dangerous volcano. Eruptions occur regularly, between one and four times a year, inside a crater 12 km wide, opened on the ocean side. An observatory surveys it with centralized data from automatic stations dispatched all over the area.

The main problem is how to arrive near an eruptive cone. Often, you have to walk several hours far from any secured track through cutting stone and deep fissures, under a burning sun or a cold sudden fog. Once arrived, you must contend with the wind, which can send sulfured gas and heat. From the ground, a lava flow is not an ideal subject for 360-degree panoramas because, for obvious reasons, you cannot be in the center of the action!
That is why it's far easier to have a look by plane, like I did last August 13th.

In case of engine failure, we could glide to the seashore and with some chance find a sugar cane field to land, but I hope this will never be tested.

What type of aircraft do you use and prefer for your aerial shoots and what are the technical details involved in creating aerial panoramas? Do you have a regular team that you work with?

Most of the time I use a small aircraft - ultra light category - with a 100 hp engine. It has a good security/cost ratio. With some chance, in case of engine failure it can glide to a landing zone. Only twin engines helicopters can be considered as a better technical choice with the windy conditions around the island, but the cost is eight times as much.

Usually, the camera is a Nikon D1x with a Nikkor 8 (circular cropped frame), optionally helped with a Canon 1ds and sigma 8 (full circle). As the aircraft is unable to hover on a fixed point, we choose a landmark on the ground and the pilot makes four passes in a four-leaf clover shape trajectory. I make four shots in landscape orientation and the nadir. As my arm is long enough, I shoot the sky with the circular fisheye, from the rear of a wing!

Of course, all of this could not be possible without the professionalism of the pilot, Serge Farci. I’ve flown almost exclusively with him for ten years now. With a few words, he understands exactly what I need. He is enthusiastic with the immersive images we have made and this cannot be more helpful.

Back into the office: Panorama-Tools/PTMac are fantastic software for the stitching job. Parallax is not problematic, there is no foreground, but I have to compose with unusual pitch and roll parameters sometimes!

Your website mentions that you are an author as well – what type of work do you do in this area?

This is an official/social position for photographers, writers and so. By the way, I've made a book, based on panoramic images, with couples of panos natural/annotate. I made pictures, texts and graphics but my main activity is photography.

How do you compare your work in VR versus traditional photography?

On the creative side, the tools are the same, and so is my mind and what I want to express. Maybe making a photo is showing something, sometime with distance, but making a pano is sharing your life because for panos, you must be in the center of the action. This makes no difference for me. In the field, I'm used to work with wide-angle lenses, already inside action.

On the audience side, this is totally opposed, which is a real problem for me. A normal picture is easy to show, e.g. in flat prints. VR technology means computer, web, programming knowledge, all things that I don't enjoy: time to learn = time lost for creation (well, this can be discussed....).

This is a reason why you can see many flat remapped panos on my website. The powerful PanoTools, once understood, produce amazing images where I try to enhance the starting idea. But here, except for simple cylindrical landscapes, the audience stays somehow disoriented and needs explanations. In fact, the best flat pano may look like standard photography. I'm still looking for the way allowing me be happy while creating and to be understood at the end! I keep on exploring; it is very time consuming.

What sort of technology and equipment do you normally use as part of your work?

Digital slr Nikon and Canon, with fisheyes 8 and full frame 15mm sometimes, Manfrotto 302 head... once a year!

You have an interesting area of your website entitled ‘Meetings’, with VRs of several sculptors and painters. Are these local artists? Can you tell us a little more about your work in this area?

Yes, these are local artists. I'm very glad you noticed this part of the website. The website is only eight months old and I don't really know what I want to do with it! It must be a window to create or promote the local VR market, it can be a link between the island and the natives living outside, it is its own experimental gallery. Aerial panoramas have had an unexpected success, mainly due to the incredible variety and quality of landscapes in Reunion Island. This variety and quality does exist too through its inhabitants, and I want to show that.

I'm not fond of large crowded meetings, but I like to shake a hand, sit down and listen – which is what I did for those panos. The VRs show relationships between an individual and the surrounding s/he inhabits. In a way, the place reveals the man, inside becomes outside, and with 360-degrees field of view, nothing is hidden, so maybe we are closer to truth than on a normal photo.

Artists have strong personalities, so it was promising to test this inside/outside relationship with them; but it must be extended to every people for "VR portraits in a living room". This will be my VR-life.