The Churchyard of St Gregory & St Martin, Wye

Scrabbling around for inspiration for the Wrinkle in Time tribute panorama, it finally dawned on me that time itself was the most significant ingredient here - the short span of time in which we all had to photograph our contributions; the long, eventful decade that has passed since that first inspired event. The church clock, the gravestones, the Christmas lights, even the waxing moon all speak of the passage of time, of commemoration and remembrance.

I particularly wanted to take part in this event, as it’s no exaggeration to say that without the Wrinkle events I wouldn’t have the career I’ve got today. I was captivated by QTVR the first time I saw it, and I played around with some old sets of overlapping photos, trying (and largely failing) to reproduce the seamless panoramic views the professionals made. My first Wrinkle contributions weren’t much better, but the inspiration, example and help of many of the people on the Wrinkle mailing list drove me on to progressively better and better things. The transition from hobbyist to professional eventually came in 2003 with a commission for a virtual tour of a 1930s house in Surrey, The Homewood, which had recently been bequeathed to the National Trust. Now my partner and I have a contract with the Trust and travel the country recording the most spectacular architecture a photographer could ask for (see the December 2007 WWP entry for a (small) example...).

So, this is my personal tribute to the ideas, inspiration and individuals that made these events possible and launched me in a whole new direction. To thank a few people, in no particular order: Tim Berners-Lee, for the idea that he nurtured into the World Wide Web, changing the way we all communicate and co-operate; Rabbett for the original Wrinkle; Jim Heid, for hosting the Wrinkle mailing list; Caroling Geary and Irene Blueth for their boundary-pushing ideas that fed into the way I work today; G-Don, Landis and Markus for the World Wide panorama; Jook Leung for his exposure blending tutorial which encouraged me to experiment; and finally Matthew Tyler-Jones, Heather Smith and Steve Atkinson of the National Trust for recognising how we could build on all this brilliance.

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Europe / UK-England

Lat: 51° 11' 2.79" N
Long: 0° 56' 15.36" E

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Canon EOS 350D, Sigma 8mm fisheye F4. Manfrotto tripod with levelling attachment and 360Precision panoramic head. Images cleaned with NeatImage and stitched in PTGui.