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A Unique View: Soko Aoki of PanoPlaza on the Opportunities in Panoramas

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We’ve previously featured PanoPlaza, a fun panoramic photo tool operated by Japan-based Kadinche Corporation that has functioned as a useful tool for retailers to create virtual online stores. The company’s CEO, Soko Aoki, recently had a chance to attend the International Panoramic Photography Conference this year in Iceland. This event is the biggest of its kind in the world, and it featured 30 talks and 150 participants. Soko was the only speaker from Japan at the event. As we have noted on this site more than a few times, Japan is a country that’s very enthusiastic about photo apps. But Soko says that use of panoramic photographs has not really hit the Japanese or Asian markets just yet. He explained this at the conference, and noted that many companies in attendance showed interest in coming to the Japanese market. He adds: Most Japanese panoramic photography companies only shoot panoramas and simply put them on their websites. But in Europe and America, there are many companies and individuals who are working on more advanced features such as panoramic movies, aerial panoramas, and panoramic camera hardware. Seeing all this, I have learned a lot from being at the event. It’s interesting to…

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Soko Aoki presenting

We’ve previously featured PanoPlaza, a fun panoramic photo tool operated by Japan-based Kadinche Corporation that has functioned as a useful tool for retailers to create virtual online stores. The company’s CEO, Soko Aoki, recently had a chance to attend the International Panoramic Photography Conference this year in Iceland. This event is the biggest of its kind in the world, and it featured 30 talks and 150 participants.

Soko was the only speaker from Japan at the event.

As we have noted on this site more than a few times, Japan is a country that’s very enthusiastic about photo apps. But Soko says that use of panoramic photographs has not really hit the Japanese or Asian markets just yet. He explained this at the conference, and noted that many companies in attendance showed interest in coming to the Japanese market. He adds:

Most Japanese panoramic photography companies only shoot panoramas and simply put them on their websites. But in Europe and America, there are many companies and individuals who are working on more advanced features such as panoramic movies, aerial panoramas, and panoramic camera hardware. Seeing all this, I have learned a lot from being at the event.

It’s interesting to note that while Japan is so enthusiastic about mobile photography and photography in general, that companies are not yet exploring the opportunities that lie in panoramic photography as much as they are in other regions.

While Soka says that one of his main goals in attending was to find out cutting edge panoramic photo technology being used elsewhere, I’m sure that the event provided a good chance for him to spread the word about his PanoPlaza service as well.

Readers may recall when we reported about PanoPlaza’s tie-up with Japanese retail giant Don Quijote, providing a solution for employees to virtually visit stores in remote locations to visually manage their merchandise. That’s just one example of how the technology can be used, and it will be interesting to see what other ones emerge in the future.

Don Quijote using Panoplaza for merchandise management
Don Quijote using Panoplaza for merchandise management

Building a new business from snapshots of old Japan

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I was a little surprised a few weeks back when I stumbled across OldPhotosJapan.com, a site featuring remarkable photos from an era that most people would think predates photography itself. Many of the pictures collected are from the Meiji and Showa periods, some going back as far as the 1860s. The site was created by Tokyo-based, Dutch photojournalist Kjeld Duits, who I had a chance to catch up with yesterday to find out more about this project. What I discovered out was that this endeavor is more than just a pet interest or a hobby, but in fact, its actually a business too. Kjeld also operates MeijiShowa.com, a site where interested parties and clients can license these photos. While a lot of the photos are accessible to those who want to dig for them, Kjeld’s value add is that he can go out and acquire interesting old photos at auctions or other sales, and then license in much the same way that he used to license his own photos. He elaborates a little more about how this who idea initially came about: I had no idea there were photos of Japan from that period. I fell in love with the…

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a photo from the 1890s on OldPhotosJapan.com

I was a little surprised a few weeks back when I stumbled across OldPhotosJapan.com, a site featuring remarkable photos from an era that most people would think predates photography itself. Many of the pictures collected are from the Meiji and Showa periods, some going back as far as the 1860s.

The site was created by Tokyo-based, Dutch photojournalist Kjeld Duits, who I had a chance to catch up with yesterday to find out more about this project. What I discovered out was that this endeavor is more than just a pet interest or a hobby, but in fact, its actually a business too. Kjeld also operates MeijiShowa.com, a site where interested parties and clients can license these photos. While a lot of the photos are accessible to those who want to dig for them, Kjeld’s value add is that he can go out and acquire interesting old photos at auctions or other sales, and then license in much the same way that he used to license his own photos.

He elaborates a little more about how this who idea initially came about:

I had no idea there were photos of Japan from that period. I fell in love with the photos, but I thought that’s something you only see at museums. It didn’t even occur to me that I could buy them. […] I later found a book with these kinds of photos at a temple in Kyoto, and as my new year’s resolution that year, I decided to find out if it would be possible to buy these photos.

And after just a few days I had already found a way; I found a place and started buying them. It was only later that I realized, “Hey, I license my own photographs, maybe I should start licensing these photographs.” Most of the places that do these are large agencies like Getty Images, or museums who tend to be bureaucratic.

Subsequently he built the OldPhotosJapan site to see if there was any public interest. And sure enough, people bought them.

So far Kjeld’s strategy is to use OldPhotosJapan to drive traffic to the licensing site, MeijiShowa. And while the traffic is still relatively modest at 1000 unique views per day, ostensibly those who find the site arrive there due to a very specific keyword search. Kjeld declined to disclose any sales figures, but he is making a living from this and his other web endeavors.

I was surprised to find that he actually handles the web development and design on his own (he’s self-taught), and for MeijiShowa in particular this looks to be an impressive feat. The database of photos is rich with meta data, easily sortable and browsable with related items listed for convenience.

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Photos on MeijiShowa have lots of metadata, and are easy to browse

So far Kjeld says that his clients come from both Japan and overseas, ranging from documentary film companies (the BBC is a client, for example), to restaurants who want an interesting backdrop on their wall. Kjeld also cited the example of a client from Sweden who licensed one of the photos to use on his bedroom wall (see photo below).

OldPhotosJapan originally began back in 2007, with MeijiShowa following in 2010. and Kjeld says he plans to make a Japanese version of the latter available soon, most likely in the fall of this year. Considering that about 60% of his clients currently come from Japan, this should certainly be a big help for business.

Readers here in Japan might be familiar with some of Kjeld’s other work, most notably JapaneseStreets.com, another photography project, but with a fashion focus. Currently his company, DUITS, functions as a licensing company that oversees three branches: the aforementioned OldPhotosJapan and JapaneseStreets, as well as focusing on more traditional journalism as well. He notes:

[The first two are] small niche markets that aren’t really of interest to large or even medium-sized companies. They’re just big enough for a small company like ours. But selling to tiny markets like this is possible now because of the internet.

It’s really encouraging to see this kind of entrepreneurial activity in the journalism space, especially here in Japan. Kjeld has put forth a pretty big effort, and it will be interesting to see how the business progresses in the future.

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A client used one photo for his bedroom. An unsual, but very cool, use case

Tokyo Roppongi Gigapixel: See the city in spectacular panoramic detail

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Jeffrey Martin is the founder of 360cites, a website devoted to panoramic photography around the world [1]. And he has taken his photography talents to Tokyo, shooting an amazing panoramic shot of the Roppongi area from atop Mori Tower [2]. You can navigate the photo using the directional and zoom arrows a the base of the display. But to give you and idea of the kind of detail we’re talking about here, check out Tokyo Skytree pictured on the horizon below: And here it is when you zoom all the way in on it! Below you can see a shot of Jeffrey with his camera set-up. I’d be a little bit nervous reaching out to adjust that camera if I was him! Check out the entire panoramic photo here if you’d like to browse the amazing scene for yourself. For those of you interested in creating your own panoramic photos, 360cities has some basic instructions on how to get started. You might start with the 360cities mobile app, available for both iPhone and iPad, which looks very simple to use. You can find even more amazing panoramas from around the world over on 360cities.net. (Via Gigazine) And some from out…

Jeffrey Martin is the founder of 360cites, a website devoted to panoramic photography around the world [1]. And he has taken his photography talents to Tokyo, shooting an amazing panoramic shot of the Roppongi area from atop Mori Tower [2].

You can navigate the photo using the directional and zoom arrows a the base of the display. But to give you and idea of the kind of detail we’re talking about here, check out Tokyo Skytree pictured on the horizon below:

skytree-wide

And here it is when you zoom all the way in on it!

skytree-zoom

Below you can see a shot of Jeffrey with his camera set-up. I’d be a little bit nervous reaching out to adjust that camera if I was him! Check out the entire panoramic photo here if you’d like to browse the amazing scene for yourself.

For those of you interested in creating your own panoramic photos, 360cities has some basic instructions on how to get started. You might start with the 360cities mobile app, available for both iPhone and iPad, which looks very simple to use.

You can find even more amazing panoramas from around the world over on 360cities.net. (Via Gigazine)

tokyo-roppongi-gigapixel


  1. And some from out of this world!  ↩

  2. Initially I thought that this was panorama was created recently, although I suspect it might have been taken in 2012, and only published recently.  ↩