Hey y'all! How is everyone doing this week? Me? Pretty good. Hey have you ever looked at one of your old photo's and said "Hey that's cool but where did I take it?" Me too. I sometimes can sort of tell the area but not the precise place I took a shot. This is where GPS (Global Positioning System) comes into play. Being able to add the GPS coordinates to your photographs in the metadata is a great way to find those locations that you can't remember. But how do we get those mysterious numbers on our photographs and how do we use them? Thats what we are going to talk about this week.

How do I get the GPS data? Well with technology being what it is you would think that this is the simple part. Well not really. Although a few camera's have the ability to get the GPS data and put right on your photo most do not. I think that there are devices that you can hook up to some camera's but they are expensive. There is however a few couple of ways to put the GPS data on your images. The first one requires your camera to have bluetooth capabilities .  If it does you should be able to sync your camera to your mobile device to get these GPS coordinates added to your photo at the instant you take it. It then has this info burned into the file and follows the file where ever it goes. All you have to do is before your outing sync your camera and mobile device and you will get them the rest of the day. You may have to go through your camera's phone app to sync them together and there may be a setting on your camera to allow the information to go to your camera from your phone but it can be done and is pretty easy. Mine was a little difficult to set up at first but now that its set up , its easy all I have to do is choose which camera my Sony crops sensor camera or my Full frame Sony and sync and its done. The other way is to take a photo with your mobile device when you get to the site that you take photos at. When you get all of your photo's imported you can sync the metadata from the iPhone  to the rest of the photo's that were taken in that area and you will have the GPS data. The only problem with this is that you have to remember to take a mobile device photo at each different location that you go to in that day so you can get the GPS data for that location. Either way you have to remember to either sync your phone to your camera or sync a phone shot with the regular photo's in Lightroom.

So how do I used the GPS data now that I have it on my images metadata? If you're a Lightroom user like most of us are you just have to open up the Map Module and your photo's will be shown on the map where they were taken.  There is lots of things that you can do in the Map module but for me it's just getting the location of things. This is a neat feature that really doesn't cost you anymore money. Something new to try if you have never done it before. So until next week get out and shoot and note your location with GPS data.

Hey Y'all! Hope you're having a great week. Me not too bad. This week I want to tell you about a recent trip to the Appalachian Trail for an over night Backpacking/Photography trip. Me and my photography wingman Robert have been planning this trip for a year or longer. The trip has been planned and canceled at least twice before because of weather or some other reason. Robert is new to backpacking and ever since we have done a little backpacking this trip has been on his bucket list. McAfee's Knob is the most popular and most photographed overlook on the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian trail for those that don't know is a continuous foot path from Georgia to Maine. The trail is almost 2200 miles in length and takes up to 5  months to complete for those that dare to take it on. I love to hike and backpack but that's a little too much for me. What we had planned was to drive to Salem Virginia ( a 4 hour drive) spend the night and hike up the next morning. While on the way up set up camp and the next morning go to the outlook and photograph sunrise.  Then hike back down the mountain and drive back home. Keeping my pack lightweight was a concern. My photography gear was going to be simple. My EDC camera a Canon G7XII Point and shoot and my iPhone14 Pro. We both wanted that iconic photograph of the sun rising just breaking the horizon with a sunburst with the knob in the fore ground. Well that was the plan. It didn't quite go as planned. This is what happened.

We had set a date to go and Robert had made a reservation at a hotel in Salem. We have had lots of rain prior to our trip so checking the weather was something I did many  times a day to see what the percentage of rain was going to be. It was ranging 40% to 50% chance of rain but we were determined to go whatever the weather was going to be.  Robert was going to drive and had put his truck in the shop to get it serviced before we left.  We were planning to leave on a Friday and come back on a Sunday. Thursday came around and his truck was still in the shop and had to have some repairs done to it and parts were backordered. So the first change to plans has happened. I was going to drive. I usually don't drive because I have a really old truck (24 years old) and dependability is always a concern.  I recently got a newer vehicle so it would be a good test drive for my "Max mobile" to take. So I arrived at Roberts house at the specified time and we were off. We had a good drive with no problems and arrived in Salem on time.  Robert went into the hotel to check in. I waited and waited and he didn't come out. So I went in to find out that the hotel had problems with the hot water and only some of the rooms had it. It was too late in the game to find something else and we took the room. It was a nice room and Robert went to check the hot water. We had hot water! Whoop Whoop!  We had planned to just chill out and head out after breakfast in the morning. We both got up early and got ready to go but they didn't start serving breakfast until 7am and we were ready to go at 6. So we took off. We were only a few miles from the trail head so it only took a couple of minutes to get there. We got our packs and headed up. It was up hill all day and it was expected. The views on that first section of trail were not expected. They were Fantastic!  We had Fog with the sun breaking threw the trees creating sun rays. There was also wildflowers growing along the way. We took our time and took some shots. We made it to the shelter that we were going to stay at and set up camp. Shelters are 3 sided buildings built for through hikers to stay at along the AT. Robert set up his tent and I set up my hammock system. But this wasn't the shelter that we planning to stay at. We had miscalculated the shelter arrangements but we stuck with this one. This would mean that we would have a longer hike in the morning to get to the knob for sunrise. Well we headed up the trail. We made it to the shelter that we had planned to stay at and still had a mile and a half up and the climb got tougher. We finally made it to the top and I was soaked in sweat. There wasn't too many people up there and wasn't too crowded. Which it's known to be. We took our selfies and photos and really enjoyed ourselves. Then headed back down to our shelter .  Heading up was tough on the heart but going down was tough on my knees. My left knee started getting stiff with all of the pounding on it going down hill and it seemed longer to get down than it did going up. Maybe because of the discomfort of my knee. We finally made it back to the camp and we both chilled out while through hikers stopped to eat lunch on their long trek.  We got back around 12 noon and I had made up in my mind that I wasn't going to go back up in the morning. It was just too much for this old man to do. So if I wasn't going back up why would I stay overnight when I know rain was coming?  I asked Robert if he wanted to go up in the morning or just pack up and head back down the mountain before the storms come. He was ready to go! We packed up and as we were we could hear the thunder in the background. The storms were not suppose to come before 4 but it was 1:30. We headed down the mountain trying to beat the rain. We were both sore from all of the other hiking we did during the day.  We got just a little wet toward the end. But didn't get soaked. 

So out trip really didn't go as planned but still a success ! We had an adventure! And that was the whole point. We got some memorable photos too. Maybe not the ones we had pictured in our minds but still some good ones. Things don't always go as planned but don't let that get to you. We had a great trip and had lots of laughs along the way. I limped for a day or so afterwards but am fine now.  So adventures don’t always go the way you want but they are still adventures. Until next week get out and shoot and find your adventure!

Hey Y’all! Hope everyone is having a great week! Me? I have been having a good week. I’ve been traveling with my wife and Forrest the wonder dog! This week is about doing travel photography when your with your family. Doing photography while with my family has always been a challenge. You want to shoot all kinds of stuff and use all of your gear that you have to shoot it .  You are usually hauling a lot of stuff when you’re doing your photography and that doesn’t leave room for their stuff. And if you’re like us when we travel I am the pack mule carrying everything in a back pack. My water their water any gifts that are bought in a gift shop any snacks and hauling all of your camera gear too. A few years I came up with a system that works for me and my family that doesn’t cause too much anguish on their part waiting for me to set something up and on my part being the pack mule. Years ago I went on a photography trip with my camera club to Washington DC. We stayed there for a week and it was great. I wanted to do the same trip with my wife so the next year I booked an Air B&B and got train tickets to DC. The only thing that I didn’t bring was all of my photography gear like I did with the camera club.  I went out and purchased (yes another camera) a high end point and shoot and that would be my camera for the trip. It’s small and doesn’t take up too much room leaving room for all of the other gear I have to haul. It has ended up being my EDC ( Every Day Carry ) camera. The week in DC was a great success and I got some great shots.

This is my current system for traveling with my family. I have the Canon G7XMII. It’s an older version I believe they have newer versions. It will shoot in all of the modes from Manual to Program. I have an adapter on it so I can use polarizer filter or a ND filter on it. It has a focal length of 24-200mm and goes from 1.8 to 2.8 maximum aperture’s . It’s a great little travel camera. I can use this in conjunction with my iPhone 14pro and I have a pretty good system. If I know that there will be some stunning photo’s to be had like say the Grand Tetons then I will bring my Landscape kit along and try to go out and photograph those iconic scenes early in the morning where there are less people and my wife can sleep in. That way I don’t feel rushed. But other than that I use the Point and Shoot Canon that I have and I love it. I have a Peak Design clip that I can put on my backpack or if I’m not using the backpack I use a Fanny Pack that it will easily fit into and be out of the way when not using it. If I need super wide shots my iPhone works great and also does great Panno’s.  I can adjust the aperture on the fly and can do long exposures If I need by using a small tripod or a Platapod camera mount. If I feel the need to do some video I can either use my phone which is more convenient or I can use a small GoPro 9 that I take with me for hikes and such still a small package and works great.

For editing on the road I do everything on my iPad Pro with the M1 chip .  I use Lightroom and Photoshop when needed to do my editing and it syncs with my main catalog at home with all the edits on it after I turn on the computer. I have been using this system and really like it for the road. I have a cellular model so if I don’t have WI-FI and have a cell signal I can still do work. This blog is being written on the iPad as we speak. I’m sitting in my sisters house on a week long visit.  The iPad is small and convenient to use charges pretty quick and the battery last a long time. I back everything up to a SSD drive that I bring on trips.

I find that using this setup is less hassle for me with gear and for the photography that I do when traveling with my wife and dog it works out great.  My wife doesn’t have to stand around tapping her foot while I’m fumbling around with gear and I’m not rushed by an annoyed wife.  When I go hiking with my dog this is a great set up and when he’s pulling me with the leash I can use just one hand to take photo’s.  On this particular trip I brought my landscape camera but haven’t used it once I have been using my little camera for everything . All of the photos in this blog were taken with my little camera or my iPhone. With the little camera I still feel like I’m doing photography without lugging the bigger camera around.  I’m also less of a threat when doing street photography and less of a target for thieves. So set up a system that you can enjoy and not annoy them with. Until next week Get out and Shoot!