Your Panorama

Alan Bird worked for a small company which sold maps and outdoor equipment wholesale & direct to customers online, which he helped to develop over nearly four years. He was managing large-scale map sales and populating the company's website with imagery and products. For many years Alan's main hobby has been as a keen amateur landscape and architectural photographer.

After being made redundant at the end of July 2010, Alan thought it was time for him to take on a challenge which could transform his life and career. The idea was a result of researching opportunities and thinking about how he could combine and develop his existing skills.

Alan's business is creating architectural photographic panoramic imagery. The imagery is stitched together using software and can be used to create virtual tours for online application and hard copy imagery. Providing panoramic imagery for online businesses and organisations is the main source of business. Panoramic imagery is produced by combining together numerous images taken from a single point so that they blend together seamlessly to provide either a wide view or a full 360˚ view of a scene. These composite images can then be turned into interactive panoramas, allowing the user to manipulate the view to explore the scene.

Virtual tours are becoming very popular in the property sector so this will be the main source of income for the business. He is going to be producing high quality HDR imagery for as many of the projects as he can. Alan also wants to develop links with organisations who manage the architectural heritage in order to document our finest buildings in this immersive manner - including buildings on the ‘at risk' register.

Alan says: "Being unemployed for an extended period does take its toll. Trying to build confidence in yourself is very important as it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that things may not work out for you."

Alan hopes to have a successful business which enables him to employ a team who can be busy creating an extensive record of the architectural heritage of the North East of England and beyond.

Alan can be contacted on 07964010893 or at his website at www.yourpanorama.co.uk.