Google Earth Geotagged Photos and GPS tracks
#1
05-16-14, 08:33 AM
Google Earth Geotagged Photos and GPS tracks
Since last fall, I have become involved with a local volunteer group creating, maintaining and promoting local recreational trails (hiking, biking, ATVs, etc).
With my personal boots on the ground time being very limited, I have started using my cell phone to snap photos of points of interest, areas if issues (water, flooding, etc).
For personal use, this works great if I use Garmin BaseCamp as I can easily import the GPS tracks and geo tagged photos and I'm almost done. I was able to map a brand new 12km trail with 90 photos and tracks in about 30 minutes.
The problem I'm having is I can't use my software to share with others in the group, or submit it for grants and so on, so I need to use Google Earth.
I know it is possible to import or automatically link geotagged photos into Google Earth, but can not seam to find the answer or solution.
Has anyone done this and or know what is the easiest solution for this?
With my personal boots on the ground time being very limited, I have started using my cell phone to snap photos of points of interest, areas if issues (water, flooding, etc).
For personal use, this works great if I use Garmin BaseCamp as I can easily import the GPS tracks and geo tagged photos and I'm almost done. I was able to map a brand new 12km trail with 90 photos and tracks in about 30 minutes.
The problem I'm having is I can't use my software to share with others in the group, or submit it for grants and so on, so I need to use Google Earth.
I know it is possible to import or automatically link geotagged photos into Google Earth, but can not seam to find the answer or solution.
Has anyone done this and or know what is the easiest solution for this?
#2
05-16-14, 08:40 AM
I have found that I can export the GPS tracks and waypoints of photos from Garmin BaseCamp to a Google Earth usable format, but the photos are dropped and the Google Earth import needs to be cleaned.
If I have the photos online, I can insert some HTML code into the waypoint description to have the photo show up.
This method is very painful and time consuming 2+ hours for photos alone.
The trail I mentioned in the OP took nearly 6hours start to finish to complete a presentable map. That is just short of the time required to walk the actual trail and snap all the photos.
I know there is an easier way and need to find it so other members of our group can at minimum add photos along a route.
If I have the photos online, I can insert some HTML code into the waypoint description to have the photo show up.
This method is very painful and time consuming 2+ hours for photos alone.
The trail I mentioned in the OP took nearly 6hours start to finish to complete a presentable map. That is just short of the time required to walk the actual trail and snap all the photos.
I know there is an easier way and need to find it so other members of our group can at minimum add photos along a route.
#3
05-16-14, 10:09 AM
I hope you find the answer and share it with us, Mike. This is something I'd also like to try but I'm not involved yet. I thought I'd find a quick answer in a GPS review forum but surprisingly there's almost no discussion of geotagging.
#4
05-16-14, 12:58 PM
I've been searching and found a few answers but none have been consistent.
I did try a couple and one that suggested uploading the photos to Picasa did kind of work. The images in the folder selected show up on the map within Google earth, but only worked on my cell phone, and not my tablet (same version of OS and Google Earth) or my computer (where I needed it).
Attached is a screen shot from my phone. Although it is slightly different then pins you click on to display the image, it would work and the time saved is well worth it. In the attached screen shot, you click on the thumbnail and it displays the full image.
I'm hoping someone could find out how to do this. This can and will be a powerful tool for our group, both for making new trails and showing them off.
I did try a couple and one that suggested uploading the photos to Picasa did kind of work. The images in the folder selected show up on the map within Google earth, but only worked on my cell phone, and not my tablet (same version of OS and Google Earth) or my computer (where I needed it).
Attached is a screen shot from my phone. Although it is slightly different then pins you click on to display the image, it would work and the time saved is well worth it. In the attached screen shot, you click on the thumbnail and it displays the full image.
I'm hoping someone could find out how to do this. This can and will be a powerful tool for our group, both for making new trails and showing them off.
