The Case for Geo-tagging

While shooting some sports pictures the other day, my son saw me attaching "something" to the camera. When he asked what it was I explained that it was a GPS unit. His (and others) response was "you're kidding". I get that a lot. The first reaction from most of the people who have seen the unit has been why in the world would you want to tag each picture with longitude and latitude. As evidence I present the attached picture. I know in general terms the area the picture comes from. It's in Vermont, I can find the same dirt road we were on and know it was the western slope of the hill. What I don't know is which of the turnouts we were at when I shot this series. We've been back, but the spot eludes me. Makes me nuts.

Now, whenever we go out shooting I take, at least, a couple of shots with the GPS attached. I'm not all that interested in the direction the camera was pointed. I'm pretty sure I can figure that out (i.e. it's the side of the road with the stream on it) What I do is take the coiled cord and wrap a couple of loops around the camera strap. That way it's unobtrusive. I can also attach a couple of cords that way. If we're shooting early morning (like this shot) and at sunset I'll typically have the camera on a tripod (can you say photography 101). I'll also be using a remote shutter control. Wrap the coiled cord of the remote receiver on the strap and we're off to the races.

So, with a couple of shots taken with the GPS data included, hopefully we'll be able to get back to the "sweet spots" we once enjoyed.