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cwnorris
join:2000-01-17
Longmont, CO

cwnorris to jvmorris

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to jvmorris

Re: GPS tagging

My interest is mainly documenting where photos were taken, on a drive or a hike, or whatever.
I am too lazy to keep a log as I shoot, and when I get home and want to look at and share the photos, I am sometimes lost. I also think it would be nice to be able to have a link along with the photo, that leads to an online map, or possibly another image with the trackpoints of your trip.
I think with outdoor and landscape shots, it's nice to provide an exact location, as maybe someone else who sees your photo may want to visit the spot, and having GPS info in the EXIF makes that very easy (at least finding the spot). I can imagine all sorts of neat ways to make an online representation of a trip or outing, and the LAT/LONG/ALTITUDE information would be a great addition.

I have found one problem with the robogeo software, and that is that it wants a COM connection, and doesn't seem to work with USB. One way to get around that is to use G7ToWin to download the GPS info from the unit, then import that into robogeo.
G7ToWin works very nicely, and robogeo seems to import the file just fine. I will have to wander around tonight and take some photos and see how it all works.

jvmorris
I Am The Man Who Was Not There.
MVM
join:2001-04-03
Reston, VA

1 edit

jvmorris

MVM

said by cwnorris:
. . . I am too lazy to keep a log as I shoot, and when I get home and want to look at and share the photos, I am sometimes lost.
Yes, I can certainly relate to that!
quote:
I also think it would be nice to be able to have a link along with the photo, that leads to an online map, or possibly another image with the trackpoints of your trip.
There's been more than one occasion on which I've followed an animal trace rather than a marked path to some location. A few years later, that GPS route can be essential if you yourself want to revisit the location.
quote:
I think with outdoor and landscape shots, it's nice to provide an exact location, as maybe someone else who sees your photo may want to visit the spot, and having GPS info in the EXIF makes that very easy (at least finding the spot).
Just don't become a famous photographer, okay? I think it was Galen Rowell in the early years of becoming known who used to identify his shooting locations. Years later, when he went back again, he was disgusted to find eroded paths, trashy campsites, and the spikes where dozens of others had set their tripods up on exactly the same site (presuming, of course, that Galen was actually standing on the ground, which was not always so).
quote:
I can imagine all sorts of neat ways to make an online representation of a trip or outing, and the LAT/LONG/ALTITUDE information would be a great addition.

Oh, you most assuredly can! Let me see if I can find the URL for the journey along the Southwest Coastal Trail in Cornwall, England that I at least got to see part of last September -- one of the best documented sites I've ever seen. Unfortunately, the Brits don't seem to have the inexpensive GPS-based topo maps that we here in the States tend to take for granted, it seems.
. . .

Addendum Okay, here's the English website that you may want to take a look at. I think there's probably ten to twenty years of work involved there and with inputs from more than one person. Check »www.jbutler.org.uk/e2e/s ··· ex.shtml . It's a very British style; care to show the Brits how an American would do it?

SandShark5
Long may you run
Premium Member
join:2000-05-23
Santa Fe, TX

SandShark5 to cwnorris

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to cwnorris
Have either one of you heard of The Degree Confluence Project?

jvmorris
I Am The Man Who Was Not There.
MVM
join:2001-04-03
Reston, VA

jvmorris

MVM

There seem to be a general lack of shots in which the photographer is treading water and fighting off sharks!

(But I'm still bookmarking the site.)

SandShark5
Long may you run
Premium Member
join:2000-05-23
Santa Fe, TX

SandShark5

Premium Member

LOL - Actually, several photographers got the shots, but the sharks ended up eating the cameras, or the photographers, or both.

jvmorris
I Am The Man Who Was Not There.
MVM
join:2001-04-03
Reston, VA

jvmorris

MVM

You've got me thinking now. . . Let's see, there are roughly 365 sunrises and 365 sunsets each year, hmmm , . . .

cwnorris
join:2000-01-17
Longmont, CO

cwnorris to jvmorris

Member

to jvmorris
said by jvmorris:

Just don't become a famous photographer, okay?

I don't think there's any danger of that happening!
said by jvmorris:

Addendum Okay, here's the English website that you may want to take a look at.

That looks like quite a project. I imagine that's a lot of work, for as long as the trail is.
said by SandShark5:

Have either one of you heard of The Degree Confluence Project?

Looks like all the ones near me have already been documented. I'll have to keep it in mind if I do any travelling.

I drove around town and took a few pictures.
Here is an image of my route:

Route

And here's one picture I took heading West on 17th at Hover, with the GPS inserted into the EXIF.

Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
55mm 1/1600th F5.6 ISO100


One problem with the robogeo is that the demo version purposely inserts inaccurate GPS info into the EXIF. I have a slight problem with this, as the one thing the software is supposed to do is crippled. I want to make sure that it actually inserts the data properly before buying it, and the author has made that impossible. I will send him an email about that, and the lack of USB support.
Here's a link to the correct GPS info (straight from my GPS unit) at MapQuest, looks pretty close:
»www.mapquest.com/maps/ma ··· 105.1303

I had the trackpoints set at one per minute, which won't work well for driving speeds, but should be fine for walking speeds.
So, it looks fairly painless to get the info into the EXIF, now to get the info out easily for display in my gallery, and figure out exactly how to use it best.

Can somebody else see if they can view the GPS data from the picture above? I'm not sure what applications will include the GPS info in the EXIF output, but it's part of the EXIF spec, so it shouldn't be too rare.

viofam
Premium Member
join:2001-07-17
Clarksville, TN

1 edit

viofam to SandShark5

Premium Member

to SandShark5
Thanks for posting this SandShark!

SandShark5
Long may you run
Premium Member
join:2000-05-23
Santa Fe, TX

SandShark5

Premium Member

You bet!