From the creators of Geocaching.com comes a fairly new way to use GPS coordinates to find different locations and learn about them. I just published an Adventure that highlights some street murals in Tulsa.
AL is a free download and free to play. You can get it from the App store here.
Advertisement blockers. Pop-up blockers. Social media blockers. Tracking blockers. Apple’s Hide My E-Mail. Apple’s Password Generator. Virtual Private Networks (VPN).
These are the best additional software apps to have and use.
Lately I’ve been playing ping-pong in my brain about changing platforms. I set myself up on a 14-day trial to host this site on another server and within 14 minutes decided it was too much of a struggle.
I’ve spent hours, months and years to get this site where I want it.
As a geek, however, I have the prerogative to change my mind at any time and without notice!
As opposed to griping about people on their phones, it may be best to make use of my own iPhone and discover some of those benefits. Some use cases that works for me:
Blog and write with the phone
I use iA Writer on all my devices to write these articles, then press send. From there it is automagically published to my websites.
Process Images
Reviewing my images on Apple devices with Apple Photos is so pleasurable that it reminds me of the analog photo contact sheets. For quick edits of images taken from the phone, to again, publishing them to my website(s.)
Voice Dictation
Forget Siri. I’ll occasionally use this tool for quick Notes or in the Reminders app. Bonus usage in iA Writer too. Writing and blogging by voice is almost 90% accurate so I need to talk slower and enunciate.
Reading
Apple Books or Libby
Reading digital books with these apps is a joy. What better way to spend your time when you are waiting in line in public?
A new Geocache hide has been placed that overlooks the city of Tulsa from the Midland Valley Trail. This will be my third stash and is currently submitted, waiting on final approval. It will be loaded with a log, pencil, trinkets and a travel bug.
**UPDATE**
This has been ”muggled” by someone and is no longer there. I’ll have to buy a nano container to replace it and try again.
My current creative workflow is simple, on purpose. I’d rather be out there shooting than processing or organizing.
I don’t have the time or desire to go out for that one shot that will make me famous. I want to create a body of work. I’m not interested in social media “likes” or new followers scrolling through their feeds quickly and not caring.
Innovate your new workflow by keeping it simple, self-host your own website, create digital, or e-zines in .pdf. Offer prints and downloads of your work instead. This will generate a more positive, direct response from potential followers.
In an effort to minimize and get down to the essentials, I have decided not to renew some software applications. I’ve always disagreed with the subscription-based model of supporting developers. I prefer to use stock apps or some pay-once-and-done software.
Bear notes < Apple Notes
Day One journal < my website
Drafts < ia Writer
Fantastical < Apple Calendar
Mind Node < pen & paper
Tweetbot < no more Twitter
Ulysses < ia Writer
VSCO < OK, I’ll probably renew this for some reason.
Over 260 images cataloged on a map with GPS coordinates and waypoints. According to my Lightroom software, I only have a little more than 200 to add.
Then I’ll start a new map for geocaches I’ve logged followed by another map highlighting all of the street art I’ve documented. Whew.
After amassing about a thousand images of neon, murals and geocaches it is past time that I curate them into a searchable database. This is one of those “shoulda done it sooner” moments but who knew my latest photographic passion would have carried on this long?
I’ve looked around for some inexpensive, do-it-yourself software but I’m coming up with a lot of fluff. For now, I’ve settled on Google My Maps and Google Earth. I hate this.
Every photo taken with a GPS-enabled camera is geo-tagged in their EXIF file. This helps tremendously when my memory fails. GPS coordinates are great when importing/exporting data to the map layer overlays.
My current issue is documenting these locations whilst at the same time snapping more images almost daily to the database. It is a self-inflicted labor of love that only I can appreciate but to me it is worth it.
Each My Map will have a separate genre for neon, one for murals and the other for geocaches.
After those are complete, I will export the .kmz files into Google Earth as a master database wherein all waypoints will be tagged, mapped and displayed.
Google Earth alternative suggestions are welcome. Please!
One of my favorite tools on the iPad is importing my images to the Photos app. The simple act of sorting, organizing these photos like I used to do on a contact sheet of film negatives. Find the keepers and then develop them in the lab afterward.
I’ve had the privilege of handling and owning a lot of personal computing and tech devices over the past couple of decades. My all-time favorite is hands-down the M1 iPad Pro and it’s companion, the Magic Keyboard.
The iPad has so much processing power and battery life that I can batch-process images, stream music and more for hours and it will not give out on me. The fact that it is ultra-portable with 5G data speeds, multiple inputs such as keyboard, mouse and Pencil still has my head shaking in amazement. This one stays with me until it dies.
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.
There are three categories I want to photograph, map and geotag for future reference:
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.
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.
