SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft—click thumbnail image to view full panorama

PictureBubbles° was hired by SpaceX to document the interior of their now famous Dragon Spacecraft. We had shot an engineering sample of the outer shell when we covered the Wired NextFest in 2007, but for our last shoot, the actual module was assembled, rich with modular interior features.

Now that SpaceX has announced its plans to visit the International Space Station later this year, they have unveiled the PictureBubbles° panorama that we created. And the LA Times took notice.

This was an incredibly challenging shoot. Not only was the working space limited by cargo racks in the vehicle, but also we had the additional challenge of needing to open the floor hatches. And we needed to make sure that all of the shots would line up in 3D-space so that they could be blended together for the final presentation. We shoot with a tripod, so that took some ingenuity.

We positioned the camera and tripod in the center of the Dragon spacecraft for most of the shots. But when we started opening the hatches on the floor, there was no longer a place for the tripod to stand. We then shot a series of photos with the tripod elevated off the floor (by inserting the legs into the rigging on the sides). It was makeshift, but it worked extremely well.

The greatest bit of trivia: during some of the spin-arounds, there were two people in the spacecraft at all times: me operating the camera, and a SpaceX engineer moving things that I was not even close to allowed to touch. Bear that in mind while scrolling around.

There is a TON of Photoshop magic hiding how all of that came together, but we’re really proud of it.

Visit our site to see the interactive PictureBubbles° panorama.

This past weekend was the 2nd Annual LA Printers Fair, held at the International Printing Museum in Carson, California. I alluded to it previously on the Three Steps Ahead blog.  There was a fabulous selection of printing equipment as well as print-related art and design. My wife and I were vendors at the fair as well, and we had a swell time. Looking forward to next year’s fair!

One of our earliest projects was created for Smashbox Studios & Quixote, the famous cosmetics/photo-studio/vehicle conglomerate here in southern California.

We created PictureBubbles° 360° panoramas of many of the indoor studios at Smashbox, as well as many of Quixote’s production vehicles and talent trailers.

Links to interactive 360° photography:

• Quixote Verde Lounge PictureBubbles° Panorama
• Quixote Verde Wardrobe & Makeup PictureBubbles° Panorama
• Smashbox Softbox, Culver City, PictureBubbles° Panorama
• Smashbox Lightbox, Culver City, PictureBubbles° Panorama

Carel Struycken was kind enough to create a panoramic PictureBubbles° portrait of my wedding two Saturdays ago. Alyssa and I were married at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County next to the dinosaurs. Carel captured the moment beautifully—in 360° Dino Vision! Our LED paper flowers look especially vibrant in HDR.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to sleep over at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and I couldn’t resist taking a few PictureBubbles° while I was there. Above is the “Birds of the World” exhibit, and below is the museum’s Fin Whale skeleton, under which we camped out for the night in tents.