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Sydney Aerial Photo Shoot

January 26, 2007

[UPDATE: 29-January – Photo shoot does not go as planned – see below]
Human sign on Sydney beach in Google EarthGoogle announced earlier this week they would be shooting high-resolution aerial photos in the Sydney Harbour area during Australia Day today. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that they saw many people all over town setting up to be in the picture. Many of the people were putting up banners, drawing signs in the sand, or laying people out to spell words hoping their words would be immortalized in Google Earth/Maps in a few weeks after Google processes the images. The article includes photos of several of the signs and groups participating. One guy put out a sign saying he loved his wife (who left him recently), and there are many other tales in another article in the newspaper. The first article pointed out that there are rumors Google did this in response to Microsoft doing an aerial photo shot on the same day. Whether or not this is true, the spontaneous response by people coming out for the Google photos was large. The authors of the article didn’t mention anyone having seen the plane flying over. I’m trying to get confirmation from Google that the plane managed to acquire photos. I hope they did, this will be really interesting to see if the photos get published.
As feared, the photo shoot did not go as planned. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the plane Google hired was unable to get approval for the flight plan it had filed and it did not fly in all the locations or at the times Google had announced. So, many of the people who had arrived did not get their photos taken as planned. As mentioned last week, holding an aerial photograph as a PR event is very risky. Maybe backup plans such as aerial drones and kite aerial photography could be used to help increase the probability of success for events like this.

About Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.

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PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

Comments

  1. Jimmy Lemon says

    January 26, 2007 at 3:16 pm

    Haha, great story – I hope they did manage to get the images, will be good to see them on Google Earth. Will be interesting to see how detailed they are though, get the feeling some peoples efforts might not show up so well! Wonder how many more “Naked people” threads will appear on the GEC if it is good resolution 🙂

  2. Warren says

    January 28, 2007 at 9:59 pm

    Here is a view of the plane as it flew over our apartment block
    http://www.sydney-webcam.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=32270

  3. Ben says

    January 29, 2007 at 2:30 am

    doesn’t look like the plane made it 🙁
    http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/nofly-zone-spoils-googles-big-day-out/2007/01/29/1169919256978.html

  4. Ben says

    January 29, 2007 at 9:21 pm

    What’s the big deal about being in a photo? Don’t we all have loads of photos of ourselves and others stored away in digital cameras and CDs that will never get processed?!

  5. Pete says

    January 30, 2007 at 2:19 am

    so go check out the new photography at:
    http://www.google.com/intl/en_au/events/australiaday2007/index.html

  6. Pete says

    January 30, 2007 at 5:38 am

    Microsoft pics are now available:
    http://www.lookupandsmile.com.au/australia_day_above.aspx

  7. Steve says

    February 17, 2007 at 9:44 pm

    http://www.aerialphotographyforyou.co.uk show exactly what can be done with a balloon and a camera.

  8. izzy says

    March 7, 2008 at 4:30 pm

    its a good picture of sydneys beach, i hope they had put some more plcaes like the schools, eh i dont live there but i have heaps of friends who do ^-^ ~ izzy 4 shizzy btw



PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

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