Map your photo todo list

A key part of my photography, over and above Thomas Hawk’s article, as it grows is something I call a photo map. This isn’t a map of shots I’ve taken (Zooomr / Flickr), it’s more like a To Do list, in a geographical view.

I’m sure, like me, you pass an absolutely gorgeous subject and you scrabble around to find your camera is either on charge, or the battery is dead. While I try and always keep my camera with me and two batteries (although one of the batteries is currently AWOL grrr) there’s always a moment.

Also you can proactively add to the map, for instance I went through the SkyscraperNews site and added all of the building’s I’d like to photograph which spurred off the Moorgate to Tower Hill set I shot a while ago.

View Larger Map

I personally use Google Maps for this, however I’m sure there are other ways, in fact Google Maps has limitations which I’ll discuss later. All I do is drag a point onto the map as to where the subject is, possible adding the direction of the subject i.e East or West as to whether it’d be best to shoot in the early or late golden hour.

However Google Maps has it’s problems, although I can add detail to the point and I can drag it around on the satellite view to get a point in the right place I have had problems. I use Google Maps Mobile on my MDA however there’s no way of seeing these saved maps on there, I’m yet to find a GPS based way of seeing them either as an exported file.

So I have to print the map out on paper - not very handy is it…

So do you have any ideas on how I can streamline this and perhaps add points while on the move without writing down tasks with areas or GPS positions on a notepad then filling it in later? Comment or trackback from your own blog…