Rationality and emotion blended together are the ingredients which compose any shot taken by Timothée. Not only he's always looking for the perfect spot from which a VR could be taken. He's even looking for new ways to use the technology, in what he has identified as a democratization process, in the adaptation of VR to yet unexplored fields...
While reading this interview, enjoy the panoramic images taken in several places: Savour the Venetian atmosphere; relax on a deserted beach and let yourself be thrilled by Timothée's abilities...

Can you tell us more about your professional/private background ?
Very early on, I was curious to see my father in his lab manipulating his prints in the chemicals. After classics studies until bachelor, I was lucky enough to integrate a drawing school, which enabled me to train my eye observing the volumes and spaces that I drew. Following a very academic year, I evolved towards visual communication studies and became familiar with the different sections in Advertising. I started handling a number of graphics software, but I spent most of my time in the photo lab, where I fell in love with photography.

How and when did you become involved in Photography?
In 2003, I joined a specialized school in Photography for 2 years. The first year was exclusively focused on black and white practice, shooting, developing and printing. During the second year, I had the opportunity to practice lots of works which exercised me with the various trades of photography by manipulating all sorts of cameras and films. This school also enabled me to enter into many internships in studios and agencies. Thanks to these opportunities, I started the project Paris-360.com.
My activity started in July 2006, and I received my first order in December that year.

How did you become interested in VR photography?
During my training, I met the owner of a web rental agency of apartments in Paris, who wanted to create a panoramic website of the capital to promote his business. Luckily enough, I was fully funded in hardware and training. On this occasion, I met Arnaud Frich, a master in panoramic images in France. His passion for the subject and his incredible teaching methods immediately transformed my interests in VR technology into a passion. For the next two years I located, shot and post produced in Paris.

As the work went on, I was pleasantly surprised by the views offered by the spherical panoramic, especially by exporting Equirectangular files (360x180) cropped at the top and bottom to remove ungainly distortions. I often chose my point of view according to the modulations of landscape that come with a flat strip. Straight lines become curves, and there are two points of leakage in the panorama, which generate quite unexpected views (even for the photographer). Widely and often known photographed gain a new dimension thanks to spherical flat. The major advantage is that you can stay in the photography itself and make prints of these banners. So I submitted twenty prints as my "end- study" book, which allowed me to be major of the Robert Doisneau promotion in January 2006.

click here to view Monument de Paix panorama

click here to view Notre Dame panorama

click here to view Bir Hakeim panorama

Can you tell us about the most interesting projects you realized?
From my first orders, I began to exploit spherical photography potential.

MOULIN ROUGE
At first I contacted the communication department of the Moulin Rouge to request terrace access. After making some outside views, I showed them the VRs fullscreen and they appreciated their good quality. Having already 2 virtual tours on their website (but very low-quality) I was asked to make spherical panoramas of the theatre.

click here to view Moulin Rouge panorama

ARGENTEUIL
Thereafter, I worked on the follow-up of a construction site in Argenteuil city: I chose strategic viewpoints where I came back week after week, which helped to discover work's progress.

PANTIN
Then I realized 10 spherical panoramic images for an examination centre in Pantin: the VRs, placed on an interactive map, would guide the candidates to their examination's room.

MONACO
When I met the Fouquet's Mag publisher, I was given a traditional photography reporting. Based in Monaco, he suggested shooting within the Principality, which is rich of peculiar outlooks, due to its particular construction between a bay and the hills. By myself, following my training with Arnaud Frich, I scheduled the shooting of all the monuments which are the pride of Paris. I sold some of these panoramas to illustrate the Homepage of a banking group and some of its newsletters.

click here to view Monaco panorama

DJERBA
Then, in May 2007 I traveled to Djerba. I went there with a team of photographers and cameramen for a big report on the hotels on the island. We worked for a web portal tourism. The agency which contacted me has created a hotspots system which allows traveling between each VR. We photographed an average of 60 VR per hotel, all linked together and located on an interactive map. This mission was very rewarding on several levels. First of all there was the management of a very large number of images (can you imagine 1600 VR in a two weeks' span for two photographers?). Moreover, I could discover new applications which are used within VR industry: PTGUI and Pano2VR. Finally, I could manipulate a Sigma 8 mm, which is very practival for industrial shooting, which have to be taken in a short time. On the busiest day we took 95 spherical panoramics in a 10 hours window, on three different hotels.

ADP
A month later I received a call from my "maître de book" . Working within the photo service of the communication agency "Textuel", she intended to present my panoramic Paris work "Paris viewed by ...". A month later, my file had been selected and has resulted in three double pages with a small biography in the magazine Aeroports De Paris in October 2007.

TRAVEL
Passionate by world discovery, and receiving benefits associated with the work of my companion, we are fortunate to have traveled in wonderful countries. That is whenever a good opportunity to achieve unique views. Among my big coup de coeur, the island of Santorini in the Greek Cyclades with its villages in symbiosis with nature. The landscapes of southern Lipez Bolivia, real natural paintings, and the island of Burano near Venice with its beautiful bright colours houses. We are organizing a trip to Casamance, southern Senegal in May and one month in Madagascar in October. I very would like to represent a spherical panorama series of the World to show with through my eyes and from new or original points of views the wonders that surround us.

click here to view Santorini panorama

Click here to view all the outstanding panoramas of Santorini.

click here to view Machu Picchu

click here to view Salines panorama

Click here to view all the outstanding panoramas shot in Peru and Bolivie.

click here to view Salines panorama

Click here to view all the outstanding panoramas shot in venice.

LE MONDE 2008
Thereon, I had several projects in a row: following an order in October 2007 to realize a virtual tour of a new hospital complex in Tours, I decided to make some panoramic views of the city. A month later, I met Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, previous Minister of Culture, who has greatly appreciated my work and VR technology. Campaigning for Tours' town Council, he wished to integrate to its website a dedicated space for a 360° city visit . We chose sixty points of view to showcase the city. Three months and 160 sphericals later, the pictures were displayed on Tours2008.fr

click here to view Plumereau panorama

click here to view Museum panorama

Click here to view all the outstanding panoramas of the Tours 2008 project.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
In November 2007, my girlfriend presented my work to the travel agency she works for. After my works on their database to permit stitched images to appear, we were offered a week to the Dominican Republic. I shot some of the most beautiful places and the hotel we were in, in order to show the results to the agency and make them switch to the fully immersive panoramic images, as soon as we came back. The results were mixed: some liked the images, some others said that they were too artistic and could not recognize the places. Anyhow, one of the images I took, depicting the beauties of the islam, was selected by the Dominican Republic Tourism Agency to illustrate an advertising campaign of Lookéa Samana, and was released on 3,000 buses in Paris.

click here to view Dominican Republic panorama

Click here to view all the outstanding panoramas of the Dominican Republic.

LE MONDE
With 2008, following the publication in ADP magazine, I was contacted by the picture department of Le Monde, which is amongst the most famous newspapers in France. I was asked to shoot 9 cities, with the panoramic technology, to illustrate the municipal elections supplements. I travelled France for 2 months, taking 30 VR for each one. This project was specially interesting since I had to think about the results in printing. We had predefined a layout, but we...hijacked it on 9 cities.

click here to view Bordeaux panorama

click here to view Lille panorama

Click here to view all the outstanding panoramas of Le Monde Municipales 2008.

TOURISM OFFICE MONTMARTRE
On the same time - always by the followup from ADP - I was contacted by the tourism office of Montmartre which is setting up it's website. As a first step
we selected a symbolic view to illustrate the 2008 official map's cover. This document has been printed in 50'000 copies and distributed to all partners in the plan, and Paris city halls.

Which is the VR equipment you used to create the panoramas?
Following the advice of Arnaud Frich, I started with a Nikon D70 camera, Nikkor 10.5 mm f: 2.8 lens and Manfrotto 303 SPH panoramic head. For software : Nikon Capture, Stitcher and Photoshop 7. This equipment has allowed me to realize paris-360. Following the report of Djerba, I evolved into PTGUI, Pano2VR and Photoshop CS3, which offer a much more efficient production and allow a much more fluid spherical manipulation. I have recently bought a Nikon D200 and I am wondering to switch my Nikon 10.5 mm to Sigma 8 mm f: 3.5, practice for the industrial shooting, but with a slightest optic quality.

Can you tell us more about the professional services you offer?
Following the different projects that I have done, I realized that spherical photography was...democratizing more. At first I had thought about traditional services that VR can offer (hotels, theaters, visiting cities...) but the people's demands have suggested new adaptions for the VR: Websites for a politician, hospital complex, daily newspapers reports, covers...
VR technology offers many possibilities to adapt to lots of clients. Pictures can be generated in VR , QTVR, JAVA or FLASH format. I try to focus my clients on FLASH format, which is more accessible to users. I also propose all kinds of export for the print: Equi, Mirrorball, Little planets, and many others. These visuals can adapt to multiple services: guiding visitors to a place, assisting clients in the selection of a hotel room or apartment, visit the strategic spots of a city, prepare a travel, and so on...

What advice would you offer to those considering entering the VR photography field as professionals?
If I had just one piece of advice to give, it would simply be to make lots of pictures and discover how the photographed elements react from the chosen point of view. In VR, the framing can totally change from one meter to the another. It is a very exciting technology through many stages: there is the waiting time, like before digital, between the photographed images and the final outcome. Digital technology has unfortunately weakened the reflection of the photographer. On a more commercial level, I would say that it is important to be always rigorous in the work, to get interesting photographs that can attract potential customers! The website is obviously a vital business tool. Personally speaking, the majority of my customers have contacted me after a visit on Paris-360.com.

Future plans and projects you can talk about ?
We are organizing a trip to Casamance, southern Senegal in May and one month in Madagascar in October. I would like to represent a spherical panorama series of the World, to show through my eyes and from new or original viewpoints the wonders that surround us. Moreover, while in Djerba, I befriended with Rémy Benelhadj, who had been a classic style photographer before, but was quickly at ease with spherical technology. Back in Paris, he worked 2 months on post producing the 1600 panoramics. Since then, Rémy has taken a close interest in the various technical solutions (HDR, Hotspots, Web development, Flash technology) and we decided to combine our expertises to create a binomial. We are currently working on the creation of a website which will present our work in many areas (tourism, brand communication, virtual visits to support sales in several sectors, websites animation and solutions...) and we will offer multiple communication solutions in partnership with agencies, webmasters, editors, and so on. Following the order by "Le Monde", I contacted the towns' Councils of the photographed cities, to analyze together the use of panoramic either on their websites or for decorative prints.

click here to view Dijon panorama

click here to view Lyon panorama

click here to view Paris panorama

In connection with Montmartre tourism office, Remy and I are realizing pictures of the village, in order to create a 360° visit with geolocalisation, hotspots, and tags incorporation. We also attach great importance to create a unique design to the area. My collaboration with Look Voyages continues, with 4 new destinations to photograph Lookea clubs.

On the personal side, I am working on 3D panoramic exhibition. I would love to rebuild spheres on a large scale, so that the viewer would be immersed in the scene photographed with soundtracks and climatic conditions as during the shooting. Thanks to Flexify plug in of Flaming pear, I even prepare models, showing applications of panoramic photography for furniture (lampshades) or toys (puzzle sphere).

I keep updating paris-360 in order to provide better navigation facilities and a geolocalisation system via google maps and...what else? We are organizing a trip to Casamance, southern Senegal in May and one month in Madagascar in October. So said, quite soon you'll see some other parts of the world through my eyes!

Links:
Paris-360.com
Timographie.com
Tim's panos at Viewat.org