Hi
We use a professional photographer to take the images (
David Chalmers) and he also stitches the images - one reason for not including the down-shot is beacuse of the time it would take to photoshop the tripod, David obviously has other projects on the go as well. We do have some panos where the tripod has be photoshopped out but for consistancy we have decided to keep all of the panos the same. This could be something we address in the future. Technically we realise that it is always nice to see the down-shot however from a user point of view we had many comments regarding feeling queasy when the user is effectively looking at their feet and spinning round. The site is trying to be accessible to all and whilst you or I may want to see the down-shot, most users would not.
The first aim of the site is simply to show of Scarborough but the site also works as a show-piece for our graphic and web design company called
Betton Design where we offer virtual tours for sale to companies who require them, mostly service industry clients (hotels, restaurants, etc).
We wanted to create something which was better than what was already available - we feel we have done it especially with our new redesign. The site has been created using html, javascript and php rather than wordpress.
I hope that answers your questions and thank you very much for your comments and kind words - we really do appreciate your feedback.
Cheers.