Google Maps integration

» 8 Jun 2006, 5:15pm in technology, photography - 3 comments

Google Maps and Google Earth are about the coolest of Google's applications to date. Even cooler is that they've created an API (Application Programming Interface) for Maps that let's website builders integrate Maps into their own sites.

I've finally gotten around to integrating Google Maps into my own website, specifically the Photos section, where you can now see, on a satellite image, exactly where my photos were made. It is still a work in progress with some bugs, but here are some examples:

- Killarney Canoe Trip, May 2006
- Adirondack Park, New York
- Killarney Canoe Trip, September 2005
- The French River canoe trip
- Algonquin Canoe Trip, June 2003

Galleries that contain geocoded images will have a link to the satellite map after the gallery description at the top. Images that are geocoded will contain a link to the map in the "Exposure Information" section at the bottom.

Since my camera, like nearly every other, doesn't record GPS information in the EXIF headers, I have to manually enter the coordinates for each image, known as "geocoding". This is relatively quick, but requires me to use Google Maps to navigate to each location (as close as I can determine) and then copy and paste the latitude and longitude into my CMS. So it will be some time before I've done this for all of my photos.

In any case, I think it's a worthwhile feature to have implemented, and hope you enjoy using it. I enjoy knowing where where my images were made, and find it interesting to view them on a map, especially on trips with specific routes like canoe or backpacking trips.

3 comments:

  • bryan: That is cool, but you know the near future with the camera phones and GPS in them you will be able to take pictures and just upload them right to the CMS which all the location information :) Ahhh.. the wonders of technology.
  • Rob: Maybe so, but phone cameras will still be inferior to digital SLRs, so until I can get a DSLR with a built-in GPS I'll be stuck copying and pasting coordinates... or until I program my CMS so I can just click on the map and it saves the location :) Not a bad idea...
  • Brandon: Great job on the API. I would love to do the same with my site. Keep up the great work and quit slackin' at the office!

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