Aaron Spence
CEO, Lead Photographer.
Gold Coast, Australia.
Buying an SLR camera in highschool during the late 80’s kicked off my career as a photographer. I entered the digital age of photography in 1996 with Photoshop 3.0.5 and a Nikon Coolscan II film scanner. In 2000 after years of computer based design, web, cd-rom, audio, video & photography I finally found the perfect blend of photography & computer imaging…..the 360 degree panoramic virtual tour.
Since that time, I’ve continued working across most fields of digital multimedia while specialising in the shooting & production of panoramic virtual tours. All the while I’ve had a desire to build the ultimate product and company to expand the use and appreciation of the Panoramic Virtual Tour.
Over the past couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to make that desire a reality, doing extensive R&D into panoramic photography workflows & systems for batch processing extremely high quality georeferenced panoramic photography. The fruit of these years of labour is Panedia, in what we have now, and the more advanced products & services still to come.
Paul Preston
Map & Web Development Specialist.
Yorkshire, England
After working as a software developer for a long time I became particularly intrigued by advances in multimedia design and was fortunate enough to pursue this interest in creative media, completing my degree in 2005. This led to various contract opportunities in photography, motion graphics, TV visual effects and web design.
I was keen to further develop my web design skills and came up with the idea of combining my interest in travel with the recent advances in internet mapping technology. This lead me to creating tourist information maps, a central reference point for people to find nearby places of interest to visit throughout the UK.
The functionality of this map mash-up brought me to the attention of Aaron and I joined the Panedia team last year. Since then I have been working on turning some of Aarons ambitious ideas for the ultimate panoramic encyclopaedia into a reality.
Jim Whimpey
Web Developer & Blog Specialist.
Brisbane, Australia.
I learnt HTML because I wanted to make something better than what Geocities visual site editor could provide me. I learnt CSS because I wanted to repeat background images and add greater leading to my type. I learnt about open source, databases and programming languages because I wanted to do more with WordPress. My relationship with technology was born from selfish wanting.
It turns out that CSS was the future of accessible website design and the dynamic team of PHP and MySQL were building the web as we know it today. I discovered I wasn’t only enjoying the means of website development but was very much enjoying the process.
Now I study Multimedia at Griffith University and work in Panedia’s enterprising web development division making some very cool stuff. My long time passion is blogging, you can find me at Valhalla Island. My new passions are Twitter and the Calgary Flames.
Rodrick (Rick) Bond
Photographer, R&D Special Projects.
Adelaide, Australia.
I’m 23, and am lucky enough to call myself a professional photographer. I’ve been hanging around cameras since I was a teenager, when my dad gave me a beautiful old SLR. Many hundreds of rolls of film later, I was knocking on the door of the Photography department at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, to try and make myself a career in photography.
During my studies I picked up a flair for panoramic image stitching, with some panoramas of France and Australia being chosen to represent the International Virtual Reality Photographer’s Association at the Photokina imaging trade show in Cologne, Germany in 2006.
Before coming on board with Panedia in early 2008, I worked as an imaging technician with RMIT and assisted various commercial photographers on assignments ranging from portraiture to car photography. I also regularly exhibit my personal work.
At the moment I’m in the enviable position of being able to travel Australia and the world doing what I love, producing great VR imagery for the armchair traveller to savour and be inspired by. To check out some of my personal photography, please drop by my flickr stream.