How to use GPS data for the observation?

When adding images to Inat I wish to use the GPS for the images and don’t know how to do that.

Does this help? https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/geotagging-photos/66 (or maybe you’re asking something different?)

3 Likes

Do you have GPS on your camera?

Or not - like me? I add the location manually to a zoomed in satellite view of the map.

2 Likes

This sounds more like a general question than a bug report, and the category should likely be changed.

If this is a bug report, please fill out the info in the first post so that folks can give more meaningful feedback/suggestions.

3 Likes

Basically you can geotag your pictures manually, looking at the map when you upload an observation;
Or you can geotag your photos, manually or with some phone app that tracks your location during the time you took the pictures.
The guide linked by craig-r is really good! take a look at that one.

1 Like

Assuming that the poster wants to know how to associate GPS data with a photo observation:

My simple and very effective (for me) solution is that I have a GPS app installed on my phone (I use Handy GPS after trialling other GPS apps. In the field I have the app open at all times - ensures that there is no “position update lag” when I want to refer to it.

After I have taken the observation photos with my phone I take a photo of the phone screen showing latitude, longitude, position accuracy, and altitude. It is important to stick to a protocol of either position photo before obs photo, or position photo after obs photo, to avoid confusion as to which set of obs photos the position photo belongs to. I also hold the phone up in front of me when taking the position photo so that there is some background showing - can be useful in associating the position photo with the obs photos if there is any doubt.

I file the position photo with the obs photos, treating them as if they were one of the obs photos. So for instance if I tag or rename the obs photos with relevant data, then the position photo gets the same tags or renaming.

I have used cameras with built in GPS, but find that too often the GPS takes too long to stabilise on location coordinates - something that you generally can’t detect when using the camera, but which can be embarrassingly obvious when processing the photos later at home.

Hope this is useful.

Forgot to say that when I rename photos the location coordinates are always part of the name. Because the location photo is in the same file as the obs photos it is very convenient just to have the position photo in view so I can read off the coordinates when setting up the renaming process.

If you are using a mobile/cell phone you can use the above approach by screen-shotting the GPS screen right after you take the obs photos - yes, I know that the location is in the photo metadata, but it can be a hassle to locate that (depending on whether or not you are using a photo processing app like Adobe Bridge which has the option of showing metadata in a column beside the photos).

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.