Participatory Photo Mapping and Geotagging Photos


Participatory Photo Mapping

 

 

 

View more information and resources from this workshop at www.cyhrnet.ca/events/PPMworkshop2010
Participatory Photo Mapping (PPM) is an integrative tool for documenting and communicating the experience of place to community stakeholders and decision-makers. In this workshop, aimed at health researchers and clinicians engaged in community-based collaborative projects, Suzanne Gaulocher and her colleague Dr. David Brown introduced PPM techniques and provided illustrations of its applications. The workshop also addressed critical aspects of community-research partnerships in such projects.
Suzanne Gaulocher is working toward a PhD with the Nelson Institute in Environment and Resources at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has a Master's Degree in Medical Anthropology from Oregon State University and a Master of Public Health Degree from University of Wisconsin. Her work has centered on increasing knowledge to support the intersection between health and place research with a focus on disparity. The workshop took place March 12, 2010 at the University of Victoria.

 

Geotagging your Photos

Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. These data usually consist of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, accuracy data, and place names.

 

When you view Google Earth, you can see many photos that folks have uploaded to the software.  Here's a nice, very short intro to Google Earth that you may find helpful:

 

Geotag a photo with Google Earth

The easiest way to match your photos to a specific location is to use Google Maps in Picasa. This can be done on a Mac or PC. 

Here are directions for geotagging photos using Picasa and Google Maps.
Google Earth recognizes the following types of search terms, which you can enter with or without commas.
spacer Format Example
 
City, State Buffalo, NY
 
City Country London England
  Number Street City State 1600 Pennsylvania Ave Washington DC
  Zipcode or Postal Code 90210
  Latitude, Longitude in decimal format 37.7, -122.2

Note that such coodinates must appear in this order (latitude, longitude).
  Latitude, Longitude in DMS format 37 25'19.07"N, 122 05'06.24"W or
37 25 19.07 N, 122 05 06.24 W

Note that format 37d25'19.07"N, 122d05'06.24"W does not work with Google Earth. Such coordinates must appear in this order (latitude, longitude).

 From: Finding Addresses and Locations-Google Earth Help

 

Here's a link to one of the maps I created using Picasa:

 

However, you can also use the geotag feature in Picasa, which launches Google Earth to accomplish the same thing. This feature is not currently available in Picasa for Mac (as of July 2011.) Geotagging your photo does the following:

You need to have Google Earth installed on your computer to use this feature. Download Google Earth at http://earth.google.com/

 

Here is a video that gives you a brief intro to yet another way to place photos and create "paths" using Google Earth

 

My Delicious account contains a variety of links to resources that will help you understand the why and how to of geotagging photos. The CommunityWalk site is particularly easy to use for beginners.

 

Panoramio is another site where you can geotag photos. "Panoramio is different from other photo sharing sites because the photos illustrate places. As you browse Panoramio, notice that there aren't many photos of friends and family posing in front of places, or photos of interesting surfaces--Panoramio's all about seeing the world. Every Panoramio photo is a candidate for transfer to the Google Earth Panoramio layer. You'll notice a line under each photo, telling you whether it's been reviewed or selected for Google Earth. Once a month, we transfer the selected photos."

 

Photo sites like Flickr now make it very easy to geotag your photos without the use of a GPS. Flickr has a great how to video explaining how to do this.

 

If you want to use the "tracks" feature on your GPS, you can easily create and share a trail using a Web2.0 tool called EveryTrail.com  Any GPS device that records tracks will work with EveryTrail. Just record a trip with your GPS device, and save the file to your computer to upload. Take pictures along the way with any camera or phone, and you can add those to your map too. If you don't have a GPS device,  Just use your mobile phone! EveryTrail is available via app stores for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Mobile smartphones. Just install the EveryTrail app (it’s free!) and it’ll use your phone’s GPS to track your trip route. Take pictures with your phone’s camera and they’ll automatically be plotted on your trail.

 

Doing More with Google Earth

Bring what your students are reading alive with Google Lit Trips

 

Here's a very short intro to downloading Google Lit Trips for you and your students:

 

And here's another good introductory video by a teacher who's using them with her literature students

 

Part 2 is also available on YouTube.