Technology exists. But many times they aren't integrated, or aren't cheap to use. Several times two independent technologies spring up to serve two completely different purposes; and then someone comes and stitches them together to open up completely new possibilities. Take photography and geolocation as example. Sometimes it is important (or fun) to know where exactly the photograph is taken. In nature photography, for example, you shoot a rare species and try to publish a record. The exact location will provide a much better details on the subject's habitat, or help someone to follow your trail if the want to do further research. Or maybe just as a tour guide. You hiked around, and on the way kept shooting. And the photos are placed in the map exactly where they were taken. Flickr, Picasa had such support since long; if the image had location information in their header, they'd show the image on a map. Even manually you could place photos on their maps and they'll update the meta data.
Obviously updating the location manually is very painful process. All your 100 photos may be taken at different locations (nearby, but different). Updating in Flickr/Picasa just updates their own copy. Plus, it may be difficult to pinpoint the exact location of each photograph in their maps. So, we need to devise a method where the photos will be automatically updated with location information.
A camera with integrated GPS solves everything. Theoretically, though. The cameras with built-in GPS is neither good as a camera nor the GPS works (first hand feedback of a friend who's using one). I already have invested so much in good camera gear that a downgrade (the camera model with gps is way inferior) is out of question. And I have multiple of cameras with me during a trip so obviously I can't change all of them. And the GPS module wouldn't work when needed.
So what I need is an external GPS module. It need not have maps as I am not going to use it as guidance. All I want it to keep logging my location during my photography sessions; and later I can reconcile the log with photo's time. I was also looking at a watch which can monitor my heart-beat during my work-outs, and finally found a deal on Garmin Forerunner 305 at amazon. (They made the watch to help athletes but see the purpose it is serving here). It can log enough to cover a few safari trips, and battery lasts a whole working day. The only missing part in this is the direction the camera is facing when shooting (which an integrated box could do), but I guess I'll live with that deficiency.
This is it, so I synchronized the clocks of all cameras with the GPS watch. Once back from the trek/trip, it is time to update the location information. Currently I am using geotag to stitch the information together. First I export the GPS track into a gpx file from the watch. Then geotag loads the images, the track and places the images on the track as per the time-stamp. It can even interpolate if the photo doesn't have a matching time (rarely as the gpx track will generally record the position every second). And finally update the photos' exif tags with latitude, longitude and altitude information (both RAW and JPG). Now we can upload the photo anywhere, and the meta information would go with it.
There's geotag (right) in action, along with the placement of the photo in google map (top-left) with gps information available from Garmin training center (left-bottom).
Obviously updating the location manually is very painful process. All your 100 photos may be taken at different locations (nearby, but different). Updating in Flickr/Picasa just updates their own copy. Plus, it may be difficult to pinpoint the exact location of each photograph in their maps. So, we need to devise a method where the photos will be automatically updated with location information.
A camera with integrated GPS solves everything. Theoretically, though. The cameras with built-in GPS is neither good as a camera nor the GPS works (first hand feedback of a friend who's using one). I already have invested so much in good camera gear that a downgrade (the camera model with gps is way inferior) is out of question. And I have multiple of cameras with me during a trip so obviously I can't change all of them. And the GPS module wouldn't work when needed.
So what I need is an external GPS module. It need not have maps as I am not going to use it as guidance. All I want it to keep logging my location during my photography sessions; and later I can reconcile the log with photo's time. I was also looking at a watch which can monitor my heart-beat during my work-outs, and finally found a deal on Garmin Forerunner 305 at amazon. (They made the watch to help athletes but see the purpose it is serving here). It can log enough to cover a few safari trips, and battery lasts a whole working day. The only missing part in this is the direction the camera is facing when shooting (which an integrated box could do), but I guess I'll live with that deficiency.
This is it, so I synchronized the clocks of all cameras with the GPS watch. Once back from the trek/trip, it is time to update the location information. Currently I am using geotag to stitch the information together. First I export the GPS track into a gpx file from the watch. Then geotag loads the images, the track and places the images on the track as per the time-stamp. It can even interpolate if the photo doesn't have a matching time (rarely as the gpx track will generally record the position every second). And finally update the photos' exif tags with latitude, longitude and altitude information (both RAW and JPG). Now we can upload the photo anywhere, and the meta information would go with it.
There's geotag (right) in action, along with the placement of the photo in google map (top-left) with gps information available from Garmin training center (left-bottom).
