Map Quest

Over the past couple of decades I have acquired a lot of images and have failed to document them properly. Now I want to take on the enormous task of mapping my finds.

Just getting started

There are three categories I want to photograph, map and geotag for future reference:

  • Geocaches
  • Murals, wall art and sculptures
  • Neon signs

Geocaches

I’ve looked around a bit for an alternative to Google Maps and Google Earth but the fact remains- they have the best open-sourced mapping platform than anyone else. I can’t stand Google but damn, they make a good map system.

For plotting my found geocaches, I’ve downloaded all the .gpx files from geocaching.com and uploaded to Google Earth which can then convert to .kmz files for a map view of discovered caches. But, because importing and exporting data between two systems is hardly ever efficient as advertised, I am still doing some tweaking to format the data as I need to.

Murals, Street Art & Sculptures

I wish I was as organized as I want to be when out in the field. From here on out I promise myself to document names of the murals, artists, coordinates and any other bits of info to document. Because now I need to go in and add waymarkers to the map manually. This means going to Google My Maps, upload my image and plot it to the corresponding location.

36.16024, -95.99597

Neon Signs

Just like the street art images, I need to plot the waypoints of my neon images on to a map by hand. I have almost 500 images of neon so this may take awhile.

New Orleans, LA 29.95752 -90.06677

Adobe Lightroom Video

The same edit controls that you already use to make your photography shine can now be used with your videos as well! Not only can you use Lightroom’s editing capabilities to make your video clips look their best, you can also copy and paste edit settings between photos and videos, allowing you to achieve a consistent aesthetic across both your photos and videos.

Benjamin Warde on Adobe’s Blog: June 2022 photography releases

I have never applied a concentrated effort into shooting a quality video because I’ve been so comfortable with photos. Video editing is difficult and expensive. This seems to be a simple solution for beginners such as myself and I am digging it’s simplicity so far.

Patience

These past few weeks I’ve made concentrated efforts to be more mindful of my language and attitude. I find myself swearing less (sorry Mom,) and exhibiting more patience with a lot of success.

A challenge to myself is one of patience towards others or circumstances.

The next time I am inconvenienced, or waiting for what seems too long, I am figuring out how to make the most of it. For me it is a moment to relax, and observe. It’s also a fantastic time to meditate and calm down.

Damned Cursor

The cursor blinks at me in a passive-aggressive way.

It’s blue, sometimes white line set against a black screen taunts me because I haven’t typed anything in weeks and it shows.

To create something from nothing, to not being able to think about anything interesting at this point is frustrating.

This is just a simple blog post for a simple web site, yeah?

Choose Your Ignorance

The world contains far more information than any single person can learn in their lifetime. The question is not whether you are ignorant, but what you choose to be ignorant about. Few topics are worth your precious time. Choose what you pay attention to with great care.

James Clear