Maps, GPS and photography

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CJS

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I am gobsmacked . . . my plans to go on a bike for fitness has lead to me developing the idea in my mind to develop picture opportunities in and around my local area. This has led me to thinking . . . local rivers Stour and Orwell summer trips along the public paths, pictures of wild life, and river scenes, vegetation, flotsam etc.

Leading me on to my other love; fishing . . . The Stour and Orwell are stuffed with Sea Bass in the summer that can be caught from the river banks on light lure tackle, you only need rod, reel, line a few spinning lures and plugs and pocket full of ods and sods. Camera in the 'handle bar bag', a packed lunch in the pannier bag, the other side is empty accept for a couple of bags to put the bass in:naughty:

Thats all very well, but where are these paths and bridle ways, the little back streets in town, parks and place we never see in our cars.

Ordnance survey was the obvious starting point to me. Expensive way of obtaining the information. A bit more digging, the obvious one under my nose for points of interest I nearly missed . . . the Garmin GPS in my car!!! it has a 'walking' mode. Then a bit more digging on the computer, I came up with this:

http://streetmap.co.uk/idld.srf?x=6...searchp=s.srf&dn=839&ax=613500&ay=233500&lm=0

Zoom in to show all the detail one will ever need, I've seen 'navigation map' sites before but never presented as an A4 sheet and to this sort of detail? There is nothing like a full map to read . . . love reading maps, but when one is dealing in 1.50,000 scale, a paper map does not cover much of an area for your money, especially when what you want goes on to the next sheet!!!

I cant wait to get my self fit so that I can take advantage of all this knowledge and information, follow it up, sea bass, pictures, me being mistaken for a lamp post and feeling 40 again? . . . :lol:

CJS
 
I frequently use online mapos for a recce for shots of trains, trying to find good vantage points, the problem sometimes is the vegetation has grown since some of the pictures of the locations were obtained.
 
I use a Garmin Edge 705 on the bike / mountain bike / Hill walking. It records a tracklog of where I've been, and just for fun, you can use a nifty bit of software called geosetter, which will geotag the photo's you've taken from this tracklog. It works by taking the time and date from the exif, and finding where you were in the tracklog at that point in time, then assigning a co-ordinate to your image. If you upload the images into flickr, for example, they automatically are added to your map. It's really handy for when you've taken a "record shot" for some location that you intend to go back to photograph when the conditions are correct, as you can go right back to the spot. You can also plug the locations into something like The photographers ephemeris, and check what time and direction sunrise/sunset will be at the location.
 
Kind of expensive, I know, but the best mapping system is Memory Map Navigator. It uses 1:50000 or 1:25000 OS maps to provide a rolling display on a mobile phone/PPC/laptop.

I run MMN on a Mitac PPC150 device, a Nokia mobile and my HP laptop depending on my mode of transport. You can zoom in/out of the map, it records where you've been and can be used for geotagging.

Regarding cycling: whilst it is great exercise and fantastic for getting to those out of the way places, please remember you cannot (legally) ride on a public footpath (or private one without the land owners permission). Canal towpaths are (AFAIK) all designated as cycle routes but otherwise you need to search out Bridleway, RB (Restricted Byway) or BOAT (Byway Open to All Traffic) if riding off-tarmac.

Enjoy your cycling amd photography :clap:
 
Bristolian said:
Kind of expensive, I know, but the best mapping system is Memory Map Navigator. It uses 1:50000 or 1:25000 OS maps to provide a rolling display on a mobile phone/PPC/laptop.

I run MMN on a Mitac PPC150 device, a Nokia mobile and my HP laptop depending on my mode of transport. You can zoom in/out of the map, it records where you've been and can be used for geotagging.

Regarding cycling: whilst it is great exercise and fantastic for getting to those out of the way places, please remember you cannot (legally) ride on a public footpath (or private one without the land owners permission). Canal towpaths are (AFAIK) all designated as cycle routes but otherwise you need to search out Bridleway, RB (Restricted Byway) or BOAT (Byway Open to All Traffic) if riding off-tarmac.

Enjoy your cycling amd photography :clap:
Click to expand...

I think you need a towpath permit from British Waterways for the canalside riding.
 
Yeah . . . there is so much red tape, who ever bothers with it? I see and read about it all the time. Wont be using tow paths, not many of them in SE Suffolk.

I might be a naughty boy then . . . :shrug: If security guards and police can harass togs unreasonably, I can use the od country footpath on occasions, provided I dont do any damage . . . I know two wrongs dont make a right, but . . . 'sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander in my book'.

CJS
 
My iPhone has a few apps that are really useful in this area.

First there's Viewranger. If you're a map fan then you can imagine how excited I was by the possibility of having every single OS Landranger (1:50,000) map in my pocket. Plus a selection of 1:25000 Explorer maps for certain regions (and if you find you need another one, you can download it there and then). The same app works on the iPad - which is fantastic for browsing maps.

The there's The Big Yin's recommendation - The Photographer's Ephemeris. This is very handy for letting you know what the Sun and Moon will be doing and when they'll be doing it from a particular location. Not as versatile as the PC version, but still very handy.

Finally, there's Theodolite. This does thousands of really cool things. One of them is that you can take a picture with the iPhone that has location and bearing data superimposed on the image. So if TPE tells you the Sun will rise at 110º tomorrow morning, you can go to your location today and see exactly what sort of view you can get of the sunrise.
 
I use the following for checking out locations, it is basically an online OS map and you can show the satelite image along side it, also you can plot your route on the map and it tells you the distance, its very handy...

http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm
 
I have an app on my iphone that is basically an elec version of OS maps, expect the areas it covers are much much larger than an OS map. I have the whole of the south west of England and the west Midlands and I think it cost £40 for both maps.
Its the land ranger maps, so is 1:50 scale and shows all the footpaths, bridleways, UCR's, BOATS and everything. I use it for walking and for "greenlaning" in my 4x4.

Its saved my bacon many a time when out walking in the woods!
 
Oh dear . . . I'm such a technophobe . . . if only I was into iPhone's, Apps and the like . . . :shrug:

Its the old fashioned way for me I'm afraid, same as my togging, half baked :( . . . :thinking:

CJS
 
CJS said:
Yeah . . . there is so much red tape, who ever bothers with it? I see and read about it all the time. Wont be using tow paths, not many of them in SE Suffolk.

I might be a naughty boy then . . . :shrug: If security guards and police can harass togs unreasonably, I can use the od country footpath on occasions, provided I dont do any damage . . . I know two wrongs dont make a right, but . . . 'sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander in my book'.

CJS
Click to expand...

Yeah, go for it. Don't let The Ramblers catch you though ... they tend to disembowel naughty boys and hang their bits from a high tree as a warning to others :gag:

(Sorry they're not my favourite group of people :thumbsdown:)
 
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