By Jonathan Lawton
Over the last few years, geotagging photos has become increasingly popular among photographers. Geotagging is the process of attaching geographical information, such as the longitude and latitude, to photographs when they’re taken. The geotag capability has been around for years, but until recently required carrying a bulky GPS receiver and then manually attaching the coordinates after photographing. Typically, only serious enthusiasts or professionals bothered with the laborious task.
Thankfully, Jobo has made the process of geotagging more user-friendly with its newly released PhotoGPS receiver. The device is compact (2.7 by 0.8 by 1.7 inches), lightweight and designed to be mounted on the hotshoe of any camera.
Here’s how it works: Whenever the camera’s shutter button is pressed, the PhotoGPS receiver automatically captures the geographical coordinates. That information is saved to the device’s internal memory. Later when downloading the images to your computer, connect the PhotoGPS receiver and the GPS data is downloaded at the same time. After running the PhotoGPS software, each photo will be tagged with its GPS coordinates as well as other important information such as country name, state, city, postal code, street name and nearby points of interest.
The PhotoGPS helps you easily organize and archive photos by geographical location. Another great advantage of geotagging is the ability to see the exact location on a map where your photos were taken when using Web sites such as Flickr and Google Earth. The PhotoGPS is a great device to add to your camera bag. Whether you’re a professional photographer with thousands of pictures to organize or an enthusiast looking for an interesting way to display your vacation photos on a map, the Jobo PhotoGPS is an invaluable tool.
The Jobo PhotoGPS includes the receiver, a USB cable, users manual and a CD-ROM featuring PhotoGPS matching software for Geocoding.
Jonathan Lawton has been a photographer for more than 10 years and operates his own photography business (www.jonathanlawton.com). He’s also a salesman at Hunt’s Photo and Video in Melrose, Mass. If you have questions on any photo-related topics, contact him at jlawton@wbhunt.com. ◊
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